‘After Chandrayaan-3, ISRO to put first astronaut on Moon by 2040’
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After the historic success of its Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, ISRO is going full throttle with its plans to send Indian astronauts for the first time to the Moon by 2040, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said.
The Bengaluru-based space agency is currently working on the country’s maiden manned mission, ‘Gaganyaan’, which aims to send astronauts into Low Earth Orbit and bring them back safely to earth.
Four pilots from the Indian Air Force who were selected for the mission are undergoing training at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru, the top scientist said.
The inaugural manned mission involves developing critical technologies, including a human-rated (capable of safely transporting humans) launch vehicle (HLVM3), an Orbital Module comprising a Crew Module (CM) and Service Module (SM), and life support systems.
CM is a habitable space with an Earth-like environment in space for the crew and is designed for safe re-entry.
The first development flight of Test Vehicle (TV-D1) was launched on October 21, 2023, and it successfully demonstrated in-flight abort of the Crew Escape System, followed by Crew Module separation and its safe recovery from the Bay of Bengal by the Indian Navy.
“The success of this test flight was crucial for subsequent unmanned missions and the ultimate human space mission, expected to be launched in 2025,” said Somanath, who is also Chairman of the
Space Commission.
Aditya L1, which is India’s maiden solar exploratory mission, is also an important mission of the ISRO, he noted.
It will study the sun from the unique vantage point of Lagrange Point 1, showcasing the country’s prowess in both lunar and solar research.
Launched on September 2, Aditya L1 is poised for a five-year mission.
The spacecraft is on its intended path towards Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1(L1), approximately 1.5 million km from Earth, where it will be inserted into a Halo orbit in January 2024, he explained.
On the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, he termed it as a ‘historic achievement’, leading to the declaration of August 23 (landing near the lunar south pole) as National Space Day in India’ by the Prime Minister.
In the mission life of 14 earth days, it yielded valuable lunar data, discovering aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, sulphur, manganese, silicon, and oxygen in lunar soil.
Referring to some ambitious ongoing and upcoming missions, he said these include Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) programme, X-ray astronomy mission XPOSAT (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite), Space Docking Experiment, and LOX-Methane engine.
