ISRO chief says most of the critical technologies are ready Gaganyaan, the human space flight Programme green-flagged and set for 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is highly doable, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation K. Sivan said here soon after it was announced on Wednesday. V.R. Lalithambika, a specialist in advanced launcher technologies, will helm the project as Director of the Human Space Flight Project. The mission is estimated at ₹9000 crore. Most of the critical technologies and hardware required for the project are ready or have been demonstrated by its centres. ISRO would now stitch them up into a complete project and present a comprehensive project report to get a formal approval of the government, Dr. Sivan said. “We have tested the necessary critical technologies required for the Human Space Flight Programme (HSP) and are confident of achieving it as stated by the Prime Minister,” he said. “We will now speed up the paper work and submit a project report for formal approval. We may immediately need around ₹ 2,000 crore for enhancing infrastructure and technologies at two or three centres and we will be asking for this amount,” he told The Hindu. Describing it more as a national mission than ISRO’s alone, Dr. Sivan, who is Secretary, Department of Space, said it would be the pride of India. It would raise scientific and technological temper across the country and inspire youngsters. “We are excited by this announcement. It is a gift to the nation and we feel proud. It actually energises us across our centres. We do not feel intimidated or tense. We have seen many challenges in our work,” Dr. Sivan said. When it achieves the mission, India would be the fourth nation to circle Earth after the Soviets, the Americans and the Chinese. In 1984, India’s first astronaut Wing Commander (retd.) Rakesh Sharma orbited Earth as part of a Soviet mission. A 15-year-old space dream coming true ISRO revealed the first germ of an HSP in November 2004 and got incremental funds for supporting projects over the next few years. It could not go ahead mainly because the GSLV MarkIII vehicle was not ready until last year. ISRO has also met most of its regular needs. Dr. Sivan said, “In the last few years, we did a lot of groundwork as part of R&D at our centres. We have developed most of the critical technologies needed for a human mission. We demonstrated the flight of a crew module and its re-entry in 2014. On July 5 this year, we conducted an experiment for emergency escape of astronauts called the Pad Abort Test. It will be repeated at higher distances. The rest of the technologies are getting ready and will be realised in time.” Before his elevation in January this year, Dr Sivan was the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre that handled most of the HSP activities. The most critical elements of the human mission are the Environment Control and Life Support Systems that make the crew capsule liveable and the flight safe for the astronauts. Food and hygiene are other aspects. These technologies are getting ready while space suits are being developed at ISRO, he said. Facilities are being added or upgraded at a few centres that work on the HSP. The spacecraft will be monitored 24/7 from the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Centre in Peenya. A new dedicated control centre for HSP would be set up at ISTRAC. It must be tracked globally through ISRO stations or of other countries. The launchpad at the Sriharikota spaceport, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, would be enhanced for the human mission. The Space Applications Centre which makes electronic devices and instruments for ISRO missions will also get refurbished. While formal agreements are not yet in place, ISRO will collaborate with the Indian Air Force and its Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Bengaluru, to train astronauts. Various defence labs will be tapped for crew support systems. Much of the work related to ramping up of infrastructure and supply of hardware would be outsourced to industry in a major way and academia would be involved.<doc-sep>Manned mission: ‘Isro can fulfil Narendra Modi's promise’ BENGALURU: Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Human Spaceflight Programme (HSP), Isro chairman Sivan K said the space agency is confident of fulfilling Modi's promise to the country "It came as a surprise to us, I was not expecting this but it is a great gift to Isro and we are confident of sending Indians to space in the next four years, although it is a tight schedule," Sivan said.While acknowledging that Isro will now have to begin the process of identifying human resource and set up a project team, Sivan, however, said: " ... all along, critical technology for HSP was going on. The technology related for this project, like the crew module, environmental control and life support system have all been developed. India also has a flight suit and other sub-systems for crew module almost ready. "Confirming that the launch vehicle used will be the GSLV MK-III, he said: "We know that so far we've only had one flight, but the next one will be next month and we are confident of have 10-15 by the time of HSP," he said.In his Independence Day address to the nation today, PM Modi vowed to put an Indian in space by 2022. "When India celebrates 75th year of Independence in 2022, and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter will undertake a manned space mission on board 'Gaganyaan' carrying the national flag," the PM announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort.<doc-sep>The GSLV Mark III rocket that will likely be used to send Indians to space (Photo courtesy: Isro) India will send a man or a woman to space on its own spacecraft within the next four years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared today. "This dream [of sending an Indian to space] has to be fulfilled before the 75th Independence Day... Our scientists will achieve this... and then we will become only the fourth country in the world to send a human to space on their own spacecraft," PM Modi said while making the announcement. The announcement of the first-ever Indian manned space mission was made during the prime minister's annual Independence Day speech. One Indian, Rakesh Sharma, has been to space. But, Sharma did so as a cosmonaut on a Russian spacecraft. While India has sent rovers to the Moon and planet Mars, an Indian manned mission to space is not among the laurels the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has earned over the years. Can the space agency really accomplish what PM Modi has promised? Isro chief K Sivan has expressed confidence that the agency will be able to meet the deadline. The agency has already developed most of the technology required for such a mission, Sivan said. Just a month ago, the space agency successfully tested a crew escape system, a critical technology necessary for human spaceflight. In July, Isro successfully tested a crew escape system (Photo courtesy: Isro) "The Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort," Isro had said at after the successful test. The test of the crew escape was an important milestone on a road that Isro embarked on over a decade ago. In 2004, Isro prepared a vision document that charted a roadmap for developing technologies necessary for human spaceflight. At a November 2006 meeting, Isro scientists endorsed the idea of undertaking a human spaceflight venture. And ever since then, Isro has been working on developing critical technologies needed to send a human to space. Till now, we were working on some certain critical technologies such as flight suits, crew escape system... We also carried out some re-entry experiments - Former Isro chief AS Kiran In 2012, the Ministry of Science and Technology allocated Rs 145 crore in funding for the programme. But, even as recently as 2016, the government did not have a concrete plan to launch such a mission. Replying to a question in Parliament, Union minister Jitendra Singh said the government had no plans to launch a manned space mission "in the near future". But, Singh did add that Isro was working on technologies that would be needed for a manned mission "as part of its research and development" activities. "Till now, we were working on some certain critical technologies, such as environmentally-controlled laboratory, flight suits, crew escape system... We also carried out some re-entry experiments..." former Isro chief Dr AS Kiran Kumar told India Today TV. Kumar added that with the PM Modi's new announcement, the programme should get a much-needed push. A prototype of an Indian-made space suit displayed at Isro's Space Applications Center in Ahmedabad (Getty photo) The announcement certainly has scientists enthused. Noted poet-scientist Gauhar Raza said, "If our scientists are given a free hand and there is no political intervention, we can definitely achieve this goal." "Isro has the capabilities and world class expertise to achieve this dream [with] minimal cost," Raza also said. Speaking of the cost, an initial estimate had pegged the budget of such a manned mission at Rs 12,500 crore. Isro chief Kailasavadivoo Sivan, however, expressed confidence that the agency would be able to complete the mission for less than that. A prototype of a crew module that would carry humans into space (Photo courtesy: Isro) "Most of the technology [required for the mission] has been developed [under the] research and development fund allocated for Isro. Less than Rs 10,000 crore will be required" for the actual mission, Sivan said at a Bengaluru press conference shortly after PM Modi's announcement. Sivan said the agency will submit a report on the project's status in the next two months. Coincidentally, the deadline announced by PM Narendra Modi for the manned mission is the same time by which China, which has sent two humans to space on their own spacecraft, hopes to establish a permanent space station. (With inputs from Nagarjun Dwarkanath in Bengaluru) READ | GSLV Mk-III: The wait for manned space mission may end soon WATCH | How ISRO's female scientists scripted India's dominance in space<doc-sep>
ISRO will be working with Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Bengaluru (File) The mission to send an Indian into space for the first time will create 15,000 jobs, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan said on Wednesday. The space agency's plan entails sending an Indian astronaut 350-400 Kilometers into space for about a week to carry out experiments. The Indian Air Force will select the astronauts, and ISRO will work with a Bengaluru-based institute to train the crew, Mr Sivan added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the Independence Day speech today, announced "when India completes 75 years of Independence, or before that, a son or daughter of India will go to space with a tricolor in their hands". For the mission, the space agency wants to collaborate with scientific institutions, academia, industry and start-ups. "The human spaceflight will be a national project and not just ISRO's, as we will be collaborating with several institutions, academia and the industry," Mr Sivan said. Shedding light on the agency's plan in recruitment and training, Mr Sivan said ISRO will be working with Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Bengaluru for the mission. He said the private sector will also be involved in the project for research and development. Mr Sivan said he was surprised by the Prime Minister's announcement, but the agency had been preparing for a mission of this kind since 2004. He expressed confidence that the agency will complete the mission before 2022. The first Indian to venture into space, former Indian Air Force pilot Rakesh Sharma, gave the Prime Minister's plan a thumbs adding that we can have a national space mission by 2022. Rakesh Sharma said the ambitious mission, which plans to send an Indian into space, is "a coming of age" and a "natural corollary" of every space programme. The US, Russia and China are the only three nations to have launched manned space flights. With inputs from IANS