ISRO-Future Space Explorations

By R. Anil Kumar

• Space Agency chief S. Somanath says Bharatiya Antariksh Station, a space station which will be capable of conducting experiments with help of robots, will be launched by 2028.
• The first module of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station — India’s planned space station — that will be capable of conducting experiments with the help of robots will be launched by 2028.

Bangalore. Buoyed by the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO chief S. Somanath said the interest on the moon is not over yet and that the space agency is now eyeing to bring some rocks from its surface.

“If you want to go to the moon and come back and land and recover everything then you need much more technology than what we actually have to land it,” he said.

The experiment will demonstrate autonomous docking capability. Docking is a process where two spacecrafts are aligned in a precise orbit and joined together.

Explaining the mission, Somanath said: “Two satellites that are connected to each other will be launched, they will separate out, travel for a few kilometres, and then come back and connect.”

Somanath said the sample return mission is “a very complex mission” and everything has to be done autonomously with no human being involved.

“We are currently designing such a mission and we would like to do it in the next four years time. That is our target,” he said.

The chief of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the mission to send “an Indian to space” is currently going on.

He said work was on to develop technologies such as robotic arm to collect samples, mechanisms for docking in the Moon orbit and Earth orbit, transfer of samples, re-entry into the atmosphere without burning up — this will also be demonstrated by the Gaganyaan mission that will send astronauts to low Earth orbit and bring them back to Earth.

And while the ISRO recently demonstrated a trajectory to bring back a spacecraft from the Moon to Earth orbit using left-over fuel in the propulsion module, for a sample return mission the ascender module will have to collect the samples, come back to an orbit around the moon, and dock with another craft and transfer the sample, before it starts its journey back to Earth.

In Earth orbit, the spacecraft will have to dock with another module that will bring it to Earth. Just as with the Gaganyaan mission, the spacecraft with Moon samples will splashdown with the help of parachutes in the sea.

Somanath said that for sustained presence of Indians in space, ISRO is also working on developing an inflatable habitat module where the astronauts will be able to walk around and conduct experiments.

ISRO is also working on technologies such as satellites that will be able to re-fuel other satellites in space and ISRO Servicer Module that will be able to use robotic arms for maintenance of the modules and even replace modules when needed.

While the first module in 2028 can be launched with the existing rockets, he said, for building the entire space station a heavier launch vehicle will be needed. Somanath said ISRO is working on designing the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGVL) that will have a capacity to carry 16 to 25 T to low Earth orbit.

More importantly, ISRO is in discussion with NASA and the European Space Agency to build a common interface between the Indian space station and that of these countries.

This interface will make joint work possible, said Somanath, indicating the possibility of collaborating with these countries for the space station. The current International Space Station has been built in collaboration with several countries and is likely to be de-orbited in 2030. The common interface will also allow the Indian module to go and dock with the International Space , he said.

Somanath said that the service and crew modules have been designed.

“We will launch (humans) very safely to space and bring them back also safely. For the safety of the mission, we are currently doing a lot of work,” he said.

“It’s our desire to build a space station,” Somanath said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reviewed its preparations and has already given directions to build a space station by 2035.

“An operational space station (will be built) where human beings can go, dock and work. And we are working on this option,” a confident Somanath said.

He said before ISRO builds the space station, its first module will be launched by 2028.

“And that will be a robotic space station. But the manned space station will come only by 2035 because we need new rockets to do that,” the ISRO chairman said.

He said the Ganganyaan programme is something that is going to continue.

Somanath said it is not just one mission of sending Indians to space but continuously sending “our human beings to space”, work on it and to further create our technological capabilities.

The purpose of all this work is to expand space activities in the country substantially higher in the scale of economy.

“Today we are hardly 1.68 per cent of GDP of the space economy, which is just not enough for India. If you are becoming a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047, you must have a significant share of space business, which includes building satellites, building applications, building ground infrastructure and creating business out of space,” Somanath said.

He said the primary task is to create a very vibrant industrial base for space activity which has not been made possible earlier.

“Today you have over 200 start up companies who are doing space based activities and we are ready to transfer technologies in ISRO,” Somanath said.

He also talked in detail about India’s moon mission – Chandrayaan-1, Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3.

Somanath also hinted that models of Chandrayaan-3 could possibly be displayed during the Republic Day parade.

“I welcome all of you to see the models of Chandrayaan-3 possibly during the Republic Day parade. (It is) likely to be there so you can see the real life size of the craft,” he said.

India had on August 23 this year scripted history as ISRO’s third moon mission Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module (LM) touched down on the lunar surface, making it only the fourth country to accomplish the feat, and first to reach the uncharted south pole of earth’s only natural satellite.