What is the importance of Gaganyaan mission to India?

What is the importance of Gaganyaan mission to India?

Gaganyaan mission is of prime importance as India is the only country in the world with a vision to have a human in space by 2022. The cost and expense needed to send astronauts into space is not justifiable for any government, yet this program will make the Government and people feel proud of India. It also aims to advance technologies in space sciences that will be implemented for various applications on Earth.

Significance of Gaganyaan for India:

Boost to industries: The Indian private industry can find interesting business opportunities through Gaganyaan with the mission planning process and in the development of products related to health tracking, satellite navigation, cryogenic engines, information management, miniaturization, artificial intelligence, life support, and crew training.

Employment: The Gaganyaan program will also enhance and encourage the development of the space sector in India. It would create job opportunities for both doctoral and post-graduate students doing research in the relevant disciplines. The training infrastructure facility to be built for training would also be useful in fulfilling some of the demands of other potential programs.The space organisation would need an additional manpower of 900. Gaganyaan mission would create 15,000 new employment opportunities.

Technological development: Apart from this, the human spaceflight program can fortify our technological base and galvanize the human resource base for future in space research programs. ISRO's aim to achieve self-reliance in building and operating a spacecraft for the manned missions will create a local industry with the capability for undertaking other complex space mission systems.

Boost to academic organisations: Gaganyaan Programme is a national effort and will involve the participation of academia and National Agencies. It will establish a broader framework for collaboration between ISRO, academia, industry, national agencies and other scientific organizations.

Boost to research: Gaganyaan will be it's not just a space mission, but also a technology experiment. Aimed at making India an aerospace power, the mission is expected to garner significant research data in areas such as materials processing, combining the speed of a rocket with the weightlessness of space flight.

Motivation: Human space flight will provide both the inspiration for and avenue to achieving a self-reliant national capability in exploring space and space technology. This will be a powerful catalyst for innovation and newer technologies across all fields, including information communications technology in education. This will carve out a whole new industrial sector in the country's space technology industry capable of creating large numbers of jobs.

Prestige: India will become the 4th country in the world to have a human space mission after Russia, the US, and China. Only three countries -- Russia, the USA, and China -- have so far undertaken manned missions. Gaganyaan will provide a platform for advanced research in space sciences.

Challenges of the mission:

Launch: Modifying a vehicle to be a human space flight launcher requires extensive and thorough modifications in all its systems. The GSLV Mk III has been modified to enable human space flights, to be human rated and fail-safe. For a human space flight, the launcher must have a reliability of 98% or above, or only two failures in a 100 launches, which is a big challenge.

Escape System: A crew escape system is the first line of defense during a mission. Manned spacecraft crews need to be able to escape their vehicle quickly in case of an emergency such as a fire, or a launch abort. The design of the crew escape system - it's mechanical and trajectory characteristics - needs to meet all the requirements: egress speed, abort initiation altitude, deceleration level; payload capacity, and so on. Environmental Control & Life Support System (ELCSS), space suit and crew support systems are still in the developmental phase.

Astronaut Training: India does not have centrifuges or aircraft to simulate zero-gravity conditions. To prepare for a space mission, with such challenges to overcome, NASA astronauts train hard on different devices that simulate space and gravity. The training allows them to develop the mental, physical and emotional strength needed to be successful in missions, while staying healthy.

Threat from Space Debris: Space debris is an increasing threat to spacecraft in low earth orbits, the space shuttle crew module was damaged by small pieces of debris and a hole resulted. The Threat can be minimized by designing protection for crew modules that can withstand such impact and also minimize chances of the debris clogging the life support systems of the module. Also tracking and removing larger debris from low earth orbit using robotic arms could help in minimizing such chances.

Cost: Mission cost has been considered as a major factor for the success or failure of the mission. Since it is a high-profile program, government funding is not always guaranteed for continued operation.