Isro Man Mission 2022

Isro Man Mission 2022

ISRO plans to send three Indians to space by 2022, an announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his last Independence Day speech. ISRO will also launch Aditya L-1, India's first solar mission, by next year.

There are also plans to build a space station and launch interplanetary missions to Mars and Venus.

Diwakar said Chandrayaan had its own challenges, other missions will have different objectives.

While Chandrayaan-2 was meant for soft-landing of Vikram on the lunar surface, Gaganyaan's mandate will be to send the astronauts to space and bring them back to earth safely.

ISRO chairman K Sivan (PTI file)

Chandrayaan-2 will have no impact on future missions: ISRO

• ISRO plans to send three Indians to space by 2022. It will also launch Aditya L-1, India's first solar mission, by next year

• There are also plans to build a space station and launch interplanetary missions to Mars and Venus

   

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Chandrayaan-2IsroGaganyaan

New Delhi: The Chandrayaan-2 mission will "absolutely have no impact" on ISRO's ambitious manned mission Gaganyaan, scheduled to be launched in 2022, according to an ISRO official.

P.G. Diwakar, who was earlier scientific secretary at the space agency and is now the Director of Earth Observations Applications and Disaster Management Programme Office at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru, said both Chandrayaan and Gaganyaan have different objectives and dimensions.

"There will be absolutely no problem at all. It will have no impact. The satellite missions as well as the human space flight mission will go very smoothly without any problem. Each mission is of a different type," he said.

Diwakar, however, declined to comment on the reasons behind the glitches faced during the landing of Chandrayaan-2. The lander Vikram lost contact, just 2.1 kilometers above the lunar surface.

                  

 ISRO’s space docking experiment to happen next year, says Sivan

Docking refers to connecting of two flying objects in space, either to transfer men or material from one to the other, or two join two structures to make a bigger one.

India’s space agency, ISRO, plans space docking experiment (SPADEX) next year, the agency’s Chairman, Kailasavadivoo Sivan, told Business Line today. Docking refers to connecting of two flying objects in space, either to transfer men or material from one to the other, or two join two structures to make a bigger one.

Two satellites would be sent to space on board a regular PSLV mission and the two would be made to dock with each other, Sivan said, describing the exercise as a technology demonstration experiment.

                                 

 Mastering this extremely difficult technology is crucial for the operations of an Indian space station, a lab up in space—astronauts would need to be ferried from the earth to the space station and back. This can be achieved only if the vehicle carries the astronauts can dock with the space station.

Asked when ISRO planned to build a space station, Sivan said that the project was still some distance away, and would be taken up only after the Gaganyaan mission, which is to take astronauts to space and bring them back to earth safely, through the rigours of re-entry into earth’s atmosphere. Gaganyaan is expected to happen in December 2021.

Complex technology

Docking is broadly for two different purposes—for sending human beings from a shuttle to a space station, or for assembling large satellites in space. Each of these has different complexities. In the case of docking for human transfers, there is scope for human intervention if something goes wrong; when satellites mate in space to form larger structures, it all has to be done by using devices such as sensors and cameras.

Imagine two objects – satellites – flying in space at incredible velocities, of the order of 10 km a second. When they are a few kilometres away, they communicate with each other and the one in front slows down in order that the follower comes close. When they are close enough, onboard cameras (or, lasers) switch on and they ‘look’ at each other. Guided by camera, one latches on to the other and the two become a larger structure. This way, enormous structures can be built in space.

Elsewhere in the world, there are talks of space solar stations, which are giant solar power plants up in space which produce electricity from the sun and beam it down to earth in the form of microwaves.

Docking will be a key capability in future space operations and ISRO’s first step in that direction –SPADEX—will happen next year.