On October 17, 2023, India said that it aims to send an astronaut to the moon by 2040 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued instructions to the state department that includes plans for building up of an Indian Space Station by 2035 and besides this, he also has called onto scientists to work on missions to Mars and Venus.
The big announcement comes four months after India and the United States of America (USA) agreed to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station on an American spacecraft. This was announced during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US in the moth of June 2023.
PMO Statement
According to the statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, the same day PM Modi addressed a high-level meeting to assess the progress of India’s Gaganyaan Missions and outline the future of space exploration endeavors.
Building on the success of Indian initiatives, including Chandrayaan-3 and the Aditya L-1 missions, the prime minister directed that India should no aim for new and ambitious goals, including the setting up of Bhartiya Antariksha Station (Indian Space Station) by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the moon by 2040, the statement read.
The ISS has been in existence for almost 23 years, carrying out scientific experiments in a microgravity environment. The low earth orbit space station has seen the longest continuous human presence in space, surpassing the record of Russian station Mir. The Russian Station was present for over a period of nearly ten years in orbit.
Gaganyaan Mission Overview
During the meeting, the Department of Space presented a comprehensive overview of Gaganyaan Mission, including various technologies developed so far such as human rated launched vehicles and system qualifications. The ISRO has also released information regarding the upcoming Flight Test Abort Vehicle of the Gaganyaan Project. In a recent post on X, formerly known as Twitter ISRO declared that the slated mission is a short duration mission.
The Gaganyaan project is a monumental endeavour by ISRO, demonstrating India’s capability in human spaceflight by sending a human crew into orbit at an altitude of 400 kilometres and safely returning them to Earth.
According to the ISRO website, the crew module for TV-D1 is currently in various stages of development. The crew module chosen for this mission is an unpressurised version, housing all the essential systems for deceleration and recovery. This includes a complete set of parachutes, recovery aids actuation systems, and pyrotechnics.
It was noted that around twenty major tests including three uncrewed missions of the Human Rate Launch Vehicle (HLVM-3) are planned. The first demonstration flight of the Crew Escape System Test Vehicle (CESTV) is scheduled on October 21, 2023. The meeting further evaluated the mission readiness, affirming its launch in 2025, the statement further read.
India’s Astronaut on the Moon
To realise the 2040 mission, the space department will release a roadmap for the exploration of the moon. This will encompass a series of Chandrayaan Missions and the development of a Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), the construction of a new launch pad and setting up of human centric laboratories and associated technologies.
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