Description and Development
The major objective of manned mission programme is to develop the fully autonomous three-ton ISRO Orbital Vehicle spaceship to carry a 2-member crew to orbit and safe return to the Earth after a mission duration of few orbits to two days. The extendable version of the spaceship will allow flights up to seven days, rendezvous and docking capability with space stations or orbital platform.
ISRO plans to use for OV spaceship the GSLV-Mk II launcher (Mark two is Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-II launcher with an indigenous cryogenic engine). About 16 minutes after lift-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota, the rocket will inject the OV into an orbit, 300 km-400 km from the Earth. The capsule would return for a splashdown in the Bay of Bengal.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will set up an astronaut training centre in Bangalore by 2012, to prepare personnel both for first orbital flights oboard an Orbital Vehicle (OV) and for future manned Moon missions which will land Indians on the Earth's natural satellite after 2020.
Disclosing this to mediapersons, ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said: "We zeroed in on Bangalore after identifying several favourable aspects. We have an aviation medicine institute in the city which will significantly contribute for the astronaut training."
A site of 140 acres (0.57 km2) beyond the greenfield Bengaluru International Airport has been identified. The ₹1,000 crore (US$182 million) centre will train the selected astronauts in rescue and recovery operations, surviving in a zero gravity situation, study of radiation environment and for the long journey in the space through water simulation.
India would receive assistance in crew selection and training from Russia under an agreement signed between the two countries in March 2008. One option which was studied was a flight of an Indian astronaut aboard a Soyuz capsule in preparation for the Indian mission. However, in October 2010 this option was given up.
ISRO will build centrifuges to train the astronauts on the high-gravity acceleration which occur when the vehicle lifts off. It also plans to build a new launch pad at a cost of ₹600 crore (US$109.2 million) as it proposed to undertake a manned space mission by 2016. It would be the third launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the east-coast in Andhra Pradesh, some 100 km north of Chennai.
In spring 2009 the full scale mock-up of crew capsule of OV was built and delivered to Satish Dhawan Space Centre for training of vyomanauts. India will be short listing 200 IAF pilots for this purpose. ISRO is currently framing the criteria to short list the fighter pilots. The selection process would begin by the candidates having to solve a NASA questionnaire, after which they would be subjected to physical examinations like cardiac, dental, neurological, ophthalmologic, psychological, radiographic and ENT. They will also have to undergo several lab tests at Indian Aerospace Medicine in Bangalore. Only 4 of the 200 will be finally selected for the first space mission training. While two will fly, two shall act as reserve. The commencement of selection process of final four awaits government's approval.
Read more about this topic: Indian Human Spaceflight Program
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