Chennai, October 21: The Indian space agency (ISRO) is preparing for an important test flight to take place at 8 am on Saturday. The test will test the critical crew escape system of the rocket aimed at carrying Indian astronauts to space in 2025.
Known as Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), the mission will demonstrate the crew escape system. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman S. Somnath has confirmed that this mission is the first of four planned test flights.
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In short, the Crew Escape System is a safety measure to protect the lives of astronauts in the event of any complications with carrying rockets in the Crew Module. If something goes wrong, this system is designed to safely separate the crew module from the rocket and ensure that it splashes down safely into the ocean, just as a fighter pilot would eject from a plane. Is.
India’s inaugural manned space mission, Gaganyaan, has an estimated timeline of 2025, and testing of the crew escape system is an integral part of this mission.
ISRO has outlined objectives for Saturday’s flight, which include demonstrating and evaluating various test vehicle sub-systems, evaluating the crew escape system and its separation mechanism and demonstrating deceleration systems at high altitude .
The test vehicle, which weighs approximately 44 tonnes and is approximately 35 meters long, uses a modified Vikas engine powered by liquid fuel. The crew module and escape system are mounted on the front of the rocket.
The entire flight sequence, from liftoff to the crew module’s parachute-assisted landing in the ocean, is estimated to take approximately 531 seconds, or about nine minutes.
The crew module, weighing 4,520 kg, is a single-walled unpressurized aluminum structure. Approximately 61 seconds into flight, at an altitude of 11.9 km, the test vehicle and crew escape system will separate. Approximately 91 seconds after liftoff, at an altitude of 16.9 km, the crew module and escape system will also separate.
Following this, an autonomous abort sequence will be executed, beginning with separation of the crew escape system and deployment of a series of parachutes, ultimately leading to a safe landing of the crew module in the ocean about 10 km off the Sriharikota coast. , as per ISRO details.
The Crew Module will maintain a pressurized environment similar to Earth’s atmosphere during actual human space missions.
While the crew module for the Gaganyaan mission is currently in various stages of development, TV-D1 is an unpressurized version that mirrors the size and mass of the actual Gaganyaan crew module. The avionics systems in the crew module are configured in dual-redundant mode for navigation, sequencing, telemetry, instrumentation, and power.
The movement of the crew module will be achieved using parachutes equipped with pyrotechnic systems. Parachute deployment is expected to begin at an altitude of approximately 17 km.
The crew module will fall into the sea about 10 km from the Sriharikota launch pad approximately 531 seconds after liftoff. It will remain floating until it is retrieved by the Indian Navy.
The recovery vessel would approach the crew module, divers would attach a buoy, hoist it using a ship crane, and tow it to shore. The crew escape system will land in the sea about 14 km from Sriharikota.
This test vehicle mission, featuring the Crew Module, is an important milestone in the overall Gaganyaan program as it integrates almost the entire system for flight testing. According to ISRO, the success of this test flight will pave the way for subsequent qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the inaugural Gaganyaan mission with Indian astronauts.
