Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has had a year marked with various successful space missions, including the “universal history maker”, Chandrayaan-3. While the world showered praises on ISRO for its remarkable endeavours this year, ISRO chairman S Somnath recently revealed that no other country is willing to share tech on life support system for the upcoming human space flight mission, Gaganyaan. This, however, will not deter ISRO from its ambition as the space agency will be developing its indigenous environmental control and life support system (ECLSS).
Speaking at the Manohar Parrikar Vidnyan Mahotsav 2023, the ISRO chairman said, “We have no experience in developing an environmental control life support system. We were only designing rockets and satellites. We thought that this knowledge would come from other nations, but unfortunately, after so much discussion, nobody is willing to give it to us.”
Somanath emphasised ISRO’s historical focus on rocket and satellite architecture when expressing ISRO’s early lack of experience in ECLSS development. Despite efforts to collaborate, no government was ready to contribute critical knowledge, prompting the decision to design the system in-house.
Somanath emphasised ISRO’s commitment to indigenous development, using existing expertise and local industries.
He discussed the difficulties that the Gaganyaan initiative faces, underlining the nation’s commitment to skill development and design enhancement. Somanath underlined the importance of increased skills and confidence for successful human space exploration. “When we send humans to space through our Gaganyan programme, I think the amount of skill and confidence that we need to have has to be higher than what we currently have,” the ISRO chief remarked.
Somanath stated that the process for building confidence is currently taking place across ISRO with the assistance of national laboratories. “The rocket is the first component of the Gaganyaan programme. The rockets are always bound to fail; whenever it is ready for launch our tension and heartbeats go up because even if the rocket is built very safely having all the processes followed, something can still go wrong. And if something goes wrong, no one can fix it or adjust it. Thousands of elements must work flawlessly for a launch to happen,” he stated.
Explaining the technical aspects of the ECLSS, Srimathy Kesan, founder and CEO of Space Kidz India said, “The ECLSS, a technological cornerstone, intricately manages air quality and water supply essential for astronaut survival in the challenging environment of space. Through meticulous mechanisms incorporating activated charcoal beds, catalytic oxidizers, and molecular sieves, this system impeccably regulates cabin air quality, ensuring a breathable atmosphere for the crew.”
Kesan further stated that the Oxygen Generation System splits water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen gas using cutting-edge electrolysis. This closed-loop mechanism assures a steady supply of oxygen for breathing while efficiently generating water from hydrogen wastes. The Water Recovery System also reclaims and purifies water from a variety of sources, including crew members’ urine and cabin humidity.
Notably, through decades of research, collaboration, and technological advances, NASA (United States), Russia’s Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (European Space Agency), and other space organisations have made major contributions to the development of their respective ECLSS systems. However, they have shown reluctance in sharing the ECLSS-related research with ISRO, thus requiring India to indigenously develop the ECLSS.
ISRO is preparing for unmanned flight tests of the mission’s ‘crew escape system’. The Indian space agency has already announced that it will soon commence the unmanned flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission as the first development flight Test Vehicle (TV-D1) is in the final stages of preparation. ISRO will launch a crew of two to three members into a circular orbit 400 kilometres above Earth as part of the Gaganyaan project. The mission will take one to three days and will focus on assuring their safe return to Earth.
