isro-s-woman-robot-astronaut-vyommitra-to-fly-in-third-quarter-of-2024-jitendra-singh

ISRO’s woman robot astronaut “Vyommitra” will fly into the space ahead of it’s ambitious ‘Gaganyaan’ mission, which will be the first human-manned space flight carrying Indian astronauts in space.

 

During an interaction with the media in New Delhi on Sunday, Union Minister of Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh said, “The uncrewed “Vyommitra” mission is scheduled for the third quarter of this year while a manned mission “Gaganyaan” is scheduled to be launched next year, that is 2025”

 

Vyommitra is a name derived from two Sanskrit words, ‘Vyoma’(meaning space) and ‘Mitra’(meaning friend). “This female robot astronaut is equipped with the capability to monitor parameters, issue alerts and execute life support operations. The robot can perform tasks such as operating six panels and responding to queries”, Singh asserted.

 

The minister further said, that ‘Vyommitra’ astronaut is designed in such a manner as to stimulate human functions in the space environment and interact with the life support system.

 

The astronaut made it’s debut during the inaugural session of the 2021 event titled ‘Human spaceflight and exploration -Present challenges and future trends’

 

Worth noting was that as a run-up to the launch of India’s first human space flight mission, the first test vehicle flight TV D1 was accomplished on October 21 last year, this was meant to qualify the crew escape system and parachute system. The human rating of the launch vehicle is also completed and all the propulsion stages are qualified as well.

 

The Gaganyaan project foresees demonstration of human space capabilities by launching the three astronauts into an orbit of 400 km and later bringing them back safely to the Earth by landing them in India’s sea waters.

 

Several precursor missions have been planned to showcase the technology preparedness levels before the actual human spaceflight mission takes place.

 

These demonstrator missions encompass the integrated air drop test (IADT), pad abort test (PAT) and test vehicle (TV) flights. The safety and reliability of all systems will be thoroughly tested in unmanned missions prior to expediating on manned mission.