When it comes to space and research, India is cut above the rest of the nations. A sensational development has crept in where the country will be looking forward to its manned mission to space.
In a proud moment, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has shortlisted 12 pilots from total 60 for country’s first human space mission Gaganyaan with assistance from Russian space experts. It should be noted that out of 12, seven pilots have already flown to Russia for training.
“Most of the people who were rejected by Russians had dental problems,” chief selection officer from IAF’s Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) said.
The Union Cabinet sanctioned a massive Rs 10.000 crore budget for the ‘proposed human spaceflight mission’- (Gaganyaan project) which proposes to send astronauts to space by the year 2022. This means that a three-member crew will be sent to space for at least 7 days, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad addressed the reporters at a press conference today.
The most significant project was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15 as part of his independence speech and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has since involved in achieving the task for its implementation.
ISRO has initiated the process of selecting experiments that could be done in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where it will send Indian astronauts (Gaganauts) to space.
Right from experimenting and testing medical equipment in space to micro-biological experiments like biological air filters and biosensors, and from life support and biomedical waste management to examining toxic gases, ISRO is doing at least 10 experiments.
“While we have indicated 10 areas that we are interested in. We won’t be restricting experiments to just these areas. Also, we will be getting specific experiments in these areas from various institutions across India,” one ISRO official said.
ISRO has announced opportunities for LEO-based microgravity experiments. “As Isro is planning a human spaceflight mission, it seeks input from the national scientific community to conduct experiments in microgravity platform in LEO,” Isro has said.