Why GSLV MK-III success matters?

India's Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) flew to an altitude of 78 miles (126 km). CARE then separated from the upper stage of the GSLV Mk-III rocket, and landed over Bay of Bengal on Dec. 18, 2014

Significance of GSLV MK-III

• It is the most capable rocket ever developed by India. It can carry up to 10 metric tons, or about 22,000 pounds, of cargo into low Earth orbit and up to 4 metric tons or about 8,800 pounds into geostationary transfer orbit once it is operational.
• Validated complex atmospheric ascent regime, especially aerodynamic and control features that cannot be conclusively tested on ground.
• Validated new design features which includes both Hardware and Software implementation
• Performance validation of S200 solid boosters which generate 1.1 million pounds of thrust, making them the second-most powerful solid-fueled rocket motors currently in service after the strap-on rockets used by Europe’s Ariane 5 launcher.
• Successfully tested 2 liquid-fueled L110 clustered Vikas engines using hydrazine as fuel which ignited when the rocket is already in the air, firing for more than three minutes and ramping up to peak power of 360,000 pounds of thrust. This is the first time ISRO has tested a clustered engine configuration.
• The launch marked the successful testing of the atmospheric re-entry of a crew module, which separated from the rocket 325 seconds after lift-off at an altitude of 126 km, and descended in ballistic mode, re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere (about 80 km above sea level) and splashing down into the Bay of Bengal.
• 1,600 degrees Celsius is the temperature that the CARE module withstood at re-entry into atmosphere, advanced heat shield technology was employed, further analysis of the data will reveal the actual temperature signature prevalent during re-entry phase.
• Re-entry capability is key to sending a human into space. This is a complicated and dangerous manoeuvre; it is while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere that the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed in 2003, killing seven astronauts, including Indian American Kalpana Chawla.
• Finally, the global space industry is worth more than $ 300 billion, apart from the regular PSLV business and India has the potential to tap a substantial portion of this large pie once the GSLV matures as a reliable & credible launch platform.

The earlier UPA government skilfully dilly-dallied the important decision to authorize ISRO on the development of a manned mission program while they were busy looting the country. Now it is left to the present proactive NDA government to push this agenda so as to fructify the wishes of millions of ardent Indians wishing to see their country achieve the impossible against several odds. This will not only elevate the scientific temper in the country but will also enhance India's national prestige, which is an essential part of positioning the nation in the global arena as an illustrious and responsible super power.

As a prelude to this, India's premier space agency successfully tested technologies critical for an Indian manned space mission, using a powerful rocket to launch an unmanned crew module that re-entered the atmosphere 20 minutes later and splashed into the Andaman Sea exactly as planned. The GSLV Mark III is the most powerful rocket built by ISRO, an advanced version of the earlier GSLV-MK-II rockets that were designed to carry 2,500 kg-class satellites into geosynchronous orbits 37,000 km above the Earth.

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A chain of six parachutes helped the cupcake-shaped crew module, the size of a small car, gently drop into the sea about 1,600km from Sriharikota spaceport from where it had been launched aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. The 3,775 kg crew module flew on the first experimental test flight of the GSLV Mark III, which ferried it to an intended altitude of 126 km. There it separated from the upper stage of the rocket and re-entered the atmosphere to drop into the sea 20 minutes later.

"This was a very significant day in the history of the Indian space program," ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said while observing the launch at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on India's east coast. "ISRO's capability of launching heavier payloads has significantly enhanced."

The clustered Vikas second stage of LVM-3X

The crew module, protected by heat shields, successfully tolerated the 1,600ºC temperatures during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. A twin system of three parachutes each, designed by the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), a defence laboratory in Agra, helped slow down the module during its descent. It splashed down about 180 km from Indira Point, the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Indian Coast Guard Dornier from Campbell Bay carried out the initial surveillance and located the crew module and updated the position, a cost guard ship on arrival at the location launched an on-board helicopter for carrying out the pollution test of the area. The cost guard frogmen thereafter recovered the crew module braving the rough and very difficult sea conditions.

GSLV Mark III flight sequence

A fully operational GSLV Mark III, is designed to ferry 4,000 kg-class communication satellites into space, it is a three-stage rocket with a solid-propellant first stage, liquid-propellant second stage and a cryogenic third stage powered by super cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

ISRO had only in January 2014 launched its first flight of the GSLV powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine, which the space agency had been trying to develop for over two decades. Earlier GSLV flights had been powered by cryogenic engines procured from Russia.

While ISRO scientists say the most critical element of manned space missions, such as - building life-support systems aboard the capsule - remains to be achieved. Scientists have also cautioned in the past that ISRO will need to increase the success rate of the GSLV for manned space flight.

Only the US, Russia and China have active manned space programs, although astronauts from other countries have travelled into space aboard US and Russian space capsules. Rakesh Sharma,  India's first Cosmonaut, an Indian Air Force pilot, had flown into space aboard a Russian capsule in 1984.

Infrastructure Development

Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, is a former Indian Air Force test pilot who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 as part of the Intercosmos program. Sharma was the first Indian to travel in space. He was confirmed the "Ashoka Chakra" the highest Indian gallantry award during peace time

As a natural progression of its endeavors, ISRO has decided to start a Human Space flight program. It has been decided that the entire program will be split into the following phases:

• First phase: design, development and performance demonstration of critical technologies leading to manned space missions.
• Second phase and third phase would establish the necessary infrastructure, do qualification tests including flight testing with test vehicles, PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mk III and finally demonstrate the first Indian Human Spaceflight.

In the first phase, ISRO has proposed to develop and demonstrate all the major technologies and infrastructure critical for Human Spaceflight Program (HSP) including pad abort test, Orbital Vehicle (OV), Crew Escape System (CES), Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) & Flight Suit, Human rating of Launch Vehicle (LVM3) and realizing essential facilities including third launch pad for the development and flight testing of these systems. Mission and configuration studies and technical developmental activities will also be initiated for the Human Lunar Missions.

The first major-milestone activity is “pad abort test” that is planned to demonstrate the performance of crew escape system (CES). This test will play a vital role in establishing the critical abort maneuver of the CES which has to take the crew module (CM) to an altitude of about 2 km and range of about 2 km from the launch pad.

The objectives of the Human Space program are as follows:

• Verify the performance / functioning of various motors / systems of Crew Escape System (Undergoing extensive Tests).
• Verify the capability of CES to take CM to the required altitude (~ 2 km) & range (~ 2 km).
• Demonstrate the deceleration & floatation capability of parachutes of Crew Module (Tests Completed).
• Validate the crew module recovery from sea. (Test completed).
• The next stage of the crew module test is expected to be conducted in 2015 for assessing the efficiency of its ejection system enabling the crew to bail out of the module in case of any emergency.
• Redesign Crew Module ergonomics and other functionalities, if necessary, after the first recovery test.
• Integrate PSLV 4th stage as a service module for the Orbital Vehicle.
• Human rating of GSLV MK III to be completed. Redesigning of vehicle structures including propellant tanks, motor cases and other important components if necessary.
• Qualification tests including stage functional tests of C25 cryogenic engine to be validated. 
• Development of intelligent systems to monitor and identify the imminent failure of systems.
• Redundancy schemes in all the avionics, control systems, Pyro-Technic systems and mechanisms to be qualified.
• Additional facilities for structural test are to be developed for conducting these tests.
• Build a third launch pad for manned missions with extra facilities like entry into the crew capsule and an escape chute.
• ISRO is building a state-of-the-art astronauts’ training facility in a sprawling 50-acre piece of land at Yelahanka, Bangalore. It is called Astronaut Training and Biomedical Engineering Center (ATBEC), it will used as a to prepare personnel for flights on board the Orbital Vehicle. The centre will use simulation facilities to train the selected astronauts in rescue and recovery operations and survival in zero gravity, and will undertake studies of the radiation environment of space.
• ISRO will build centrifugals to train the astronauts on acceleration aspects, and familiarise them with zero gravity conditions.
• Construct water simulators which will be like swimming pools in which astronauts can go underneath to learn to live in zero gravity situations.

Cabin Environment Simulation System

ISRO recently commissioned a new facility called Cabin Environment Simulation System (CESS) under the Human Space Flight Program. CESS will be used for test and evaluation of space modules under regulated environmental conditions that may arise during various phases of manned mission. 

CESS consists of a horizontally mounted cylindrical chamber of 2100mm diameter and 1200mm cylindrical length with two torispherical dome enclosures–with opening at one end. It has been designed for maintaining an internal vacuum level of 10-2 m.bar and insulated such that the outside surface temperature remains within 40 deg C when the internal maximum temperature is at 100 deg C. This large main chamber has been provided with a pumping system to maintain any pressure level between 1.3 mbar to 1200 mbar inside the chamber.

Facilities

A facility is being developed to have house all the crew and the astronauts who have been selected to undergo training for the Human Space mission. About 250-odd pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF), including women, are said to have been screened and the training process–as flying an aircraft is different from going outside the planet’s orbit–will be scheduled after due diligence, once ATBEC is fully functional.

Clearance

The Indian Human Space flight Programme is an ISRO proposal to develop and launch a fully functional Orbital Vehicle to carry a two or three-member crew to the moon, clearance for which was given by the Center. Tight security will be in force at the centre, where entry will be restricted to only authorised persons. 

Conclusion

Why should India participate in human spaceflight?

• Robotic expeditions to space has a lot of limitations unlike space travel involving humans studying astronauts in the microgravity of space which has been the only means to understand how gravity affects human development and health here on Earth.
• India will join a club of advanced and elite group of human space faring nations thereby enhancing its 'National Prestige'. History tells us that great civilizations were built on exploration.
• New cutting-edge technologies & discoveries derived out of human space exploration can be percolated to other applications. Some of the 'Spinoff' technologies developed as a result of human space exploration are Calculators, Kidney Dialysis Machines, Cell Phones, Digital Wristwatches, GPS technology, Infrared Cameras, Laser Surgery, Pacemaker Batteries, Advanced Computers, Satellite TV, Teflon, Ultrasound, Velcro, Water-purification systems etc,.
• An Indian in space will invigorate and energizes the minds of an entire generation of young Indians who will get interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
• It will inspire a generation of Indians who will get sensitized to the importance and fragility of our planet.
• India must prepare itself in advance for social experimentation and future commercial exploitation of virtually unlimited resources.
• In the long run joint space ventures will serve as an internationally unifying venture.
• Human colonization of outer space will also act as a hedge against any type of global catastrophe.