Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair apparently made a “registration of intent” to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about sending an Indian astronaut into space on a home-made capsule using an Indian launch vehicle.
ISRO says that while no decision has been made, they did not get a negative feedback either. The space agency will now take their proposal to the Space Commission and the scientific community in the next six months and drive consensus.
In December 2006/January 2007, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will place an experimental indigenous recoverable space capsule weighing 550 kilograms (kgs) into orbit. The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE) will stay in orbit for a few days and perform some experiments in micro-gravity and will then re-enter the earth’s atmosphere without burning out.
The SRE is an important step to master re-enter technology as the capsule will lose speed but gain enormous heat due to friction. ISRO plans to mask the capsule with tiles to prevent burn out. Part of the manned mission to space is to bring the human back to earth and involves several investments and learning. These would include re-entry technology, life-support systems, emergency ejection systems, training stations, expertise building, and developing recovery systems.
Unfortunately, these do not come inexpensive. The proposed manned mission may cost Rs. 20,000 crore (USD 4.3 billion) and will be possible within the next 5-10 years. The ISRO plans to use the 3rd generation Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) under development for the mission.
Many may questions whether India needs such an expensive program when there are more fundamental issues such as literacy, primary education, primary healthcare, etc to be solved. While these programs do need to be funded and probably more urgent, the country also needs to invest in the future. Without developing these crucial and associated technologies such as mechanical engineering, metallurgy, chemical composition, plastics, thermal energy, and so on, India would constantly be dependent on others that can be so easily denied.
