India's Human Spaceflight Program: Ambitious Goals, But Can it Overtake the Leaders?

Tech 2024-08-15 13:24:53 Source: Network

India's Human Spaceflight Program: Ambitious Goals, But Can it Overtake the Leaders?India has displayed a bold ambition in the space sector in recent years, vowing to achieve a leapfrog move. Prime Minister Modi himself announced that India would complete its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program in 2025, sending three Indian astronauts into space

India's Human Spaceflight Program: Ambitious Goals, But Can it Overtake the Leaders?

India has displayed a bold ambition in the space sector in recent years, vowing to achieve a leapfrog move. Prime Minister Modi himself announced that India would complete its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program in 2025, sending three Indian astronauts into space. Can this objective be realized? Has India's space capability truly reached the point of silence is golden, speak only when youre ready to shock?

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India's Space Capability: Early Start, But Late to the Game

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India's space development can be described as early to bed, but late to rise. As early as the US-Soviet space race, India started its space research. Despite the difficult conditions in its early days, with researchers using churches and cowsheds as offices and laboratories, and relying on bicycles to transport rocket parts, India's space program has achieved some success over 60 years of development.

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In 2017, India successfully launched a rocket carrying 104 satellites; two years later, it destroyed a satellite with an anti-satellite missile, becoming the fourth country in the world to possess anti-satellite capability. In terms of spacecraft, India has also achieved significant breakthroughs, such as the "Mangalyaan" Mars probe in 2013 and the successful lunar landing of "Chandrayaan-3" in 2023.

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However, there are also some issues with India's space development. Although India attaches great importance to the "Chandrayaan-3" mission, its budget is only $74.88 million due to funding constraints, with $30 million of that allocated to the development of the probe itself. Therefore, "Chandrayaan-3" only includes a lander and rover, omitting a separate orbiter. Moreover, due to conservative design concepts, the landing did not consider nighttime issues, leading to the "Chandrayaan-3" lander entering a low-temperature "hibernation" state after landing on the Moon, and it still hasnt been woken up yet.

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Despite these problems, India's space capability still ranks among the top tier globally, second only to China and Japan in Asia. If the USA, Russia, and China are considered the first tier, then Europe, Japan, and India belong to the second tier, with India's current development momentum being comparable to Japan's.

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India's Human Spaceflight Program: Ambitious Goals, But Challenges Abound

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India began its human spaceflight program as early as 2006. The initial plan was to send two astronauts into space in 2014, but due to its consistent procrastination, India's current goal is to achieve two unmanned test flights in 2024 and its first manned flight in 2025, sending three Indian astronauts into a 400 km near-Earth orbit for a few days before returning to Earth.

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The key component of Indias Gaganyaan human spaceflight program is the LVM-3 launch vehicle combined with the Gaganyaan spacecraft. The LVM-3 launch vehicle is India's most powerful rocket, with a launch weight of approximately 640 tons and a geosynchronous orbit payload capacity of about 4 tons. While it theoretically has the capability to send astronauts into space, its performance is not particularly outstanding compared to China's Long March 3B rocket.

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The "Gaganyaan" spacecraft consists of a crew module and a service module. The former is responsible for bringing astronauts back to Earth, while the latter undertakes orbital propulsion tasks. To ensure safety and reliability, the Indian space agency has conducted numerous technical tests and subjected astronauts to rigorous training.

India's Human Spaceflight Program: Can It Achieve a Leap-Frog Move?

Human spaceflight is a significant indicator of a country's comprehensive strength, and India hopes to showcase its status as a major power through its human spaceflight program. However, India's human spaceflight program is also facing numerous challenges.

First, India lacks large rockets with a payload capacity exceeding 20 tons, preventing it from independently undertaking deep space exploration. Second, India has a low level of satellite indigenization. Despite launching Mars and lunar probes, it lacks a comprehensive plan. Additionally, a manned space station is a symbol of major powers, while India's industrial technology level is low, and its independent innovation capacity is poor, meaning many space exploration activities rely on US and Russian technology.

Therefore, it is not easy for India to "take shortcuts" and achieve a leap-frog move.

Conclusion

India has made progress in the space sector, but it still needs to overcome many difficulties to become a world leader in space technology. India's human spaceflight program has ambitious goals, but it faces technical and financial challenges. Ultimately, whether it can achieve a "leap-frog move" remains to be seen.

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