Human Space Flight Center's Role in ISRO's Gaganyaan Program and the Advancements in Human Space Exploration

The primary responsibility of the Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) is to lead ISRO's Gaganyaan program by coordinating efforts across various ISRO centers, research labs, academia, and industries in India. HSFC focuses on ensuring the reliability and safety of human spaceflight activities, encompassing research and development in emerging technology domains. These areas include life support systems, human factors engineering, bioastronautics, crew training, and human rating and certification. These elements are essential for future human space exploration endeavors such as rendezvous and docking, space station construction, and collaborative missions to the Moon, Mars, and near-Earth asteroids. The Orbital Module (OM) responsible for orbiting Earth consists of the Crew Module (CM) and Service Module (SM). The CM serves as the habitable space for the crew, creating an Earth-like environment in space. It is constructed with a double wall, including a pressurized metallic inner structure and an unpressurized external structure with a thermal protection system. The CM houses crew interfaces, life support systems, avionics, and deceleration systems, ensuring the crew's safety during re-entry and descent. The SM is unpressurized and provides essential support to the CM while in orbit. It includes thermal systems, propulsion systems, power systems, avionics, and deployment mechanisms. The Gaganyaan mission emphasizes the development of new technologies with a focus on human safety. These technologies encompass both engineering and human-centric systems. Crew training for Gaganyaan takes place at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru, offering various forms of training, including classroom instruction, physical fitness training, simulator exercises, and flight suit training. Training modules cover academic courses, Gaganyaan Flight Systems, microgravity familiarization through parabolic flights, aero-medical training, recovery and survival training, mastery of flight procedures, and training on Crew Training Simulators. Aero-medical training, periodic flying practice, and yoga are also integral components of the training regimen.