Gaganyaan: Ace sailor to help in safe recovery of astronauts

Champion sailor Commander Abhilash Tomy will serve as a consultant to Isro for the safe recovery of astronauts from the sea after India's first crewed spaceflight.

Champion sailor Commander Abhilash Tomy (retd) will serve as a consultant to the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) for the safe recovery of astronauts from sea after they return from India’s first crewed spaceflight, Gaganyaan, next year, people aware of the development said on Tuesday.

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Isro’s Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth, by landing in seas close to India. The astronauts are hand-picked fighter pilots from the Indian Air Force who have undergone training in Russia.

“I will be advising Isro on risk mitigation and ensuring the wellbeing of the astronauts after the module’s splashdown. I will formulate the strategy by drawing on my own experiences of surviving extreme conditions at sea,” Tomy said.

The former navy officer recently finished second in the enormously challenging solo and non-stop circumnavigation race, 2022 Golden Globe Race (GGR), that pushed the limits of his endurance. He completed the gruelling 30,000-mile race, the longest sporting event in the world, on April 29 after sailing for 236 days in his boat named Bayanat.

Two locations have been identified for the landing of the crew module in the sea with the deployment of a series of parachutes, the officials said, asking not to be named. ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) successfully conducted Drogue Parachute Deployment Tests, an essential part of the Gaganyaan project, at the Rail Track Rocket Sled (RTRS) facility in Chandigarh from August 8 to 10.

“A crucial component of this mission is the deployment of drogue parachutes, which play a pivotal role in stabilising the crew module and reducing its velocity to a safe level during re-entry. Drogue parachutes, packed within pyro-based devices known as mortars, are ingeniously designed to eject the parachutes into the air upon command,” Isro said after the tests in Chandigarh. These parachutes ensure a smooth and controlled descent.

However, in a contingency, the astronauts will have to survive in the module for as long as warships take to reach and retrieve them, said Tomy, who suffered a spinal injury on September 21, 2018, during the 2018 GGR, after rough seas in the southern Indian Ocean, one of the remotest spots on Earth, crippled his yacht, SV Thuriya.

Tomy was rescued 70 hours later. Before that accident, he was in third place among 11 international participants and had sailed more than 10,500 miles.

“What if the module is damaged during the splashdown? There are so many aspects to it. How to deal with the weather conditions? How to keep your sanity till help arrives? And what to do and what not to do during that period? Then there’s something as basic as where should the medical kit be kept for easy access in case the crew is indisposed or injured,” said Tomy, who has already met the astronauts.

The intricate parachute sequence for the Gaganyaan crew module’s deceleration system consists of 10 parachutes, the officials said. The sequence commences with the deployment of two apex cover separation parachutes, followed by the stabilisation achieved through the deployment of two drogue parachutes. On release of the drogue parachutes, the mission transitions into the extraction phase, with three pilot chutes individually extracting three main parachutes, a pivotal step in reducing the crew module’s speed to safe levels for a secure landing, according to Isro.

The first batch of the crew recovery team of the Gaganyaan mission completed the first phase of training at Indian Navy’s Water Survival Training Facility (WSTF) at Kochi in July. The team consisted of naval divers and marine commandos who underwent recovery training in varied sea conditions.

Isro successfully completed the service module propulsion system test for Gaganyaan at the Isro Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu in July.

“ISRO successfully tested the Gaganyaan Service Module Propulsion System (SMPS) on July 19, 2023 at IPRC, Mahendragiri. This test involved five liquid apogee motor (LAM) engines with a thrust of 440 N and sixteen reaction control system (RCS) thrusters with a thrust of 100 N,” Isro said in a statement after the key test.

When Gaganyaan lifts off next year kicking off a new era of space exploration, the astronauts onboard are likely to carry a selection of special foods developed by a military laboratory after experimenting with ingredients for almost two years, as previously reported by Hindustan Times.

The menu will offer Indian astronauts a variety of options to suit their palate during the mission: Chicken biryani, chicken korma, shahi paneer, dal-chawal, aloo paratha, preserved chappatis, dal makhni, khichdi and beans in sauce.

Even the humble mango pickle figures on the menu prepared by Mysuru-based Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) that comes under the Defence Research and Development Organisation.