00:00India's space missions are often celebrated at the moment of success, but behind them
00:06are years of silent engineering and precision.
00:09Joining us today is Mr. J.A. Kamlakar, senior astro-scientist who has worked for Chandrayaan
00:153.
00:16He has played a key role in shaping India's satellite capabilities.
00:20Welcome sir.
00:22So India has launched plans for Bharti Antarik Station.
00:26How will BAS be different from ISS?
00:29It will be different in the sense that the ISS took many years to be built and it is much
00:35bigger.
00:36It has got modules both on the American side and the Russian side which are much more numbered.
00:42And many docking missions have gone and built over the years, replenished and that is a different
00:50size.
00:51Whereas we are having our own limitations, so we can carry, at the present time we can
00:57carry around 10 tons into low earth orbiting satellite using our own rockets.
01:02We are not planning to go and use foreign rockets for our station.
01:06That is very clear.
01:07So what we will do is, we will build the station with only about 5 modules.
01:12First module BAS 01, we are planning to build, we are using our LVM3 capability which is around
01:2010 tons.
01:21So within that 10 tons and orbit it around 450 kilometers, the station is going to orbit around
01:29450.
01:30So the station will be equipped only for the purpose of around 2 astronauts to be there.
01:37Not immediately, they will join much later when the station comes up.
01:41So that is the capability.
01:43Subsequently, over years, the second module also may be having similar capability of around
01:4810 tons.
01:49The third, fourth and fifth, hopefully, by that time our parallelly, our designs and maturity
01:55is coming towards higher capability of the launch vehicles.
01:59In which case, we will re-plan the bus 3, 4 and 5 to a slightly bigger size.
02:05So total around 54 tons, we are trying to make the station right now.
02:10So that way, compared to China and America, our station may be volume wise, may be smaller,
02:18but it will have capacity to do all the laboratory work, to do assessment, multiple payloads, verifications,
02:26everything, provisions will be provided.
02:28And it will have power and other fuel supports required for the maintaining of the station as
02:36well as the required provisions for the astronauts to be there for a period of 10 plus 7.
02:4417 years is the targeted plan of today.
02:47So, sir, BAS is often described as a six-bedroom flat in space.
02:52Can you please describe what this means in practical terms, sir?
02:56It's definitely five modules.
02:59Each module will have crew stations where crew can do work and crew can sleep.
03:06And crew has got whatever, you know, it's any bedroom in a hotel needs a, you know, supporting
03:13toilet and freshening up area.
03:16So here also we have to provide a PHMS system and that is one of the critical designs compared
03:22to all others to maintain his personal hygiene that will be provided in each of these modules.
03:29So a crew can stay.
03:32So it is a five modules with the five capabilities of people to stay.
03:36So you can call it a five-bedroom or whatever.
03:40So after the success of Chandrayaan 3, what are the major upcoming ISRO missions in the pipeline?
03:48In the planetary explorations, we have a programs planned which, of course, some of them need
03:55formal approvals from the government and cabinet.
03:58Chandrayaan 4 is in the pipeline which is the sample return mission which is much more complex
04:04and complicated compared to Chandrayaan 3.
04:07Chandrayaan 3 itself was a very critical mission where we needed to have the 14-day support of
04:12the light power.
04:14So we had to go on the day when the first light comes on that particular landing zone.
04:20So the alignment had to happen one month before at the time of the launch.
04:24So we know we want to launch at a given station.
04:27The trajectory and everything has to be planned one month in advance.
04:31So even if you miss that, the moon will go away 15 degree per day.
04:36That means your station will go 15 and after one month only again that line will come in
04:40the orbit and our satellites will not sustain that much time.
04:44So we have to plan accordingly.
04:47But Chandrayaan 3 was successfully completed for all this.
04:52Chandrayaan 4 is double that complication because not only landing, we have to drill and pick
04:57up some material and come back, ascending module will be there which will lift from the descending
05:03module and it will dock to the transfer module which is orbiting moon.
05:08Then the transfer module along with the ascending module will transfer whatever we picked up
05:13into the return module what we call which is part of the transfer module.
05:18Then the ascending module will come out of detached.
05:22Then the transfer module and the return module will come back to earth.
05:27Enter earth exactly a required location as to be planned the day we start from moon.
05:33Like the way we plan from earth to land on moon, we know where we want to land on earth.
05:38It is in thaw desert.
05:40So we have to accordingly plan the start point itself to trajectory.
05:44If you miss that, it can go anywhere in earth and we lose all the efforts.
05:49So it is a very critical program and Chandrayaan 4, Chandrayaan 5 is another collaborative program
05:55with Japan wherein partly we are sharing the resources.
06:01They are making the rover and the launcher is provided by them.
06:06The lander is provided by us.
06:09With the payload capacity, we are equally sharing on the rover as well as on the lander.
06:14That is why subsequently also if government approves, we may have subsequent Chandrayaan programs.
06:23Bharatiyaan 3 station requires one type of docking.
06:27Docking there are two different versions.
06:29One is called autonomous docking with a petal based mechanism.
06:33Another is called berthing.
06:34So we are launching after spadex 1, 2 and 3.
06:38The 2 will more or less cover the requirements of Chandrayaan 4 as an advanced experiment.
06:47And spadex 3 will cover requirements of BAS, Bharatiyaan 3 station.
06:53So two more such programs.
06:54In also the steady program is going on for Venus to send a satellite to Venus.
07:00So these are the things which are going on in the planetary.
07:04Otherwise science and remote sensing as well as regular programs to support our resources
07:12and as well as low earth orbiting satellites, many are going on.
07:17So whereas Chandrayaan 5 is something similar to Chandrayaan 3.
07:21We are just landing, there will be a rover and rover will do experiments.
07:25But the only difference in Chandrayaan, Lupex is they are going directly close to the pole.
07:31Almost in the dark zone where you are expected to have sunlight is also very scarce.
07:37And the deep craters do not have sunlight at all.
07:40Because the elevation angle of sun at that point is only about 1.5 degree.
07:47So there are dark craters in moon which have never seen light.
07:52So this particular program is supposed to go very close to the pole, the Lupex 5, that
08:00is Chandrayaan 5.
08:01So we are expecting a lot of science data from that zone in Chandrayaan 5.
08:06So sir, how closely are ISRO's future missions aligned with BAS?
08:11BAS is a different, see the requirements of BAS are different, BAS is only like launching
08:19a bigger satellite for us.
08:21It is only a circular orbit launching to a low earth orbiting thing.
08:25So launching and you know this is not so complicated as some of Chandrayaan's and all.
08:32So BAS is as I now after so many, we have launched in more than 200 satellites already.
08:40So we have reasonably good expertise in maintaining and operating low earth orbiting satellites,
08:45especially circular satellites.
08:47So the other satellites don't have to be aligned to BAS.
08:50BAS only Gaganyan will give some inputs because Gaganyan will be in the similar orbits.
08:56And Gaganyan crew as in when they orbit and come back, their inputs will be useful in designing
09:03BAS.
09:04So Gaganyan and BAS are aligned, not other satellites.
09:07Other satellites are much more complex, they may have to go to geostationary, navigation
09:13satellites need a different requirement, some strategic satellites need a different requirement.
09:19Those things are much more complex than you know, this has got a different difficulties,
09:26maintenance of human beings, their life supporting systems and all.
09:31Whereas the other satellites for our own remote applications are very important.
09:37So what I said is Gaganyan, yeah, she will give some inputs to BAS, yes.
09:45Sir Indian Air Force pilot Subhanshu Shukla was part of the Exeem 4 mission.
09:49Could you share some insights on his training?
09:52Yes, see, they had initially training at various places, Russia is one of them.
10:00And when they were about to go to Exeem and International Space Station, two of them got
10:05trained in USA too.
10:08And apart from that, we have our own astronaut training center at Bangalore, wherein the astronauts,
10:15we are building a full-fledged training facility, wherein they will have their own physical training
10:20and technical training.
10:21So, sir, what were his reflections on the experience of the mission?
10:25Yeah, yeah, we are take, see, he has definitely had a very fruitful experience and really the
10:32flight as well as ISS, everything, you know, he could do whatever suggested laboratory experiments,
10:40everything he has completed, and his return also was smooth.
10:45And then later, when BAS committee, where I am chairing the committee, had to look after
10:53the design reviews of the systems.
10:56So we have co-opted them as members, so that we can take their inputs, in case we need to
11:02correct something in our design.
11:04That way they are helping us to, you know, from the human approach point of view.
11:08So, thank you so much, sir, for giving us a glimpse into the engineering discipline.
11:12Thank you so much.
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