ISRO finalises design of skull for the humanoid on Gaganyaan mission

Vyommitra will resemble the upper human body, featuring movable arms, face, and neck equipped with sensors to perform human-like functions and assess the impacts of space travel.

“This half-humanoid simulates the anthropomorphic (human-like characteristics) features of the upper torso of a human body and will primarily demonstrate operations such as Crew Console related tasks… the skull is designed to withstand the vibrational loads experienced during the launch,” Padma Kumar E S, director, IISU, told The Indian Express in an email reply.

“This configuration of the skull is part of the half-humanoid flying in Gaganyaan mission. Ground qualification testing is over. Flight system has been realised and acceptance testing is currently under progress,” he said.

The Vyommitra will have multiple degrees of freedom, meaning its parts would be able to move in different directions.

Ahead of putting an actual human into space, several studies are done using humanoids. They collect vital data on the impacts of space travel on human bodies, enabling scientists to design the space capsule for a safe and comfortable flight. Robotic systems are often a part of actual human space missions as well to assist astronauts in performing tasks that are either repetitive or dangerous.

The Gaganyaan mission, India’s first attempt at sending humans into space, is scheduled for next year. But before that two uncrewed preparatory missions, Gaganyaan-1 (G1) and Gaganyaan-2 (G2), would be flown, the first one later this year.

G1, scheduled for launch in December, will mainly test the safe re-entry of the spacecraft and its orientation upon its dive into the sea. The G2 mission will carry Vyommitra inside the human-rated pressurised crew module, where the astronauts would be seated in the actual flight. The robot will be tasked with recording all parameters that will be used to study the impacts of the flight on humans.

The Gaganyaan mission will carry three Indian astronauts into space, about 400 km from the Earth’s surface, for three days.

In February this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced the four Indian Air Force pilots — Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla — selected for the Gaganyaan mission who have been undergoing training for the last few years.

Of these, Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla has been shortlisted for a joint ISRO-NASA space flight next year which will take him to the International Space Station.

“The results obtained from this technology demonstration mission (G2) would be useful in evaluating the performance of the robotic systems in micro-gravity conditions. Such demonstrations would certainly be useful towards the induction of robotic support elements in activities such as assembly operations of the future Space Missions,” Kumar said.

On the possibility of and the need for the development of a full humanoid, Kumar said, “Currently, the technology demonstration of a half-humanoid is planned in the uncrewed Gaganyaan mission. Depending on the operational requirements for future human space missions, the need for full-body humanoids will be studied.”

ISRO officials further said the designing of the humanoid skull will benefit the designing and realisation of similar, geometrically complex and lightweight structures for applications in future missions.