Isro launches Mission MITRA: Gaganyatris to be tested for mental, physical, and crew operability strengths in the wilderness of Ladakh

According to Isro, any human spaceflight mission involves multiple critical elements like crew performance under challenging situations and the ground-station staff support and performance.

“MITRA aims to generate the vital understanding on team interoperability between gaganyatris and the ground-control teams, their effectiveness of decision-making under extreme environmental and operational stresses,” isro said.

Led by Isro’s Human Space Flight Centre, MITRA is being conducted in partnership with the Institute of Aerospace Medicine of the Indian Air Force and Protoplanet Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru.

Why Ladakh?

Space offers an unforgiving and challenging environment, adapting to which requires stringent physical and mental training and adaptability. Isro is trying to recreate the space-like environment on Earth by using the naturally available harsh and extreme environment existing in Ladakh.

Ladakh is located at about 3,500 metres above mean sea level. It remains under sub-zero temperatures for over six months of the year, receives scanty precipitation, records low moisture levels, and remains cloudless for most months of the year – all of which together make Ladakh an ideal testbed for human spaceflight missions.

“The low temperatures, hypoxia, and isolation in Ladakh are all analogous to the spaceflight conditions,” Isro said.

Such analog missions conducted under controlled yet realistic conditions are utilised to understand how the gaganyatris perform under challenging conditions.