Training for space at ISRO’s Bengaluru centre: Simulators, yoga and engineering classes

Currently, the astronauts are doing mission-specific training, as part of which they familiarise themselves with the spacecraft and its operations ahead of the space mission, which is currently scheduled for next year.

This follows the training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia’s Moscow Oblast that started in 2020 and continued through the pandemic. Sometime in 2021, the training at ISRO’s Bengaluru facility followed. ISRO officials described the training as a “continuous process”.

“The astronauts are getting used to the various sub-systems within the crew module of the spacecraft or the Gaganyaan vehicle. They are trying these out, and working with our teams to make some changes. These trainings will continue till they fly the mission,” an ISRO official said.

The astronauts are currently training on various sub-systems such as navigation systems and bio-toilets, said another official.

Currently, the astronauts are doing mission-specific training, as part of which they familiarise themselves with the spacecraft and its operations ahead of the space mission, which is currently scheduled for next year.

The initial part of the training took place in Russia because when the human spaceflight programme was announced, India did not have its own astronaut training infrastructure. Russia, on the other hand, sends astronauts regularly and has elaborate training facilities, which the Indians were able to access. Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to go to space, and Ravish Malhotra, the astronaut who was on standby, too, trained at Moscow’s Gagarin Centre in the 1980s.

In Russia, the four Indian Air Force officers chosen for the Ganganyaan mission did generic spaceflight training, which every astronaut going to space undergoes. This part involves acclimatising oneself with the environment in outer space and getting used to conditions like weightlessness.

At the Gagarin Centre, the astronauts practised living and operating in zero-gravity conditions, changes in atmospheric pressures, and surviving in complete isolation. They spent a lot of time in parabolic flights — aircraft that fly up and down at 45-degree angles so that passengers experience a period of weightlessness and increased gravity just like on a roller coaster.
They also trained for surviving in extreme weather and climatic conditions such as mountains, woodlands, marshes, deserts, the Arctic, and the sea to prepare for different landing situations on their return to Earth after their spaceflight. Their training in Russia also included theoretical classes on orbital mechanics and astro-navigation (navigating using celestial bodies as markers).

Back in India, the astronauts are familiarising themselves with the crew module of the spacecraft. With a capacity to house three astronauts, the crew module – the habitable part of the spacecraft – is attached to the service module that houses the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Together, they make up the orbital module, which will be launched in the low-Earth orbit using the human-rated LVM3 rocket.

Inside the crew module

The mission-specific training at the ISRO facility in Bengaluru includes theoretical courses on engineering disciplines such as the basics of spaceflight, propulsion and aerodynamics, besides practical training on the Gaganyaan systems. The astronauts also undergo continuous physical and psychological training, including yoga. They are also undergoing aero-medical training as part of their course.

To train on flight procedures, the course includes training with at least four different simulators – the independent training simulator, virtual training simulator, static mock-up simulator and the dynamic training simulator.

* The independent training simulator is a tabletop system that mimics the user interface in the crew module. It uses similar display systems, alerts, and control buttons for procedural training for various activities.

* Virtual training simulators use a VR headset, software, and a hand controller to familiarise the astronauts with the interiors of the crew module, the electronic hardware, and the locations of the different elements within the module. In this simulator, astronauts virtually interact with the switches and control panels in the crew module and read real-time data that is on display.
* The static mock-up simulator brings together different components such as avionics, environment control and life-support system that will be present in the crew module. This simulator is meant to provide a realistic ambience of the crew module to acquaint the astronauts with the distance and approach estimations to various controls. The spaces available for crew activity in this simulator will also be the same as the actual crew module.
* Then comes the dynamic training simulator that lets the astronauts experience the motions and sensations that are expected to be felt during the actual flight. It will train the astronauts in jerks, vibrations, acceleration and shocks during the separation of rocket stages, parachute deployment, touchdown, or when the Crew Escape System gets triggered.

The first mission flight, Gaganyaan-1, an unmanned test flight to check technology readiness, is expected by the end of 2024. The manned mission, which will take a three-member crew into a low earth orbit of 400-km altitude and return to Earth after three days, will follow.

In 1984, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian in space when he flew to the Salyut 7 space station on a Soviet spacecraft. In 2006, India started work on an orbital vehicle mission that was later named Gaganyaan.