Knowledge Nugget: Axiom-4 mission — What you must know for UPSC Exam

Why in the news?

The Axiom-4 mission, with India’s Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts on board, roared into space at noon on Wednesday, beginning a 28-hour journey to the International Space Station. The astronauts are slated to spend around 14 days on the ISS. In this context, it becomes essential to know about the Axiom-4 mission and how it is significant for India.

Key Takeaways :

1. The Axiom 4 mission is being operated by private US space company Axiom Space, in partnership with NASA and SpaceX. Notably, the mission will carry the first astronauts from Hungary and Poland to the space station.

2. The Ax-4 mission features an international crew from the United States, India. Poland and Hungary. Former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, Peggy Whitson, will command the commercial mission, and ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The private mission also carries ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

3. The crew will travel to the ISS on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and is scheduled to spend up to 14 days aboard the orbiting laboratory. The crew’s approximately two-week stay includes conducting a mission comprising of science, education, and commercial activities.

4. Among the studies and experiments that will be conducted under the Axiom-4 mission is one aimed at enabling diabetic people to travel into space. As of now, insulin-dependent diabetic patients are not selected to become astronauts. That is because the space environment, particularly microgravity conditions, makes it difficult to control and maintain blood sugar levels. But scientists around the world have been working for the last several years to make this possible. A diabetes-related research project on the Axiom-4 mission marks an important step in that effort.

5. One of the experiments relates to the study of the growth rate, cellular responses, and biochemical activity of cyanobacteria — a group of bacteria that are known to produce energy through photosynthesis just like plants. There is growing interest in studying this microorganism as it may offer the key to deep space exploration and long term presence of humans on the moon or other planets: a self-sustaining system for oxygen production without need for resupply from earth.

Significance of Axiom-4 mission for India

1. The Indian participation in Axiom-4 mission is a result of an agreement between ISRO and NASA. The mission has scheduled several experiments the results of which would help Indian Space Research Organisation execute its own manned spaceflight, Gaganyaan, two years later, ISRO chairman V Narayanan said.

2. ISRO has designed about 10 experiments for this mission. These include investigations into the effects of microgravity on muscle dysfunctions, and the physical and cognitive impacts of utilising computer screens in space. Another experiment would study the impact of spaceflight on the growth of six varieties of crop seeds.

3. ISRO is also sending a few tardigrades to the ISS. These microscopic, water-dwelling organisms, also called water bears or moss piglets, are known to survive in extremely harsh environments. They are often studied in space to gain a better understanding of how life can survive in extraterrestrial conditions.

4. These are the experiments that ISRO would have carried out on Gaganyaan if the mission had gone ahead of Axiom-4. Now it has the opportunity to conduct follow-up and more advanced experiments on its own missions.

5. Furthermore, four decades after Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to travel to space, Shubhanshu Shukla, a 39-year-old Indian Air Force officer who is in the final leg of his pre-launch quarantine at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, will be the second Indian to travel to space and first Indian to step on to the ISS. Shukla can pass on invaluable experience and feedback to his colleagues when they travel to space as part of Gaganyaan.

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Gaganyaan mission

1. Announced in 2018, Gaganyaan is one of India’s most ambitious space programmes. It is India’s maiden human spaceflight mission that was originally scheduled for 2022 but is now expected to happen in early 2027. A successful execution of this mission would put India in the company of the US, Russia and China.

2. As stated on the ISRO website, the short-term goal is to demonstrate human spaceflight to Low Earth Orbit, while the long-term goal is to lay the foundation for a “sustained Indian human space exploration programme”. Success in its ultimate objective — proving that India is capable of indigenously developing this complex technology — would be a huge boost for ISRO.

3. Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla are India’s astronauts-designate for Gaganyaan.

4. ISRO will use its LVM3 rocket for all of Gaganyaan missions. LVM3, earlier called GSLV-MkIII, is the Indian space agency’s most powerful launch vehicle that has flown seven times without failure. The rocket consists of liquid stage, solid stage, and cryogenic stage.

Post Read Questions

(1) Consider the following space missions: (UPSC CSE 2025)

I. Axiom-4

II. SpaDeX

III. Gaganyaan

How many of the space missions given above encourage and support micro-gravity research?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

(2) With reference to the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), consider the following statements:

1. It is the second government-sponsored human spaceflight mission in over 40 years.

2. The mission will carry an all-Indian crew on its journey.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

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