Gaganyaan to use 'made in Vadodara' space suit
New Delhi : India and the entire world are talking about the upcoming Gaganyaan space mission to be launched by Indian Space Research Institute ( ISRO). While the people are excited to see the witness the grand spaceflight mission, ISRO scientists are at breakneck speed to accomplish the mission by Decemeber 2021 deadline. Sources confirmed that the space suit to be used in the mission include the tag ' Made in Vadodara', the third largest city in Gujarat. The suit is 20% lighter and one hundredth of the cost of its foreign competitors.
The astronaut crew escape suit will see the best of both American and Russian space suits. It was in 1984, that India wore a space suit for the last time till date, when wing commander Rakesh Sharma flew abroad Russia Soyuz T-11.
The space suit for Gaganyaan mission has been designed by Sure Safety, a Vadodara-based industrial safety equipment manufacturer after its collaboration with ISRO's Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad. The company gave a glimpse of the space suit at the Futuristic Technology Exhibition inaugurated on Thursday at the Science City.
Nitish Dand, the managing director of the firm told that the trials for testing the material under lab conditions are almost over, including vacuum chambers tests." Right from the communications, bio-sensors measuring body temperatures, oxygen and carbon monoxide levels and to pressure management systems, all technology has been developed indigenously. We are the fourth company in the world to produce a suit for astronauts, "he said.
Other features of the space suit are a flexible hood zipper, touch screen sensitive gloves, utility pockets, air diverters and light weight shoes. The space suit operates at temperature ranging from minus 40 degree celcius to 80 degree celcius.
Dand also mentioned that the suit is about 20% lighter while maintaining high standards of safety, like fire, water and pressure changes. "We can say that functionality-wise, it's a cross between the suits used by Russia and the US in terms of life support system, oxygen/air management and functionality," he added. The suit will also be nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) resistant.
