Bengaluru: The robust review system adopted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) coupled with the hunger for mastering GenNext critical technologies will help space scientists beat the deadline set for manned space mission Gaganyaan.
This was the opinion of Kota Harinarayana, aerospace don and father of India’s Tejas fighter jet project. Sharing his thoughts on the challenging mission, he told Onmanorama that he felt the government got the confidence to announce Gaganyaan after weighing the progress made by ISRO in the past 14 years.
“A lot of pre-project work has been done since 2004 for the Gaganyaan and today ISRO is confident to beat the deadline (2022) and send Indians to space in the next 40 months. I am really inspired to see how the systems function within ISRO. The space scientists have huge hunger to master technologies of tomorrow,” Kota said.
He said 14 years of background work has helped develop, test and validate technology elements for Gaganyaan.
“The challenge is to integrate them and bring them to a level of safety. In addition to safety measures, processes and man-rated systems will also be made ready. ISRO has a very robust review mechanism and the integration process will be guided by this time-tested process. This makes me confident that 2022 is a very realisable goal,” Kota said.
He said ISRO gives great emphasis to pre-project phase, one of the possible mantras for their high success rate.
“There is a clear understanding about pre-project investments to be done. ISRO is tuned to this concept and they are able to follow this path for many decades now. In many other organisations the case may be different, whereby inviting the ‘delayed' tag stamped on the programmes later,” says Kota, 75, who is currently involved in some of the ongoing missions of National Aerospace Laboratories.
He said it is important even for the Defence Research and Development Organisation to invest in pre-project activities, man power training, technology development and infrastructure.
“Gaganyaan will set new benchmarks and I am convinced that ISRO is following the best practices in the world. All departments are in sync with the needs of the future and this coupled with strategic thinking will propel the mission,” says Kota.
He said 'beating deadline' has to become a norm for India’s aerospace and defence programmes, especially in the government sector.
“A share of technological investments must also reach the academia, small or medium scale industries and the start-ups. This realisation has been already woven into the ISRO’s missions and Gaganyaan will be no different either,” he said.
Among the many objectives of Gaganyaan, he was impressed with the mandate to inspire youth and develop technologies for societal benefits.
“Today, the youth of India needs to be inspired and the manned mission is sure to capture the imagination of millions of them. Like in several developed countries, it is important the youth to get hooked to a national scientific mission. Indian youth are lucky that they have Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan-2 among others to look up to,” Kota said.
“A nation that shares passion for science and technology will shine forever,” he added.
Read more: Latest India news
