BENGALURU: The induction process of six more astronauts – four from non-aviation backgrounds – into the Gaganyaan mission is moving on paper and would take some time before it is finalised, Gaganyatri Group Captain Angad Pratap said on Wednesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the last day of the three-day 9th edition of Bengaluru space expo, Pratap also expressed hope that at least half of the new astronauts would be women.
The four astronauts from non-aviation background will include professionals from various technical backgrounds. Explaining the knowledge the astronauts acquired in other fields, Pratap said, “When I was chosen for the Gaganyaan, I was an experimental test pilot. After selection, I learnt a lot of other things including engineering and medicine. Same will be the case with people from other professions also when inducted into space missions.”
He said the Gaganyaan mission is all about acquiring capabilities to launch a human to space indigenously from India, which is considered a huge milestone, involving over 20 niche technologies. “India will be the fourth country to do it by itself. Gaganyaan may sound like just sending one person to orbit, but it lays the foundation for much bigger things. The ultimate aim is to push the boundaries of human knowledge. Technology will be shared between the private sector and government sector,” he said.
Pratap said work on the Gaganyaan mission is progressing, and that although there are delays, the test pilots and astronauts should take it with a pinch of salt. “When an American or a Russian astronaut joins the space programme, he joins with a pre-mindset that he will get an assured flight to space in a finite time period.
But when it comes to us (Indians), we were joining a prototype programme not only for the flight but to build the entire programme from scratch. It is not about the flight alone, but there is a lot of work which happens on the ground, which might be delayed. But once it happens, it will be successful. And that’s why all of us should take this delay with a pinch of salt, because that is the starting point.”
Speaking about his role in the Gaganyaan mission, he said, he was working on the human-machine interface, cockpit design for the Gaganyaan and the Bharatiya Antariksha Station (BAS), India’s first indigenously-built-and-launched space station by 2035.
“I am trying to integrate AI into the Gaganyaan cockpit to the maximum extent possible. I am trained to be a part of the human-machine interface design and development,” he said and clarified that he was not designing the entire cockpit. “I am a part of the design process for the front-end architecture alone of the cockpit and the BAS. I am also utilising my aviation knowledge. I sit with the designers and guide them through,” he said.
Pratap said, “I work on the operational requirement sets. I make replicas of how the front-end architecture should look like, while realizing the hardware realities which are there. It is a very niche topic. Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot replace humans. They are tools that are enabling us.”