Space mission clears lab test

The IAF’s Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM), which would be entrusted with the crucial role of screening and selecting the astronauts for the country’s maiden human space flight mission, has already initiated the ground work by developing state-of-the-art laboratories.

The Bangalore-based institute, which was an integral part of the Indo-Soviet manned space flight in the 1980’s, has developed various laboratories that can be used for screening potential astronauts. The institute also played a role in the medical monitoring team of India’s only cosmonaut Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma.

The department of space and environment physiology has developed three laboratories, comprising the thermal chamber, micro gravity simulation, and lower body negative pressure (LBNP) laboratories. At the thermal chamber, temperature can be simulated to very high and low temperatures, which the astronauts could encounter during the mission.

During the mission, the space craft would rotate around the earth about 16 times and the astronauts would be exposed to varying temperatures from minus to 60 plus degree centigrade.