ISRO's uncrewed Gaganyaan mission in 2025 will include the female half-humanoid Vyomitra, created by ISRO's Inertial Systems Unit in the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Vyomitra is a type of robotic system designed to look like a human, with movable arms, a torso, a face, and a neck, and is meant to operate independently in space.
Robots are generally used to help astronauts with repetitive or dangerous tasks in space, such as cleaning solar panels or repairing faulty equipment outside the spacecraft, allowing astronauts to focus on their scientific mission and stay safe.
Next year's mission will primarily focus on demonstrating Vyomitra's capabilities. The half-humanoid will use its robotic arms to perform tasks at the crew console, visually monitor different systems inside the crew module, and communicate with the Earth-based mission control team.
ISRO will assess the performance of the robot's technology to understand the potential effects of space travel on humans, in preparation for India's first crewed mission scheduled for later in 2025.
The Vyomitra skull, which was recently designed, will contain the main parts of the robot. It's constructed using an aluminium alloy (AlSi10Mg) that is renowned for its excellent flexibility, lightweight nature, heat resistance, and mechanical properties. This particular alloy is commonly utilised in the manufacturing of automotive engines and aerospace components.
Significantly, the skull has been structured to be exceptionally robust, capable of enduring the intense vibrational forces experienced during a rocket launch. The high strength of the aluminium alloy provides a yield strength of over 220 MegaPascals (1 MPa = 1 million pascals). Yield strength indicates the maximum stress that a material can tolerate before it starts to deform permanently.
The humanoid skull model has measurements of 200mm x 200mm and weighs merely 800 grams.
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