 "Shukla was named the ‘Prime’ astronaut for the Indo-US mission to the International Space Station in August last year. Image: Axiom Space")
Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is set to become the first Indian to visit the International Space Station (ISS) on May 29.
He will be one of four astronauts taking part in the Axiom-4 mission , which is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 10.33 pm IST that day.
This mission, using SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, comes four decades after Rakesh Sharma’s famous space journey on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft in 1984.
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Shukla , an officer in the Indian Air Force, will take on the role of pilot in the Ax-4 mission. The mission will be led by former Nasa astronaut Peggy Whitson. The two other astronauts on board are Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a European Space Agency project astronaut from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.
But what makes this mission so important?
We explain the mission’s goals, objectives, and what Shubhanshu Shukla will be studying in space.
What is the Axiom-4 Space mission?
The Axiom-4 mission will “realise the return” to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, as each of these countries will send a government-sponsored astronaut into space for the first time in over 40 years, according to the mission’s official website.
This will be the second human spaceflight mission in history for each country. However, it is the first time astronauts from all three nations will travel to the International Space Station together.
“This historic mission underscores how Axiom Space is redefining the pathway to low-Earth orbit and elevating national space programmes globally,” it said in a statement.
What will Shukla study?
The Ax-4 mission includes around 60 scientific experiments, with seven coming from India.
Shukla will carry out these seven studies in space, which will help improve our understanding of space and how it affects different biological systems.
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1. India-centric crop growth in space
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has planned experiments on the International Space Station focused on crops commonly used in Indian food, such as methi (fenugreek) and moong (green gram). These will be tested to see how they grow in microgravity.
The goal is to understand how the space environment affects how these seeds grow and how their genes behave. Researchers will also check if they could be a possible food source during future space journeys.
2. Impact of microgravity radiation
The International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB) and the National Institute of Plant Genome Research will carry out an experiment on how microgravity and space radiation affect edible microalgae.
The research will focus on the growth, metabolism, and genetic activity of three different microalgae strains, comparing their behaviour in space with those grown on Earth.
3. “Sprouting salad seeds in space” experiment
This experiment will look at how seeds respond to spaceflight, especially how they sprout and grow.
Once the mission ends, the same seeds will be grown again over several generations. Scientists will then study any changes in their genetics, microbial content, and nutritional value.
By tracking these changes, the team hopes to find out if the seeds can become a stable food option for astronauts in the future.
“We have a sprouting experiment which tries to sprout green gram or moong and methi or fenugreek seeds, which are believed to have medicinal properties,” Tushar Phadnis, Group Head for Microgravity Platforms and Research, said at a virtual press conference.
Phadnis added, “The idea is not just to stop with sprouting it there. The idea is also to see how these India-specific sprouts behave when they come back. They will undergo a lot of analysis in the labs of the respective PIs (principal investigators).”
4. Voyager Tardigrades experiment
Tardigrades , often called “water bears” or “moss piglets”, are tiny eight-legged micro-animals known for their ability to survive in extreme conditions.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, which has been leading India’s space research, has designed two experiments for this mission.
One focuses on how humans interact with electronic screens in space, and the other looks at the growth and survival of microscopic animals like the eutardigrade paramacrobiotus, also known as water bears.
As per Axiom Space, the experiment will examine how tardigrades wake up from a dormant state, lay eggs and hatch in space. It will also compare gene expression in those sent to space with those kept on Earth.
The study hopes to understand how tardigrades survive in such extreme conditions. This could help future space missions and lead to new uses in biotechnology on Earth.
5. Voyager Displays
This project explores how working with computer screens in space affects both the body and the mind. It will study tasks such as eye movement, focus, and pointing, and how these are influenced in microgravity. The aim is to see if these changes affect stress levels.
The results could help design better user interfaces for space computers, making them easier for astronauts to use.
6. Muscle regeneration
This study is focused on finding the reasons behind muscle loss in space and looking at possible treatments.
The Institute of Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine will test how certain metabolic supplements affect muscle repair in microgravity.
By identifying key molecular processes and how they might be controlled, the research could help astronauts stay healthy on long missions. It may also prove useful in finding new ways to treat muscle diseases on Earth.
7. Cyanobacteria on ISS
This experiment looks at how two types of cyanobacteria grow and function in microgravity.
The Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), along with the College of Agriculture at Kerala Agricultural University, will send crop seed samples to the space station to study how microgravity affects their growth and productivity.
By studying the two strains of cyanobacteria, Isro hopes to learn how they grow, how their cells respond, and how their biochemical activity changes in space. The findings may help use these bacteria in future life support systems on spacecraft.
Notably, Shukla was named the ‘Prime’ astronaut for the Indo-US mission to the International Space Station in August last year. Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair was chosen as the ‘Backup’ astronaut.
The Ax-4 team will travel on board a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and spend up to 14 days at the space station.
With inputs from agencies