Meet ‘Vyommitra’ India’s First Humanoid for Mission Gaganyaan

The female humanoid, who is going to simulate human functions required for space before real astronauts take off before August 2022, Vyommitra the first “Indian woman” to ride space in the initial test flight of human space mission, Gaganyaan built by ISRO.

She will be responsible for monitoring module parameters, alert astronauts and perform life support operations. “Two trial flights without crew will take place with humanoid. The first took place around December 2020 and the second will be around July 2021.” said Dr. K Sivan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation.

Vyommitra has made an efficient impression as she introduced herself to ISRO Chairman K. Sivan and Principle Scientific Advisor K. VijayRaghavan at the conference on human space flight recently.

The humanoid also addressed her visitors. Her body stops at the trunk of human body and has no legs. Describing her functions, Vyommitra said, “I can do panel operations, ECLSS (Environment Control and Life Support Systems) functions, be a companion, speak with astronauts, recognize them and also respond to their queries.”

ISRO will send the human resembling model in a space capsule in early 2021 to research how she and real astronauts respond to living outside the earth in controlled zero gravity state.

She can uncover and give out warnings if environmental changes within the cabin gets confining to astronauts and change the air condition. She can take up postures suited for launch and tasks and take commands.

Vyommitra, whose face has been made similar to human has already been on display, will have lip movement synchronized to mimic speech. She can also double up as an artificial mate to an astronaut, providing audio inputs on aspects like the condition of the spacecraft during launch, landing and orbital phases of the mission.

She will also report back to earth on the changes occurring in the crew module during the spaceflight and return, heat radiation levels to authorize ISRO to understand the safety levels required in the crew module that will eventually fly a human being.