India’s first analog space mission has kicked off in Leh in the Ladakh region. The Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, will simulate life on an interplanetary habitat as India prepares to send humans to the Moon soon.
Analog space missions are critical field tests conducted on Earth in places resembling the extreme space environment. They contribute to finding the various solutions required in the different areas of spaceflight research.
Ladakh hosts this mission due to its arid and cold climate, desolate landscape, high altitude, and extreme remoteness, which are closely similar to Mars and the Moon. Given these conditions, it is an ideal training ground for scientific missions toward planetary exploration.
ISRO announced the launch on social media: “India’s first analog space mission begins in Leh! A collaborative effort of the Human Spaceflight Centre, ISRO, AAKA Space Studio, University of Ladakh, IIT Bombay, and supported by the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, this mission will be simulating life in an interplanetary habitat to tackle the challenges of a base station beyond Earth.
Launched in mid-October, this month-long mission aligns with the country’s objective of building lunar habitats as a launch platform for interplanetary missions. The core center of this mission is a compact, inflatable habitat known as Hab-1, including facilities such as a hydroponics farm, kitchen, and sanitation systems. This mission aims to establish an autonomous module that can deliver relevant information needed for future long-duration manned space missions on the Moon, Mars, and even farther reaches.
As Ladakh is more than 3,000 meters above sea level, the oxygen in the region reaches only 40% of those at sea level. This low-pressure and low-oxygen environment lets researchers check life support systems under conditions similar to those on Mars. Testing their environment suits and conducting geological studies are what the AAKA Space Studio team is doing in Leh.
Analog missions are being organized worldwide by various space agencies and private organizations. Notable examples include NASA’s Analog Missions Project, a project with several missions funded that includes Research and Technology Studies RATS, NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, In-Situ Resource Utilization, or ISRU, and the International Space Station Test Bed for Analog Research, ISTAR.
Moreover, in Poland, there is a facility called the Analog Astronaut Training Center, equipped with two full-isolation research labs and an all-around analog astronaut training program. The facility can be used for human physiology research and operational training for scientists, engineers, and astronaut candidates.
