What is the Crew Escape System (CES)?

The Gaganyaan mission is India’s first human spaceflight program and aims to launch Indian astronauts into a low-earth orbit (LEO) at approximately 400 km altitude using the human-rated LVM3 (HLVM3) rocket. Safety of the crew is prioritized over mission success, to ensure the protection and safety of the astronauts and crew through all phases of a mission: launch pad, ascent phase, orbit phase, and descent phase. A safety system adopted in this framework is the Crew Escape System (CES), to protect astronauts in the instance of a safety contingency during the atmospheric phase of the mission.
What is the Crew Escape System (CES)?
The CES is a safety system dedicated to the astronauts and their safety during the first atmospheric phase of the Gaganyaan mission. The purpose of the CES is to separate the crew module with the astronauts from the malfunctioning launch vehicle at a safe distance as quickly as possible. Based on this purpose, some key considerations of the CES include:
– Critical Phase: The atmospheric phase involves the rocket accelerating to hypersonic speeds (more than 5xs the speed of sound), which puts the vehicle into a very high structural load environment.
– HLVM3 Design: The HLVM3 uses two S200 solid-fuel boosters. Once solid-fuel is ignited, it thermally cannot switch or turn off, unlike liquid-fuel and cryogenic engines. Due to this design issue, the CES is obligatory.

the overall design, development, and testing of the crew escape system (CES).
Crew Escape Systems (CES) can be divided into two categories based on mechanism for extracting the crew enclosure
1. Puller Type (Gaganyaan):
• Mechanism: The CES extracts the crew enclosure from the launch vehicle by pulling it with solid-fuel rockets.
• Advantages: Easier integration with solid-fuel based launch vehicles such as the HLVM3.
• Disadvantages: Loss of some control when compared to liquid-fuel types.
2. Pusher Type (SpaceX’s Falcon 9):
• Mechanism: Compact and high-thrust liquid-fuel engines push the crew enclosure away from the vehicle.
• Advantages: More control and precision during the process of separating the crew enclosure from the launch vehicle.
• Disadvantages: More complicated integration and more expensive.

After the separation of the crew enclosure from the launch vehicle:
• The crew enclosure employs a multistage parachute sequence to decelerate the the crew enclosure over multi stages so that the vehicle is able to hard splashdown in the sea, but is limited in speed to not exceed physiological limits.
• Typically the crew remains in the crew enclosure until splashdown, however, there are historical examples such as Yuri Gagarin who ejected from the Vostok module at 7 km above the surface of the earth, during the Soviet Union’s first human spaceflight in the 1960s descent.

IVHMS is a string of sensors, electronics, and software designed to continually monitor all vital parameters of the rocket and the crew health, in order to play an important role in: Area not completed.
the overall design, development, and testing of the crew escape system (CES).
Crew Escape Systems (CES) can be divided into two categories based on mechanism for extracting the crew enclosure
1. Puller Type (Gaganyaan):
• Mechanism: The CES extracts the crew enclosure from the launch vehicle by pulling it with solid-fuel rockets.
• Advantages: Easier integration with solid-fuel based launch vehicles such as the HLVM3.
• Disadvantages: Loss of some control when compared to liquid-fuel types.
2. Pusher Type (SpaceX’s Falcon 9):
• Mechanism: Compact and high-thrust liquid-fuel engines push the crew enclosure away from the vehicle.
• Advantages: More control and precision during the process of separating the crew enclosure from the launch vehicle.
• Disadvantages: More complicated integration and more expensive.

After the separation of the crew enclosure from the launch vehicle:
• The crew enclosure employs a multistage parachute sequence to decelerate the the crew enclosure over multi stages so that the vehicle is able to hard splashdown in the sea, but is limited in speed to not exceed physiological limits.
• Typically the crew remains in the crew enclosure until splashdown, however, there are historical examples such as Yuri Gagarin who ejected from the Vostok module at 7 km above the surface of the earth, during the Soviet Union’s first human spaceflight in the 1960s descent.

IVHMS is a string of sensors, electronics, and software designed to continually monitor all vital parameters of the rocket and the crew health, in order to play an important role in: Area not completed.