A space station can be considered as a place far away from Earth where astronauts spend considerable periods of their lives and carry out work. It is not a vehicle designed to go from one place to another and return, but rather an outpost which remains in orbit for a long period of time. Astronauts arrive to space stations on one spacecraft and leave on another one. Space stations do not move to other places and are not expected to land on Earth.
Science Behind Its Working
These laboratories orbit above Earth and are positioned high enough to remain in a stable orbit due to high speeds. Inside a space station, the astronauts live in conditions close to microgravity. That allows studying how humans, plants, liquids, and materials behave without Earth’s gravity in order to understand better how life in space could be organized. To generate power, the station has solar panels attached to it. The station maintains proper levels of oxygen, water, and temperature using internal life support systems.
Management Of These Orbital Laboratories
The most popular example is the International Space Station where recently Indian Air Force Group Captain Subhanshu Shukla successfully completed a mission. This station is jointly managed by NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos, European Space Agency, Japan’s JAXA, and Canada’s CSA. There is also Chinese Tiangong space station run independently by China. In addition to governmental programs, there are commercial ones now that aim to build orbital laboratories to conduct research in future after older stations become obsolete.
Indian Governmental Program
Soon, India will get its own orbital laboratory, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station. The plan of the Indian government is to start the operation of this station by 2035 alongside with its crewed lunar mission scheduled for 2040, thus fulfilling its Viksit Bharat vision for 2047. This station will resemble ISS because it will be built using the same approach: BAS will consist of 5 modules orbiting at the height of 400 to 450 kilometres. The first module of BAS should be launched into orbit by December 2028 after 4 preliminary missions of Gaganyaan program to validate all necessary technologies.
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Khushi Patel is a Senior Sub Editor at NewsX, covering automotive, technology, Lifestyle, entertainment, and mainstream news. She previously worked as a Copy Editor at Times Network and has written automotive editorial content, including comparison pieces, for TimesDrive.
