The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment II (commonly known as SRE-2) is an Indian re-entry demonstration experiment designed by the Indian Space Research Organization. It is follow-on mission of SRE-1 which was successfully completed in January 2007. It will test some of the critical technologies for the Indian human spaceflight program

Indian human spaceflight program

The Indian human spaceflight program is a proposal by the Indian Space Research Organisation to develop and launch the ISRO Orbital Vehicle, which is to carry a two-member crew to Low Earth Orbit by 2016. The spaceship would be launched by India's GSLV-Mk II launcher.- Preparations :On August 9,...

. The second mission is to carry three experiments devoted to biological science and an improved isothermal furnace with 1000°C temperature to carry out materials science experiments.

Objectives

The main objective of SRE-2 is to realize a fully recoverable capsule and provide a platform to conduct microgravity experiments on Microbiology, Agriculture, Powder Metallurgy etc.

Design

SRE-2 capsule has four major hardwares:

• Aero Thermo Structure (ATS)
• Spacecraft platform
• Deceleration and floatation system
• Microgravity payloads.

New systems developed for SRE-2 include Carbon-Carbon Nosecone, Indigenous Beacons, etc.

Payloads

The SRE-2 is to carry three experiments devoted to biological science and an improved isothermal furnace with 1000°C temperature to carry out materials science experiments.

• The first experiment “Biological effects of Microgravity: A genomic and proteomics approach” is being developed in collaboration with CCMB, Hyderabad and a biorack is being developed to enable this experiment. In this experiment, a colony of E. coli
  Escherichia coli
  Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls...
  
   bacteria
  Bacteria
  Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
  
   will be grown in microgravity condition and brought back to earth to carry out genomic and proteomic studies. Comparison of these with that obtained during bench mark ground experiments will enable us to identify the genes whose expression is affected by the microgravity. This experiment is designed to explore why microgravity alters some of the growth behaviour of the biological system.

• A second experiment will carry a joint biological payload between JAXA, and Indian Scientists at ISRO and CCMB. The payload is being developed by JAXA with close interaction with ISRO engineers. The experiment will carry cynobacteria which will be cultured under microgravity condition. The aim is to study the effect of microgravity on the photosynthetic ability of these bacteria.

• The third experiment will carry seeds of rice
  Rice
  Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
  
   and medicinal plants that will be exposed both to microgravity and space radiation. A dosimeter
  Dosimeter
  Dosimeters measure an individual's or an object'sexposure to something in the environment — particularly to a hazard inflicting cumulative impact over long periods of time, or over a lifetime...
  
   will measure the amount of radiation. The exposed seeds will be planted on return and the growth of these plants will be compared with the plants of the unexposed seeds to evaluate the effect of microgravity and space radiation.

The materials science experiments will be carried out in the modified isothermal furnace. The main experiment by scientists at IIT Kanpur, is designed to study the effect of gravity on the liquid phase sintering behaviour of the powders. A model copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 tin

Tin

Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

alloy will be studied to explore the basic nature of the sintering process which has important implication in powder metallurgy.

Sources

• The SRE-2 Mission