Question 93 from UPSC CSE 2025 - S&T

Question

Consider the following space missions:
I. Axiom-4
II. SpaceX
III. Gaganyaan
How many of the space missions given above encourage and support microgravity research?

IASCODEX · Accepted Answer

Correct Option: C. All three

Strategy: Each mission is linked with human spaceflight or crewed orbital activities, which inherently involve microgravity conditions. The context of recent headlines and ISRO announcements helps verify these connections. Since all three missions involve astronauts, crew modules, or activities aboard/around the ISS, they design experiments or objectives that support microgravity research. There is no statement among the three that can be confidently ruled out, so the answer must be 'all three.'

Key Info: Axiom-4: Axiom-4 is a private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), involving astronaut participation and international collaborations. Such missions make extensive use of the microgravity environment on the ISS to conduct research in life sciences, materials, physiology, and more. Axiom-4 is expected to carry both astronauts and experiments specifically designed for microgravity research.

SpaceX: SpaceX is a private aerospace company that routinely conducts missions to the ISS and beyond using its crewed Dragon spacecraft (e.g., Crew-1, Crew-2, Axiom missions). These missions are platforms for scientific research in microgravity, covering topics such as medicine, fluid dynamics, technology demonstration, and biology. Every ISS Crew Dragon launch, including those for commercial partners (like Axiom), implicitly supports microgravity research due to the unique environment for experimentation.

Gaganyaan: Gaganyaan is ISRO's flagship human spaceflight program and aims to send Indian astronauts into low Earth orbit. One of its key objectives is to use the microgravity environment to enable scientific experiments across physiology, space medicine, material science, and more. Microgravity research is an integral part of India's stated scientific goals for Gaganyaan.

Microgravity Research: Refers to scientific and technological experiments conducted in environments where gravity is much weaker than on Earth, typically in orbit. Spacecraft carrying humans or sensitive payloads to such environments (ISS, space stations, or orbital capsules) almost always include a research agenda exploiting microgravity. International collaborations and commercial missions increasingly emphasize this domain. Relevant research institutions include NASA, ISRO, Roscosmos, ESA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX, all of which promote or enable microgravity science as part of their human spaceflight activities.

IASCODEX · Answer

Option A: Only one

IASCODEX · Answer

Option B: Only two

IASCODEX · Answer

Option D: None

Consider the following space missions: I. Axiom-4 II. SpaceX III. Gaganyaan How many of the space missions given above encourage and support microgravity research?

Consider the following space missions:
I. Axiom-4
II. SpaceX
III. Gaganyaan
How many of the space missions given above encourage and support microgravity research?