Midhani Chairman and Managing Director S.K. Jha inspecting company products, on September 8, 2023..
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (Midhani), the defence public sector unit specialising in making special steels and alloys for the strategic sector, is ready for the Gaganyaan Mission after playing a successful role in the Chandrayaan Mission in supplying vital materials for making the launch vehicle, engine, motors, lander and the rover on the Moon.

It has already transferred the entire Gaganyaan project sets of materials for making rockets, engines, crew modules and others sufficient for “five launches”, though the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning three with the last one likely to take the humans into space, disclosed chairman and managing director S.K. Jha.

In an exclusive interaction, the top official said all the special metals and alloys that goes into the making of various systems have been delivered as the space agency will be making many trials before sending the rockets into the space under the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.

“For Gaganyaan Mission, we have to be very careful as it calls for highest standard of purity of raw materials, during processing and after processing, we have witnesses stringent quality controls. To achieve that kind of performance we have to take precautions from the beginning. It is a big challenge. In every stage, ISRO has sought 20% extra,” said Dr. Jha.

With common production facilities for many projects, the challenge was in separating the work from others in the production. “Our engineers, quality control and process engineers have been specially counselled about being alert all the time and ISRO chairman S. Somanath himself had come down for a session to talk about following the protocols”, he said.

Midhani had “done lot of technological advancements” for taking up tasks in a mission mode and with less turnaround time. “We test for fractures in our lab and stress tests are done at very high and low temperatures to demonstrate the properties. We check our material minutely at every step as we cannot cannot afford to fail up in space. ISRO will also do its parallel tests at its facility,” he explained.

The CMD was especially excited about Chandrayaan’s success. “GSLV-LVM rocket is a very high powered one with ISRO. The liquid engine firing from the bottom has lot of components going from us – nickel, titanium alloys. We had supplied these earlier too, but this latest one has gone for the farthest distance. What more testimony is needed about our work quality?,” he chuckles.

Titanium alloys were used in both the lander and the rover on the moon and the material is expected to withstand the harsh weather of very high temperatures and extreme cold. Indigenously developed ultra high strength ‘maraging’ steel – alloy of iron, nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, titanium and aluminium was also used.

“Design and specifications are given by ISRO and their scientists are present throughout to do a double check ,” he reveals. Once an order is issued, Midhani is now capable of making materials enough for 10 launches a year from one launch for two months. “In fact, every three months we can give material for three to four launches including all sets – rings, plates, wires, etc. ISRO inventory position is good now,” added Dr. Jha.