ISRO General News and Updates

rahulrds1

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In future we must establish seperate branch and department for designing and development of the rover and Robots for future Mars and Lunar mission so as to conduct the 'sample return mission', as Moon has high quantity of Helium-3 which is used for Nuclear Fusion energy to produce the power.

At present, Russia is providing these technologies : Luna-Glob Rovers.

 

tarunraju

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With the limited success we had with Chandrayaan-I, I think it's way to early to plan a mission to Mars. If anything, it scores points over say China or ESA. Rather those ~500 cr Rupees could be spent on expanding our logistics in the north-east, or even spend on a Mil-SAT programme that will help our cause better.
 

rahulrds1

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Mars exploration by 2030, says ISRO Chief

Reference : The hindu (The Hindu : News : Monday, November 16, 2009)
TIRUPATI, November 14, 2009

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan has said that the exploration of Mars will take a tangible shape by the year 2030. He called it the “next logical frontier in space” after Chandrayaan II, which will be put in place by 2013 with robots and rovers to study the surface of the moon.

Speaking after receiving the prestigious ‘Dr. Y. Nayudamma memorial gold medal’ at the 2nd AP Science Congress, conducted jointly by the Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences and Sri Venkateswara University here on Saturday, Dr. Radhakrishnan spoke of ISRO's latest initiative on interplanetary exploration and the study on ensuring human presence in solar system. A habitat would be developed on the Moon to function as an ‘intermediary point’ to study more and more on the planets beyond. Admitting that it was a challenging and daunting task, he observed that the whole world would be looking eagerly at the ambitious project.

ISRO was now keen on taking a giant step in meeting specific objectives by developing and launching mini and nano-satellites, weighing a mere 1 to 6 kg, he added.
 

RAM

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After Moon, India aims for Mars


Mumbai: A feasibility report done by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has established that India has the capability to go on a mission to Mars, said former ISRO chariman, G Madhavan Nair. He was speaking during the last day of the international symposium on "science and technology at the frontiers" at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) on Saturday.

"Various concepts are emerging to look at Mars and the nearby objects like asteroids and comets. A feasibility study by Isro has established that India has the capability to go to Mars. Our Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) can be used to launch a Mars mission," said Nair.

However, Nair said that the scientific goals for the mission have to be established. "Hence, we have thrown open discussions through the scientific forum to find out what the objectives could be for such a mission," said Nair.

Earlier in August this year, seed money had been sanctioned by the government for the Mars project in order to carry out studies on experiments that should be conducted among others.

Further, speaking on ISRO's second moon mission, Chandrayaan-II, Nair said that it is expected to be launched by 2013. "Besides the orbiter, Chandrayaan-II will have a lander and a rover which will be able to pick up samples of rock or soil from the moon surface for on-site chemical analysis and then send back the data to Earth. We hope it will be our flagship event," he said. He said a review meeting of the scientific instruments or payloads for Chandrayaan-II was held in Bangalore on Friday.

Nair said India's first astronomy satellite, Astrosat, is expected to be launched by 2010. It will have detectors in X-ray, ultraviolet, gama rays and infrared bands enabling scientists to observe the universe, black holes and galaxies among others simultaneously.

Another satellite Aditya-I, will be launched in the next two years. "It's the first Indian space-based solar coronagraph to study solar corona," said Nair. It will study the coronal mass ejection (CME), which are huge bubbles of electrified gas that billow away from the Sun, and consequently the crucial physical parameters for space weather.

After Moon, India aims for Mars - dnaindia.com
 

F-14

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yes it has finished it
 

Chota

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GSLV flight with indigenous engine likely in 2012: ISRO

During the 90's, India seeking to launch INSATs weighing more than two tonnes, was scouting for cryogenic engines to power its GSLVs. Work on developing India's own cryogenic engine was started by ISRO shortly after the project to develop the GSLV was initiated in 1986. With an initial project cost of about Rs 235 crore, the work for the development of India's own cryogenic engine was jointly carried out by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) in Trivandrum, Material Development and Research Centre at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). Though India has her own plans for developing an indigenous engine, the plan was to fast track development time by procuring technology from outside.

Cryogenic engines are essential to put heavier satellites into geo-synchronous transfer orbits (GTO) at an altitude of 36,000 km. Cryogenic propulsion enables a launch vehicle to put a payload two times heavier than that orbited by a vehicle without a cryogenic upper stage. It was essential that they be employed in GSLV rocket if it were to launch a 2000 kg class INSAT communciation Satellite to geo stationary orbits.

A cryogenic engine is powered by cryogenic propellants - liquid oxygen as oxidiser and liquid hydrogen as fuel. A bi-propellant combination of LH-LOX offers a higher specific impulse than the semi-cryo or fully earth-storable combinations. This implies that a fully cryogenic engine can deliver a higher payload mass for a given weight of on-board fuel. Since they are gases at room temperature, they require use of the cryogenics or techniques and systems at sub-zero temperatures to liquefy them. Liquefying oxygen and hydrogen, maintaining and handling these cryogenic fluids is an extremely demanding and tough task. At such low temperatures, metals become brittle. New welding techniques, new alloys and new types of lubricant are required. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen had to be pumped into the engine in the right proportions.

Initially, General Dynamics (USA) and Arianespace were willing to sell the cryo engine and offered to transfer technology. But the cost was very prohibitive. Then the Russians approached India and a deal was stuck with Glavkosmos in 1991 for Rs.235 crores which included total cryogenic technology transfer and the supply of two KVD-1 engines.

But the U.S. played spoilsport, pressuring Russia not to sell the technology to India on the grounds that it violated MTCR agreements and that the missile-related technology and equipment transfers to non-member countries is restricted . The Pokhran-II nuclear tests in May 1998 further complicated the problem.

Russia backed out from transferring the cryogenic engine technology under American pressure. The 1991 deal had to be renegotiated subsequently in 1994 without technology transfer as per the original deal. Instead Russia agreed to supply ready built and complete cryogenic stages. The Russians also supplied the supporting equipment. ISRO built massive ground facilities to store liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

The cryogenic engine supplied by Russia was tailor made for GSLV and ISRO�s requirements. Russia was prepared to sell India a cryogenic engine stage that developed a thrust of 10 tonnes as againt the current 7.5 tonnes. Though Russia supplied the cryogenic stage, ISRO insisted that it will develop its own electronics, guidance and control systems for the cryogenic stage. A cryogenic stage in a launch vehicle consists of the engine kept in a casing and the associated control, guidance and electronic systems. The thrust chamber is the powerhouse of the engine where combustion of fuel and oxidiser takes place. The burnt gases are ejected through a nozzle, converting the thermal energy of the combusted products into kinetic energy. The cryogenic engine thrust chambers need to be cooled to protect them from high temperatures. Materials of high thermal conductivity such as copper and its alloys are used for chamber construction. The tanks and pipelines are double-walled, insulated and vacuumed. The fuel and oxidiser itself is circlated around the nozzle surface to cool it.

While an entire GSLV flight lasts approximately for 1,050 seconds to inject the satellite into the orbit, the cryogenic engine alone operated for 700 seconds. That�s more than 66% of the entire flight duration. The cryogenic engine hurls the satellite at a velocity of 10 km a second into the orbit. While the earth storable liquid propellants could be loaded easily into the vehicle stages, the cryogenic propellants evaporated easily during storage. So in the GSLV, the cryogenic propellants are loaded just 3-4 hours prior to the launch. The final level is achieved in the last 10 minutes. This ensures that precise conditions needed at the lift-off for the quantity of propellants, their temperature and pressure are met.

In a PSLV, the core liquid motor is ignited first and the vehicle lifts off. Later, the solid strap-on motors are ignited. In the GSLV however, the 4 liquid strap-on motors are ignited first and their performance checked. After a gap of 4.6 seconds, the core solid stage is ignited. This gap is to confirm that all the 4 strap-on motors have developed the required thrust. So in both cases, if the liquid motor does not develop the required thrust, the entire flight is aborted and the liquid motors are shut down. The liquid stage is de-fuelled and defects analysed. One the issue is rectified, they can be re-fuelled and new countdown can be resumed. This is not possible with a solid fuel stage. This was demonstrated during GSLV flight on March 28, 2001 when it was aborted just 1 sec before lift-off.

During a GSLV launch, at T-10 minutes, automatic launch sequence (ALS) computer takes over the operations. At T-4.6 seconds, the 4 liquid strap-on liquid motors containing 42 tonnes of propellant are ignited and their performance checked. At T-0 sec, core first stage, powered by 138 tonnes of solid propellant is ignited. After lift-off, the first stage burnt for 105 seconds and the strap-ons for 148 seconds, taking the vehicle to an altitude of 70 km. The second stage, with 39 tonnes of liquid propellants, ignites at 1.6 seconds before the burnout of the last of the four strap-on stages. The second stage is fired for another 140 seconds, taking the vehicle to an altitude or 130 km, and its velocity to 5.4 km a second. When the vehicle reaches a height of 115 km, it would have cleared the dense atmosphere, The "Heat Shield" which protects the satellite from getting overheated splits down and jettisoned. At around t-290 secs or 292 seconds after lift-off, the third cryogenic stage is ignited. Cryogenic stage, which carries liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen weighing 12 tonnes together, fires for 704 seconds. The satellite and the equipment bay reach an altitude of 206 km. Then the stage injects the geo-stationary satellite into the required orbit with a velocity of around 10.24 km a second.

The Indian Cryogenic Engine
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The indigenous cryogenic engine develops a thrust of 73 kilo Newtons (kN) in vacuum with a specific impulse of 454 seconds and provides a payload capability of 2200 Kg to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) for GSLV. The engine works on 'Staged Combustion Cycle' with an integrated turbopump running at around 42,000 rotations per minute (rpm). It is also equipped with two steering engines developing a thrust of 2 kN each to enable three-axis control of the launch vehicle during the mission. Closed loop control of both thrust and mixture ratio ensures optimum propellant utilization for the mission.


The Indian Cryogenic Stage


As of 2008, the development of the indigenous cryogenic engine has been completed. Full duration tests, with the engine burning for 1,000 seconds, have been done. The engine is integrated with its stage i:e electronics, guidance, control systems, fuel tanks, fuel supply lines etc. This entire stage has been qualified. ISRO had tested several cryogenic engines for a cumulative duration of 7,500 seconds. The engine now stands tall ready of its first flight in April 2010. A successful launch would make India totally self-reliant in all aspects of space launch vehicle technology

Gaining confidence from its monumental effort, ISRO is also preparing a new cryogenic engine from scratch starting from the drawing board. Codenamed C-25, this all new engine will have 25 tonnes of propellants developing a thrust of 20 tonnes. This will power the upper stage of GSLV-III

India will realize it dream in April 2010 with a successful launch of GSLV-D3. The more than a decade old effort of developing a cryogenic engine will bear it fruit. All the best ISRO. Make us proud

~Chota
 

rahulrds1

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GSLV Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle

ISRO to flight test indigenous cryogenic state next June

Source : http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com

SRIHARIKOTA (Andhra Pradesh): ISRO will flight test its indigenously developed cryogenic engine onboard a Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle by mid-2012.

"Our target is to launch the GSLV (D5) by June 2012 with indigenously developed cryogenic engine. Currently, a series of ground testing are on," Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Radhakrishnan told reporters here.

Speaking after the successful launch of GSAT-12 onboard homegrown PSLV-C17 from here, he said the GSLV rocket would be used to launch communication satellite GSAT-14.

"We have had two failures GSLV-F06 and GSLV-D3. We have identified the reasons and corrective actions are being taken," he said.

GSLV-F06 was used to launch communications satellite GSAT-5P in December 2010 while GSLV-D3 to launch GSAT-4 in April 2010, but both missions failed following some problems in the complex cryogenic stage.

On the progress of Chandrayaan-II mission , ISRO Space Commission Member and Director T K Alex said it was expected in the beginning of 2014.

"It is in progress. This time we are examining the lander, rover and the orbitor. The designing stage has been completed. The prototype of the rover is being made in Bangalore and the testing is going on," he said.

Russian Space Agency was involved in the developing of the rover. "By 2014 beginning, GSLV will launch Chandrayaan-2, estimated to cost Rs 425 crore", he said.

Source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

ISRO plans assembling the flight stage on to the GSLV vehicle after a series of ground tests, and expects to conduct the flight testing in the second-quarter of 2012.


Separately, on the issue of building in its own cryogenic engine, the ISRO chairman said that corrective measures, including the re-design of the critical fuel booster turbo component, had been undertaken. "We need to have ground-testing of the cryogenic engine, with the modified fuel booster turbo component. This has been planned for 2011 itself. We are also preparing the flight stage, which is expected to be ready by March 2012," Radhakrishnan said.


 

Galaxy

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GSLV flight with indigenous engine likely in 2012: ISRO


13 OCT, 2011

SRIHARIKOTA: The next flight of the geostationary launch vehicle (GSLV) with indigenous cryogenic engine is likely in the second quarter of next year, ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said here on Wednesday.​

"We have a major task ahead of us... development and perfection of indigenous cryogenic stage. We are making good progress and we plan to have the next flight of GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine in the second quarter of 2012," the ISRO chief said.

Before the GSLV launch, ISRO plans to have two more missions of PSLV, Radhakrishnan said after the successful launch of Indo-French satellite Mega-Tropiques and three nano satellites from here. "..we plan to have two more missions of PSLV. One, for launching India's first microwave remote sensing satellite and the other a joint mission of India and France to look at the oceans," he said.

GSLV-III is designed to make the country fully self-reliant in launching heavier communication satellites.
 

pankaj nema

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This is the Real Big Thing that ISRO has to achieve . The Indegenious cryogenic engine

Let us all pray that this time we are successful
 

A chauhan

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One question, If it goes well, then will we launch our IRNSS's 3 geostationary satellites by our own GLSVs ??? or we have some other plans ?
 

trackwhack

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Which GSLV is he speaking about? When are we going to launch Mk lll.

GSLV l is funds being thrown down the drain. Just close the project and concentrate on Mk lll.

Mk lll was initially supposed to fly in 2009, then 2010, then 2011 and now even 2012 looks unlikely. Not good.
 

plugwater

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Which GSLV is he speaking about? When are we going to launch Mk lll.

GSLV l is funds being thrown down the drain. Just close the project and concentrate on Mk lll.

Mk lll was initially supposed to fly in 2009, then 2010, then 2011 and now even 2012 looks unlikely. Not good.
GSLV I is a launch vehicle with Russian cryogenic engine.
GSLV II is a launch vehicle with Indian cryogenic engine which will fly in 2012 as mentioned in the article.
GSLV III is a launch vehicle with a new powerful Indian cryogenic engine which can carry up to 4000 kg satellites in GSO and will fly in 2013.
 

Soorya Dhanush

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Which GSLV is he speaking about? When are we going to launch Mk lll.

GSLV l is funds being thrown down the drain. Just close the project and concentrate on Mk lll.

Mk lll was initially supposed to fly in 2009, then 2010, then 2011 and now even 2012 looks unlikely. Not good.

Thats the way Govt firm works !!!:frusty:
 

Pintu

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Which GSLV is he speaking about? When are we going to launch Mk lll.

GSLV l is funds being thrown down the drain. Just close the project and concentrate on Mk lll.

Mk lll was initially supposed to fly in 2009, then 2010, then 2011 and now even 2012 looks unlikely. Not good.
GSLV I is a launch vehicle with Russian cryogenic engine.
GSLV II is a launch vehicle with Indian cryogenic engine which will fly in 2012 as mentioned in the article.
GSLV III is a launch vehicle with a new powerful Indian cryogenic engine which can carry up to 4000 kg satellites in GSO and will fly in 2013.
Thats the way Govt firm works !!!:frusty:
Its GSLV Mk III that's scheduled to be launched in 2012.

ISRO's feedback:

Regards
 

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