ISRO General News and Updates

[Hiranyaksha]

#India @orfonline #ORFKC2018 DrSivathanuPillai breaks silence. @isro planning #Hyperplane a multipurpose aerospace vehicle with 15-20mach speed.Based on weight boosting technique from 91T to 166T by additional oxygen taken in, cooled,liquified&used to increase speed.

 

[happylion]

I was asking and these cannot be an ICBM replacment as some claim as the solid fuel used for these sort of launches have a higher heat signature and can be easily detected in boost phase. What they can be used is for ELINT purposes ie a series of satellites for imaging purposes etc apart from obvious commercial applications.

 

[nongaddarliberal]

R-36M is a meter fatter and is liquid fuelled. It is more closer to Topol-M aka RT-2PM-2 which has a 1.9 m dia and is a three staged solid fuelled missile. But the SS-27 weighs around 47 tons,less than half of our SSLV.

But Topol-M is definitely not 35 m long. The length and weight are more in line with R-36M, and the diameter with Topol-M. What is a little worrying is that the presentation says it will carry only 500 kg into low earth orbit. I hope that's not its maximum payload.

 

[happylion]

You cannot compare ICBM's with composite motors with that of those made with maraging steel. The weight of every stage is higher so net weight is higher and payloads are smaller. The propellants used are also different

 

[Chinmoy]

SSSSSSSHHHHHHH............ As per P***s, even a MRBM like Ababeel, which never does leave earth's atmosphere is MIRV capable. So better be quiet.

 

[Trinetra]

Isro working on 'igloos' for future outposts on moon

BENGALURU: In what's likely to become India's biggest science programme in the next few years, Isro has started work on building igloos on the Moon. These 'lunar habitats', as scientists call them, will be built by sending robots and 3D printers to the Moon, and by using lunar soil and other material.
The project has seen progress with a working model - created using a 3D printer - sitting in the space agency's lunar terrain test facility. Scientists have drawn up five designs of the lunar habitats, and hope their work could contribute to plans of creating outposts on the Moon. Although there's no mission plan yet, Isro wants to have the technology ready for building these structures.

Isro Satellite Centre (Isac) director M Annadurai likened the igloos on the Moon to India's outpost in Antarctica. "We are planning to use the Moon as an outpost - like missions in Antarctica. In the long run, the space station is likely to be scrapped. Many countries, including the US, are considering building more permanent structures on the Moon and working out of there. When that happens, we want India to have contributed," he told TOI.

According to him, astronauts going to the Earth's satellite in the future will spend more than just a few hours there. "To keep them safe and help them work from there, we need smart materials, which is what we are focusing on building," he said.

Annadurai said the space agency has mastered the process of creating lunar simulant (material that approximate the properties of lunar soil), and it has about 60 tonnes of it. Its properties match 99.6% with the samples brought from Moon by Apollo missions.

 

[Trinetra]

Isro gears up to launch 2 satellites before Chandrayaan-2 mission

HIGHLIGHTS

• The first launch will be of GSLV Mk II carrying Gsat-6A satellite by the end of March.
• Navigation satellite IRNSS-1I will be lifted off by PSLV C-41 in the first week of April.
• Preparations for these two launches are currently going on at Sriharikota.

NEW DELHI: Amid intense preparations for its most challenging Chandrayaan-2 mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is gearing up to launch two other satellites before the lunar mission in April.

Talking to TOI, Isro chairman Dr K Sivan said, “The first launch will be of GSLV Mk II carrying Gsat-6A satellite by the end of March. Soon thereafter, we will launch navigation satellite IRNSS-1I that will be lifted off by PSLV C-41 in the first week of April. Preparations for these two launches are currently going on at Sriharikota.”
Gsat-6A, similar to Gsat-6, is a high-powered S-band communication satellite weighing 2,140 kg. It will provide a platform for developing technologies that would be useful in future satellite-based mobile communication applications.

IRNSS-1I, on the other hand, is a navigation satellite that is meant to replace the faulty first navsat IRNSS-1A, part of the Indian navigation system or NavIC or desi GPS. The three atomic clocks of the IRNSS-1A that were meant to provide precise locational data had stopped working two years ago. Last year on August 31, Isro had launched navsat IRNSS-1H to replace the faulty satellite. However, the IRNSS-1H got stuck in the heat shield of the rocket and the mission failed. IRNSS-1I is, therefore, being launched to replace the first navsat. Currently, there are seven navsats in the orbit covering India and a region extending 1,500 km around it that provide real-time positioning and timing services.
On the Chandrayaan-2 mission, the Isro chairman said, “Preparations for the mission are in full swing. All the required tests are going on. The right time to launch the mission comes only once in a month. Therefore, we are hoping to launch it at the right time in April,” he said.
Dr Sivan said, “As Isro is launching such a complicated mission involving an orbiter, lander and a rover for the first time, we have to take extra precautions. If due to some glitch we are not able to launch in April, then we will try to launch the mission in October-November. If we launch the mission in between, we won’t get maximum benefit due to eclipses. To utilise the full lunar day (14 Earth days) for the moon exploration, the best time to launch the mission after April will be after October.”

 

[AMCA]

ISRO computer had malware, could’ve been hacked, say researchers
By Mithun MK | Express News Service | Published: 12th March 2018 06:11 AM |

Last Updated: 12th March 2018 08:38 AM | A+A A- |

HYDERABAD:A malware infected computer of ISRO exposed India’s premier space research agency to hackers, claimed Indian and French security researchers on Sunday. The researchers also claimed that hackers could have taken control of ISRO’s command rocket launches using the vulnerability. Express has not been able to independently verify this claim.

READ HERE | TNIE Exclusive: Ever used India Post? Well your information is vulnerable to hacking

The trojan malware, known as XtremeRAT, was detected in ISRO servers in December 2017 and was reported to the agency by an Indian researcher. ISRO reportedly responded and resolved the issue only after French researcher Robert Baptiste reached out to the agency on Twitter. “ISRO in their conversation with me informed that that investigated and found a UTM login port that was not mapped internally to any systems.They claimed to have disabled that port for now,” said Baptiste quoting ISRO’s communication with him that Express has seen.

The XtremeRAT malware was found in ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Networks (ISTRAC) that provides tracking support for all the satellite and launch vehicle missions of ISRO. “The malware was probably infected on a computer that had access to servers used for Tracking and Command (TTC) services that help launch vehicle lift-off till injection of a satellite. A computer which was probably used to command rocket launches and separation of a satellite. I say ‘probably infected’ because no one knows which computer was used,” said the Indian researcher in December 2017.

The researcher says he stumbled on the ISRO vulnerability while using the search engine Shodan, that lets users find specific types of computers connected to internet using a variety of filters. “If Shodan can be used for searching hacked sites, I thought, why not search for infected servers? I filtered it down to region and ISRO showed up in the scan results,” said the Indian researcher.ISRO has not yet responded to Express’ request for a comment on the issue.

Resercher says search engine Shodan led him to ISRO’s vulnerability. “I did not dig any further as anything beyond that will probably be illegal,” he added. So what is XtremeRAT? It’s a commercially available remote access Trojan (RATs) used by hackers to conduct cyber espionage. There are numerous RATs that are available for free and can be purchased online, mostly from hacker forums or the dark web. The malware allows the hacker to dig deep into a specific target’s servers and databases and even sell off the access rights of their victims’ systems and their data to others.

“If infected with a trojan, the attacker owns the computer. The hacker can command the computer to do absolutely anything he wants. He just has to use the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to access a computer. Has there been a data loss? most likely yes,” says the Indian researcher. Express reached out to ISRO’s public relations officer for a confirmation but did not receive a response. The Indian researcher claims he also tried to reach out to ISRO multiple times but got no response. He reached out to Computer Emergency Response Team and they responded to his email saying they will look into the issue. “However, no action was taken. I was about to give up and then I thought of contacting Robert Baptiste. He tweeted about it and then they seemed to magically care about it as the issue was in the public,” he says. Researcher says, the malware has hit sectors like --Energy, utilities, and petroleum refining.

 

[Trinetra]

Mangalyaan is still taking photos.. amazing.. This the latest photo taken by MCC of Kasei Valles on Mars.. A space craft which was supposed to be out there for 6 months.. but still its sending high resolution pictures of MARS surface after 3 and half yrs of reaching Mars.. KUDOS to ISRO..

 

[Suryavanshi]

Mangalyaan is still taking photos.. amazing.. This the latest photo taken by MCC of Kasei Valles on Mars.. A space craft which was supposed to be out there for 6 months.. but still its sending high resolution pictures of MARS surface after 3 and half yrs of reaching Mars.. KUDOS to ISRO..

India Quality vs China Quality

 

[darshan978]

Mangalyaan is still taking photos.. amazing.. This the latest photo taken by MCC of Kasei Valles on Mars.. A space craft which was supposed to be out there for 6 months.. but still its sending high resolution pictures of MARS surface after 3 and half yrs of reaching Mars.. KUDOS to ISRO..

really great quality image................
put this image on wikipedia bro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasei_Valles

 

[AMCA]

Indian Space Agency Working on 16 Ton Payload Capacity GTO Launch Vehicle
© AFP 2018/ ARUN SANKAR
TECH
15:37 15.03.2018(updated 15:38 15.03.2018)Get short URL
0 80
The Indian space agency has proven its versatility in launching multi-satellite/multi-orbit missions, as well as lunar and interplanetary missions, it's now developing a heavy lift launch vehicle which can carry satellites of up to 16 tons to the geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).

New Delhi (Sputnik) — The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is working on a next-generation launch vehicle that would have the capacity of carrying payloads four times higher than the capacity of its operational launch vehicles. The Indian government confirmed the development on Wednesday.

"India has a Launch Vehicle system with a capability to put 4 — ton class of satellites to GTO, whereby meeting all the national requirements. While other countries have higher launch capabilities, ISRO is making its own plans to increase its launch vehicle capabilities, even up to 16 tons to GTO in the future," Jitendra Singh, India's Minister of State for Space told Parliament.

READ MORE: Price War in Space: India Adopts Technologies to Reduce Satellite Launch Cost

Presently, India has three launch vehicles, namely, polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) with a launch capability of 1.75 tons to 600 km sun-synchronous polar orbit, geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) with a launch capability of 2.2 tons to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle — Mark III with a launch capability of 4 tons to the geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).

"ISRO is presently working on a reusable launch vehicle, cryogenic and semi-cryogenic engine. It has already made success in cryogenic and reusable launch vehicle technology. ISRO has already started work on technology development of super heavy lift vehicle. So, it is feasible but how much time it will take cannot be predicted as of now," Ajey Lele, a senior fellow at Delhi based Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses told Sputnik.

Now, the Indian government intends to initiate development activities for a semi-cryogenic stage and the clustering of semi-cryogenic engines in order to upgrade the launch capability. The maximum launch capabilities to GTO of other space agencies are — USA: 14 tons, China: 13 tons, Europe: 10.5 tons, Russia: 6.25 tons, and Japan: 8 tons. Recently, US private firm SpaceX has demonstrated the launch of a heavy lift launch vehicle, Falcon Heavy, which can carry 26.7 tons to GTO.

READ MORE: Indian Space Agency Successfully Launches Country's 100th Satellite

It was after the launch of Falcon Heavy that ISRO Chairman K. Sivan had said in February of this year that a heavy lift vehicle of the future was on the drawing board as part of the organization's R&D. "We are doing a lot of preliminary research leading to it. Right now, we are developing a semi-cryogenic engine, which was approved some time back. Next, we must propose [for funding approval] a full semi-cryogenic stage. A lot of work is ahead of us, in this," Dr. Sivan had said.

 

[AMCA]

Indigenously Developed Metal-based Origami Payload tested in INS-1C
Indian Nano Satellite-1C (INS-1C) is an experimental satellite launched by PSLV-C40 on Jan 12, 2018 as a co-passenger payload. It is the third satellite in the Indian Nano Satellite (INS) series. The first two satellites (INS-1A and INS-1B) of this series were carried as co-passenger payloads by PSLV-C37 in February 2017. INS-1C carries Miniature Multi-spectral Technology Demonstration (MMX-TD) Payload from Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO Ahmedabad.

Compact imaging systems with reduced weight and size offer tremendous opportunities for their use in space borne micro/nano satellites and planetary missions where size and weight are at a premium. Although miniature cameras such as those found in cell-phones are now available commonly, their resolution and light collection are poor with respect to their full size counterparts. Robust Technology Development Programme of SAC/ISRO developed an innovative satellite payload using the concept of Origami - the art of folding paper. ISRO Nano Satellite (INS-1C) payload team has used the concept of multi-fold reflective optics to design imagers of significantly reduced thickness compared with conventional refractive cameras.

This multi-fold optical configuration is known as Origami optics. It is important to note that the reflective optics is based on metal mirrors, rather than the usual glass based Origami lens. The use of metal reflectors makes the camera potentially much more versatile in terms of spectral coverage. The mirrors and the optical assembly were developed indigenously. The optics is fabricated using single-point diamond turning machine with a fast-tool servo. Ray diagram of the Origami optics, Individual mirrors and Comparison with a conventional lens system are shown in the figures below:

Optical Ray Diagram

Mirror-1 Mirror-2

Indigenously developed Metal Origami Optics

Comparison between Origami Optics and Conventional Lens

Utilising the capability of the optics, a compact Miniature Multi-spectral Technology Demonstration (MMX-TD) payload was configured for INS-1C nanosatellite. The camera provides RGB snaps of 29 km x 29 km area with 23 m ground sampling from polar sun-synchronous orbit of 505 km altitude.

The first payload operation was carried out successfully on January 16, 2018 and since then, the payload is providing excellent images. Data sent by this camera is useful for topographical mapping, vegetation monitoring, aerosol scattering studies and cloud studies etc.,.

INS-1C MMX-TD Payload Mounted on Spacecraft

Himalyan Region seen from INS -1C

Nagqu, Tibet

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Brochure for F08
https://www.isro.gov.in/gslv-f08-gsat-6a-mission/gslv-f08-gsat6a-brochure

 

[Indx TechStyle]

GSLV-F08/GSAT-6A Mission Curtain Raiser Video - English

 

[Prashant12]

Isro set to place GSAT-6A in orbit today, crucial step for armed forces and moon mission

CHENNAI: When GSLV Mk-II successfully places communication satellite GSAT-6A in to orbit on Thursday, it will give Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the Indian Armed Forces a shot in the arm. Isro will be testing certain critical systems that may eventually go into the country’s second lunar mission, and the satellite will enhance communication services for the Indian military.
Isro sources said they will be validating systems including high thrust Vikas engine, which may eventually be used during the launch of Chandrayaan-2. The improved engine, which powers the second stage of the launch vehicle, will be able to carry more weight adding another 70kg to its payload capability, said officials. “Any improvement in the vehicle will be usually incorporated in the subsequent launches,” said an Isro official. “As of now, Chandrayaan-2 is planned for October this year.”

GSLV Mk-II (GSLV-F08), carrying communication satellite GSAT-6A weighing 2,140kg, is expected to take off from the second launch pad in Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 4.56pm. It will be GSLV’s 12th flight and sixth with an indigenous cryogenic engine.

Scientists will also be testing electro-mechanical actuation system in the place of a electro-hydraulic actuation in an effort to enhance the reliability of the launch vehicle. An actuator is a component that controls the vehicle in every stage.

GSAT-6A, which the rocket will carry, will be different from the usual communication satellites. While it will complement its predecessor GSAT-6, Isro sources said, “The satellite will provide services for defence purposes and will not add any transponder capacity for general uses.” GSAT-6 has been in orbit providing communication services since its launch on August 27, 2015
The satellite will be have a 6m wide unfurlable antenna, thrice the size of the antenna generally used by Isro satellites, which will enable mobile communication from anywhere through hand-held ground terminals.
During the launch mission, the three-stage GSLV will eject the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit at an altitude of about 35,975km from earth at about 17 minutes after liftoff. Post the launch, Isro scientists will conduct three orbital raising manoeuvres by firing the thrusters onboard the satellite from the ground station in the subsequent days to place it in its final orbital slot at an altitude of about 36,000km.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=TOIDesktop

 

[Chinmoy]

Isro set to place GSAT-6A in orbit today, crucial step for armed forces and moon mission

CHENNAI: When GSLV Mk-II successfully places communication satellite GSAT-6A in to orbit on Thursday, it will give Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the Indian Armed Forces a shot in the arm. Isro will be testing certain critical systems that may eventually go into the country’s second lunar mission, and the satellite will enhance communication services for the Indian military.
Isro sources said they will be validating systems including high thrust Vikas engine, which may eventually be used during the launch of Chandrayaan-2. The improved engine, which powers the second stage of the launch vehicle, will be able to carry more weight adding another 70kg to its payload capability, said officials. “Any improvement in the vehicle will be usually incorporated in the subsequent launches,” said an Isro official. “As of now, Chandrayaan-2 is planned for October this year.”

GSLV Mk-II (GSLV-F08), carrying communication satellite GSAT-6A weighing 2,140kg, is expected to take off from the second launch pad in Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 4.56pm. It will be GSLV’s 12th flight and sixth with an indigenous cryogenic engine.

Scientists will also be testing electro-mechanical actuation system in the place of a electro-hydraulic actuation in an effort to enhance the reliability of the launch vehicle. An actuator is a component that controls the vehicle in every stage.

GSAT-6A, which the rocket will carry, will be different from the usual communication satellites. While it will complement its predecessor GSAT-6, Isro sources said, “The satellite will provide services for defence purposes and will not add any transponder capacity for general uses.” GSAT-6 has been in orbit providing communication services since its launch on August 27, 2015
The satellite will be have a 6m wide unfurlable antenna, thrice the size of the antenna generally used by Isro satellites, which will enable mobile communication from anywhere through hand-held ground terminals.
During the launch mission, the three-stage GSLV will eject the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit at an altitude of about 35,975km from earth at about 17 minutes after liftoff. Post the launch, Isro scientists will conduct three orbital raising manoeuvres by firing the thrusters onboard the satellite from the ground station in the subsequent days to place it in its final orbital slot at an altitude of about 36,000km.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=TOIDesktop

Launch took place....

https://www.isro.gov.in/gslv-f08-gsat-6a-mission/launch-of-gslv-f08-gsat-6a-mission

Performance normal..........

 

[Chinmoy]

1st stage performance normal..................

 

[Chinmoy]

Cryo stage performance normal...............

Indian Vikas is on work right now.

 

[AMCA]

satellite seperated. . . .mission successfull