Indian Space Program: News & Discussions
- Thread starter Tarun
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Disappointing start to the day.
I hate the damn CE-7.5.Anyway some slides by Dr. S Somanath from a conference held yesterday titled "Reaching the sky: Indian Launch Vehicles". @Parthu
It seems ISRO is targeting a sweet spot in the launch market with the SSLV. By ISRO's calculations going beyond the 500kg to LEO payload capacity causes an exponential rise in total launch cost & cost per kg. Thus most small sat manufacturers want to stay near about the 500kg mark. This is the market SSLV is meant for. SSLV has a relatively simple design, it can be assembled & launched with in 3 days. All of that is great but we are yet to see the 1st launch of the SSLV.
Apparently, there were some vibrational issues that came up during the static test firing. But that news is months old, there has been no recent updates. Hopefully we see the 1st flight in 2021.
The NSLV was showcased in much greater details. It can launch nano-satellites weighing 5kg in LEO. Based on the Rohini series of sounding rockets, the NSLV has 4 stages. If the SSLV can be assembled & launched in 3 days, this one should have a launch campaign of at most a day.
ISRO has been working on hybrid rockets. Hybrid rockets are rockets with solid fuel & liquid/cryogenic oxidizers. The benefits of such a system are many as mentioned in the slide below.
Some photos from the RLV's Landing Experiment (LEX). The LEX is scheduled for later this year.
The timeline of the RLV project. It seems the project has plans/budget to last upto 2024. Beyond that it is hard to say much now. They do eventually plan to build a TSTO vehicle with the RLV. You can see the TSTO's configuration in the slide below.
The specs of the scramjet engine tested on August 28, 2016. Acceleration of 0.24g at Mach 6, pretty impressive for a 1st test.
The 2nd Crew Escape Test for the Gaganyaan mission. This was also scheduled for 2021. The rocket is based on the GSLV Mk2's hypergolic booster.
So we do intend to build a sea port for upcoming landing capable rockets. Till now I used to think we were going to do landing on the ground. Also the RLV is for "Strategic Purpose" ?!?! Do I see a Space Force coming ?
The GSLV Mk2's modified booster is going to serve as the test mule for our reusable experiments. It will probably be named Vertical Take-off & Landing (VTL) rocket.
From the looks of it, the VTL rocket will come in different sizes.
Continued in the next post...........
Mr K Sivan needs to see things bit seriously, its the second major failure from isro since he become chairman. First one was Mangalyan2 and now this.
These guys need competition from the private players, we are a big failure in the number of launch missions... These guys work on a concept of "Fewer projects less project work", I think GOI should intervene and set up a target for ISRO. Big disappointment
This project is named Air Breathing Two Stage to Orbit Fully Reusable Vehicle (AB-TSTO-FRV). That's one heavy name.
ISRO wants in ready by 10 years. Why do I feel like there will be delays ?
ISRO's workplan to increase the GSLV Mk3's GTO payload. The current GTO payload is around 4 tons. They eventually plan to increase payload to 6 tons. At that point ISRO will be able to launch all commercial telecommunication satellites by themselves. The slide below also lists how ISRO seeks to enhance payload capacity.
After many years of flip-flops it seems the configurations of the rockets in the modular launch vehicles family is finally set. In the past years we have seen many different configurations being studied. In the pics below the heights have been compressed. There is no way the SHLV will be as tall as the HLV.
Technologies that would be needed for the HLV. ISRO has some grasp on all of the tech needed except the "Landing & Recovery" part. That is completely new 7 will be very challenging.
We will see one of the LOX/Methane engines in 2022. This soon ? The engine was announced in 2021. Maybe it will be a GG cycle engine. Also we will see the 4/5 SC-200 engine cluster in 2022 ?!?! WTF ?!?! I can't form a clear picture about this engine.
ISRO's PSLV privatization plan :
Not bad. Now if they can hand over assembly of the rocket & focus on developing newer rockets we will be golden.
Launch Complexes are being augmented for the Gaganyaan & upcoming launchers.
continued in the next post..........
ISRO wants in ready by 10 years. Why do I feel like there will be delays ?
ISRO's workplan to increase the GSLV Mk3's GTO payload. The current GTO payload is around 4 tons. They eventually plan to increase payload to 6 tons. At that point ISRO will be able to launch all commercial telecommunication satellites by themselves. The slide below also lists how ISRO seeks to enhance payload capacity.
After many years of flip-flops it seems the configurations of the rockets in the modular launch vehicles family is finally set. In the past years we have seen many different configurations being studied. In the pics below the heights have been compressed. There is no way the SHLV will be as tall as the HLV.
Technologies that would be needed for the HLV. ISRO has some grasp on all of the tech needed except the "Landing & Recovery" part. That is completely new 7 will be very challenging.
We will see one of the LOX/Methane engines in 2022. This soon ? The engine was announced in 2021. Maybe it will be a GG cycle engine. Also we will see the 4/5 SC-200 engine cluster in 2022 ?!?! WTF ?!?! I can't form a clear picture about this engine.
ISRO's PSLV privatization plan :
Not bad. Now if they can hand over assembly of the rocket & focus on developing newer rockets we will be golden.
Launch Complexes are being augmented for the Gaganyaan & upcoming launchers.
continued in the next post..........
I feel this guy is so soft to be a leader, You need a commanding guy in the top position to make things work... when all the countries are launching space missions ISRO only having issues with Covid.
They are sticking to their STS roadmap it seems :
So according to the roadmap we should have the first member of the Modular Launch Vehicle (MLV) family by 2022-23 & the 2nd member by 2024.
All of the MLV Family hangs on this engine. You would think they would update us more regularly on it. ISRO at times is more secretive than even the DRDO. I don't get it.
So according to the roadmap we should have the first member of the Modular Launch Vehicle (MLV) family by 2022-23 & the 2nd member by 2024.
All of the MLV Family hangs on this engine. You would think they would update us more regularly on it. ISRO at times is more secretive than even the DRDO. I don't get it.
Yup, we need to do more launches if we want to iron out the issues. Few launches are not good enuf to build a reliable system. More or less we would have to increase the budget for it , not some thing govt is interested.These guys need competition from the private players, we are a big failure in the number of launch missions... These guys work on a concept of "Fewer projects less project work", I think GOI should intervene and set up a target for ISRO. Big disappointment
The SCE 200 story is similar to Kaveri, we will believe when we will see a successful test burn till then its an engine exists only on the paper.
having tough ppl at the top especially scientific institutions will not produce result. ppl will start undercutting each other or take a conservative approach to save their own *censored*. What we need is more launches rather than once in aa blue moon launches to master the technology.
Budget has increased over the years. But it has not kept pace with the increasing demands placed on ISRO. Now with COVID and all budget will either stagnate or contract.
~2 billion is not enough to do what ISRO has to do today. Either increase budget or start taking some responsibilities away from ISRO, like production of launchers, maintenance of INSAT/GSAT fleets etc. They should be involved in core developmental work not everything to do with space. I am afraid Indian space sector will continue to suffer until we see more pvt/public/PSUs coming in & making investments.
There are reasons for skepticism, but this is a bit much. Remember we tried to design the Kaveri fully by ourselves & only took help when we ran into troubles. The SCE-200's design is based on a Russian/Ukrainian engine. It seems we are taking help in testing components & fabrications from the Ukrainians.
I am more optimistic about the future of SCE-200 than the Kaveri. Even with the plans of using the dry Kaveri on Ghatak.
I think there is a lot of demand from private companies to send their satellites, you always don't need a govt project to start a launch mission if that's true SpaceX type companies won't exist today and there is no future for Private aero space companies.
You don't need a scientist to lead ISRO , You can take from any institution he needs to understand the basic understanding of aerospace but good in management like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos. I am sure Dr. K.Sivan would have a specialization in one or two subjects not all.
We are wasting our human and financial resources on Vanity projects such as
Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan
We must first focus on Heavy Launch vehicles capable of carrying 10 Tonne payloads ie Satellites
ISRO has far numerous success than failures ,that too at a fraction of R&D budget.These guys need competition from the private players, we are a big failure in the number of launch missions... These guys work on a concept of "Fewer projects less project work", I think GOI should intervene and set up a target for ISRO. Big disappointment
There has been a serious increase in budget in last 5 years. Its no longer an issue.
The launch was not a failure. it was sub optimal. The satellite is not lost. it will now use its own propusion to get to the correct orbit.
Read about a startup company who do just that. It corrects the orbital trajectory of those satellites that have no fuel left to automatically correct it