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Nasa, Isro in talks for jointly developing satellite for first time

BANGALORE: US space agency Nasa and India's premier space agency Isro are in talks for jointly building a satellite for the first time.

"Now, there is a feasibility study going on whether we can jointly make a satellite, with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payloads working on two frequency bands - L-band and S-band", Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K Radhakrishnan told PTI here.

Charles F Bolden Jr, Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) of United States, visited the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of Isro in Ahmedabad on June 25.

He had a meeting with Radhakrishnan, also Secretary, Department of Space, along with senior officials of Isro to discuss the ongoing cooperative activities between ISRO and NASA and also the potential areas of future cooperation.

"...the joint satellite mission is an important step. It's not making an instrument and plugging it actually. It's working together. That's what we are discussing. It (working together) should happen in the next few months", Radhakrishnan said.

"Both organisations are coming together and saying let's develop it together...use your strength, use my strength. That's a good way of working", he said.

"It (the proposed satellite) is interesting from scientific point of view, it's interesting from normal resource management point of view," he said.

Radhakrishnan said Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory would make the radar system "if it (in case of Nasa, Isro deciding to work together on the mission) is getting through".

On Isro's role, he said, "We will be working together. Some will be built by us, some will be built by them. So, this (work-sharing) has to be finalised", adding, data generated by the mission would be used by both Isro and Nasa.

Radhakrishnan hinted at the possibility of Isro making the satellite for the joint mission, with launch from Indian soil.

In this context, he pointed to the Indo-French joint satellite missions Megha-Tropiques and Saral, with Paris opting for Indian satellites for the ventures with 'desi' rockets.

India's 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission had two instruments from USA.

Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) was from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory and Naval Air Warfare Centre, USA through Nasa. MiniSAR was mainly intended for detecting water ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles up to a depth of a few meters.

Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an imaging spectrometer from Brown University and JPL through Nasa, was intended to assess and map lunar mineral resources at high spatial and spectral resolution.

M3 aboard Chandrayaan-1 helped to find the existence of water molecules on the lunar surface.

"They (Nasa) had two instruments (on Chandrayaan-1). It worked and they got good return out of it", Radhakrishnan said, noting the finding.

He also hinted that Isro might contribute to NASA's new asteroid initiative, which includes work to identify and characterise asteroids of all types and a mission to capture and redirect an asteroid into an orbit closer to Earth so that astronauts can visit it.

Radhakrishnan said Nasa is looking at international space community regarding its perception on the subject (asteroids).

"Maybe some joint work will emerge at a later stage. But it's in a very nascent stage", he hastened to add. "Nasa has a plan to see how they can manage asteroids, and whether they can do some manipulation of its orbit, etc".

Isro officials noted that India and United States pursue active civil space cooperation mainly in the areas of earth sciences, space exploration, satellite navigation and professional exchange.

Last month's visit was the first by Charles F. Bolden Jr. to any Isro centre after he took over as Nasa administrator in July 2009. Bolden is only the third Nasa chief to visit Isro in the past four decades.

Nasa, Isro in talks for jointly developing satellite for first time - The Times of India
 
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Cryogenic Upper Stage A4 engine mounted for cold start test at the Thrust Chamber and High Altitude Test Facility in early 2013. The launch of GSLV D5 with indigenous cryogenic engine carrying communication satellite GSAT 14 will take place on August 19, 2013.
 
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Dongla Observatory, Ujjain
Telescope : 20 inch Plane Wave CDK
Coordinates of are : Latitude 23° 26' 42.91" N, Longitude 75° 45' 43.31" E, Height 515 meters
The observatory dome is of 5 metres in diameter and installed at a height of 10 metres above the ground level
 
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Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope » www.gmrt.ncra.tifr.res.in

National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) has set up a unique facility for radio astronomical research using the metre wave lengths range of the radio spectrum, known as the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), it is located at a site about 80 km north of Pune. GMRT consists of 30 fully steerable gigantic parabolic dishes of 45m diameter each spread over distances of upto 25 km. GMRT is one of the most challenging experimental programmes in basic sciences undertaken by Indian scientists and engineers.

GMRT System Parameters and Current Status :
http://mutha.ncra.tifr.res.in/ncra/gmrt/gtac/GMRT_status_doc_June_2013.pdf/
 
ISRO Rendezvous & Docking experiment Update


As mentioned previously on this blog, ISRO has been working on a rendezvous and docking (RVD) experiment mission involving two IMS (Indian Micro Satellite) series spacecrafts. ISAC, a ISRO centre, has been involved in developing navigation and guidance algorithm for RVD. In this experiment, two IMS Spacecrafts, one designated as target and the other designated as chaser, will be launched by a PSLV launcher into two slightly different orbits. There will be no communication link between the target and chaser during the far range rendezvous phase in which relative separation between the spacecrafts will be around 50km to 5km range and this phase will be a ground guided phase. In the docking phase of the mission, docking sensors such as Laser Range Finder during the relative separation of 5 km to 0.25km, Docking Camera during the relative separation of 300m to 1m ,Visual Camera for real time imaging during the relative separation of 1m to docking will be used respectively.

For the purpose of testing and verification of vision based docking algorithms before a real world implementation is carried out, ISRO has developed a 3D simulation environment that is being used to simulate docking phase of the mission. A snap of the simulation is presented in the Figure below.

ISRO_VIRTUAL_DOCKING.jpg


3D Simulation of Chaser and Target to test vision based RVD. (credit ISRO, [1])
Targeted Applications of RVD: RVD technology is one of many enabling technologies for ISRO's human space flight program. Another promising application of this technology will be increasing age of ISRO's satellites like that from IRS, INSAT and IRNSS systems. RVD technology will allow a resupply (fuel, power pack etc) spacecraft to dock with a satellite in orbit and allow for replenishment of fuel and power pack, thereby increasing satellites age. To facilitate this, as per my research, ISRO has been designing its newest satellite bus called I-6K, which is a unified bus with modular design ,multi EV panels and scalable structure (Bus module & payload module). A modular design will allow easy and fast replacement of bus module in the orbit by the resupply space craft. The resupply spacecraft might itself be a new bus module (with fuel, power pack etc.) that will dock with the payload module in the orbit after the old bus module undocks.

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I-6K Concept Art.

http://antariksh-space.blogspot.in/2013/07/isro-rendezvous-docking-experiment.html
 
ISRO Rendezvous & Docking experiment Update


As mentioned previously on this blog, ISRO has been working on a rendezvous and docking (RVD) experiment mission involving two IMS (Indian Micro Satellite) series spacecrafts. ISAC, a ISRO centre, has been involved in developing navigation and guidance algorithm for RVD. In this experiment, two IMS Spacecrafts, one designated as target and the other designated as chaser, will be launched by a PSLV launcher into two slightly different orbits. There will be no communication link between the target and chaser during the far range rendezvous phase in which relative separation between the spacecrafts will be around 50km to 5km range and this phase will be a ground guided phase. In the docking phase of the mission, docking sensors such as Laser Range Finder during the relative separation of 5 km to 0.25km, Docking Camera during the relative separation of 300m to 1m ,Visual Camera for real time imaging during the relative separation of 1m to docking will be used respectively.

For the purpose of testing and verification of vision based docking algorithms before a real world implementation is carried out, ISRO has developed a 3D simulation environment that is being used to simulate docking phase of the mission. A snap of the simulation is presented in the Figure below.

ISRO_VIRTUAL_DOCKING.jpg


3D Simulation of Chaser and Target to test vision based RVD. (credit ISRO, [1])
Targeted Applications of RVD: RVD technology is one of many enabling technologies for ISRO's human space flight program. Another promising application of this technology will be increasing age of ISRO's satellites like that from IRS, INSAT and IRNSS systems. RVD technology will allow a resupply (fuel, power pack etc) spacecraft to dock with a satellite in orbit and allow for replenishment of fuel and power pack, thereby increasing satellites age. To facilitate this, as per my research, ISRO has been designing its newest satellite bus called I-6K, which is a unified bus with modular design ,multi EV panels and scalable structure (Bus module & payload module). A modular design will allow easy and fast replacement of bus module in the orbit by the resupply space craft. The resupply spacecraft might itself be a new bus module (with fuel, power pack etc.) that will dock with the payload module in the orbit after the old bus module undocks.

IRSO_I-6K.jpg


I-6K Concept Art.

Antariksh: ISRO Rendezvous & Docking experiment Update

Great work by Indian scientists. This will greatly enhance the service life of a satellite, without the
need for building and launching a whole new satellite from time to time.

What are the other nations currently pursuing such technology?
 
Cryogenic Engine Hot Test
The indigenously built cryogenic engine was successfully tested in High Altitude Test Facility (HAT) at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Mahendragir in early 2013. GSLV D5 with indigenous cryogenic engine carrying communication satellite GSAT 14 will lift off on August 19, 2013.

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cc:https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/isro
 
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GSAT 7 Multiband Telecommunications Satellite carrying payloads in UHF, S band, C band and Ku band will be flown to its orbit on Arianespace’s Ariane 5 Flight VA215 from French Guiana at the end of August, 2013.
 
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GSLV D5 is already integrated with Cryogenic Upper Stage and set to launch India’s communications satellite GSAT 14, the launch time has been scheduled for 04.50 PM IST, August 19, 2013 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

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Arianespace’s Ariane 5 Flight VA215 is shown inside the Guiana Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building, where it was assembled by Astrium Space Transportation. India's GSAT 7 Multiband Telecommunications Satellite scheduled for launch by Ariane 5 Flight VA215 in early morning of August 30, 2013.

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GSAT 7 is a multi band satellite carrying payloads in UHF, S band, C band and Ku band. The satellite employs the standard 2000 Kg class bus I2K platform with a power handling capability of around 3 KW and lift off mass of 2550 Kg. The satellite is planned to be orbited by Arianespace’s Ariane 5 Flight VA215 and schedule for launch is early morning of August 30, 2013.

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GSAT 14 satellite with 6 Extended C band and 6 Ku band transponders is envisaged to enhance communication transponder capacity. The satellite employs the standard 2000 Kg class bus I2K with a power handling capability of around 2.5 KW. The spacecraft will be launched onboard GSLV D5 Mission, the second development flight of GSLV with the indigenous cryogenic stage at 04:50 PM IST on August 19, 2013.

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Launch of GSLV D5 with indigenous cryogenic engine carrying communication satellite GSAT 14 will take place around 04:50 PM IST on August 19, 2013.
 
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In a crucial launch, India’sGSLV-D5, powered by indigenouscryogenic upper stage and carrying communication satellite GSAT-14, is set for lift off at 4.50 pm on August 19 from the spaceport of Sriharikota.

The launch time had been fixed at 4.50 pm for the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) D-5 from the the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, about 90 km from here in Andhra Pradesh, ISRO spokesperson B R Guruprasad told PTI today.

This will be the second attempt by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to flight test the indigenous cryogenic stage after the failure of the previous mission of GSLV-D3 on April 15. The next GSLV flight with a Russian cryogenic stage also failed in December 2010.

The vehicle had been moved to the launch pad and other preparations were underway, ISRO sources said.

After the unsuccessful launch in April 2010, the failure analysis committee had concluded that the thrust build up did not progress as expected due to non-availability of liquid hydrogen supply to the thrust chamber of the main engine.

This failure was attributed to the anomalous stopping of Fuel Booster Turbo Pump (FBTP).

In the last three years, ISRO conducted extensive failure analysis studies and reviews. Cryo stage FBTP was modified as per GSLV-D3 failure analysis committee recommendations and qualification tests carried out.

GSLV-D5 launch fixed for 4.50 pm on August 19 | idrw.org
 
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