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Gaganyaan, India's human space mission, will use 'green propulsion': ISRO

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Gaganyaan, India's human space mission, will use 'green propulsion': ISRO

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"Green propulsion is essential. We are going to fly Gaganyaan with green propulsion. It is an essential requirement," said ISRO chief K Sivan

PTI |
PUBLISHED ON MAR 26, 2021 10:24 PM IST

India's human space mission Gaganyaan is likely to have a green propellant, ISRO chief K Sivan said on Friday, stressing that it is working towards using green fuel in all its future launches.

He said India is in talks with Australia to have a ground station at the Coco Islands for the Gaganyaan mission. In addition, ISRO wants to build a NAVIC ground station in Australia, he said.

Speaking at the India Economic Conclave, Sivan said ISRO is not aspiring to be a world leader.

He said ISRO's prime objective is to serve the nation and meet its space infrastructure, its needs in space transportation, space science as well as space applications for a wide range of socio-economic benefits as well as advancing the understanding of fundamental science.

Replying to a question on using a green propellant for its launches, he said, "Green propulsion is essential. We are going to fly Gaganyaan with green propulsion. It is an essential requirement," he said.

He said ISRO has already started the development of green propulsion.

"We are going to bring the green propulsion system in our launch vehicles because this is the need of the hour. We want to ensure that all toxic and hazardous propellants are avoided.

"(Its) development is going on fast track mode and very soon our rockets will replace with green propulsion. That is our aim," he said.

On Gaganyaan, he said "each and every heart of the ISRO family is beating" for the ambitious programme.

The programme was hit due to the coronavirus pandemic. ISRO was to initially send three Indians to space by 2022.

"Hardware flow has already started from industry and tests and developmental activities are progressing very well," he said.

Sivan added that it expects to carry out the crew test as well as the first unmanned mission by the end of this year.
This will be followed by one more unmanned mission flight.

"If everything goes well, we will conduct human space flight," Sivan said.

On the Small Satellites Launch Vehicle (SSLV), Sivan said it is a "game-changer" in providing low-cost on-demand access to space for small satellites.

The SSLV will be made by the industry on a much larger scale than PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mark-III, he said.

"The first flight (of SSLV) is targeted for this year-end," he said.
 
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What is green propulsion? You need to combust rocket fuel to go into space. How is combustion green?
 
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Australia to support India's Gaganyaan Mission with tracking facility in Cocos Islands
India will be the fourth country to launch humans into space with its Gaganyaan project and it is targeted for December 2021.

Gaganyaan
Left to right: Enrico Palermo, Head of the ASA, Dr K Sivan, Chair of ISRO and Secretary of the Indian Department of Space, Barry O’Farrell, High Commissioner of Australia to India, A Gitesh Sarma, Indian envoy to Australia (Photo: Australian High Commission)


Australia will be supporting India's manned mission to space-Gaganyaan by providing a temporary ground station facility in Cocos Islands. Cocos (Keeling) Islands is part of Australia's external territory in the Indian Ocean.

In response to a WION question, the Australian Space Agency spokesperson said that it is "leading cross-government coordination on ISRO’s request to place temporary ground station tracking facilities in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands to support the Gaganyaan missions".

Adding, "This includes facilitating advice to ISRO from a number of Commonwealth agencies which will need to grant approvals for the project to go ahead."

India will be the fourth country to launch humans into space, with its Gaganyaan project. Gaganyaan is targeted for December 2021 with the training of the astronauts taking place in Russia.

Last week Australia announced a new pact with India on Space. The amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Australian Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), builds on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Australia and India announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last year.

Australian Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said, “Discussions are already underway for Australia to host vital tracking infrastructure as part of India’s Gaganyaan mission, which will place India as the fourth country to put humans in space.”

The Memorandum of Understanding between the Australian Government and Indian govt was signed by Head of the Australian Space Agency, Enrico Palermo and Chair of ISRO and Head of the Indian Department of Space, Dr K Sivan on February 17.
What is green propulsion? You need to combust rocket fuel to go into space. How is combustion green?


ISRO working on green fuels like hydrogen peroxide for rockets

.... working to replace its existing hazardous fuel with non-hazardous and environment- friendly fuels for its rockets ...........
Since humans will be inside the rocket, we want only non-hazardous fuel and not the hazardous one to power the human space mission's Gaganyaan rocket .....

ISRO is also looking at rocket engines powered by hydrogen peroxide as a mono-propellant or as a bi-propellant along with ethanol.

ISRO is also developing another green fuel - LOX/Methane- liquid oxygen as oxidiser and methane as fuel.

ISRO has also developed ISROSENE, which is a rocket-grade version of kerosene as an alternative to conventional hydrazine rocket fuel.

ISRO is working towards lightweight electrical propulsion in place of chemical fuel.

ISRO has successfully demonstrated electric propulsion system for station-keeping operations in the South Asia Satellite, launched on May 5, 2017.


You can read full article for more details.
 
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ISRO is also developing another green fuel - LOX/Methane- liquid oxygen as oxidiser and methane as fuel.

Liquid Oxygen / Liquid Methane is automatically Green. ISRO should use that like SpaceX is using that mixture on its Starship engines called Raptor.

What is green propulsion? You need to combust rocket fuel to go into space. How is combustion green?

probably they will be refined and produced through renewable electric energy

I believe the reference is thus : The GSLV human-rated rocket ( that will carry the Gaganyaan capsule ) is a complicated rocket that uses toxic chemicals ( like UDMH ) in most of its stages. I quote its Wikipedia entry :
Liquid boosters

The first GSLV flight, GSLV-D1 used the L40 stage. Subsequent flights of the GSLV used high pressure engines in the strap-on boosters called the L40H. The GSLV uses four L40H liquid strap-on boosters derived from the L37.5 second stage, which are loaded with 42.6 tons of hypergolic propellants (UDMH and N2O4). The propellants are stored in tandem in two independent tanks 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) diameter. The engine is pump-fed and generates 760 kN (170,000 lbf) of thrust, with a burn time of 150 seconds.

First stage

GSLV-D1 used the S125 stage which contained 125 t (123 long tons; 138 short tons) of solid propellant and had a burn time of 100 seconds. All subsequent launches have used enhanced propellant loaded S139 stage. The S139 stage is 2.8 m in diameter and has a nominal burn time of 100 seconds.

Second stage

The GS2 stage is powered by the Vikas engine. It has a diameter of 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in)
So ISRO is looking at replacing those toxic chemicals with the below set as quoted in post# 3 :
ISRO is also looking at rocket engines powered by hydrogen peroxide as a mono-propellant or as a bi-propellant along with ethanol.
But these chemicals will I think limit ISRO's human space operations to Earth orbit because the chemicals are not available on other worlds. Maybe they are, but better would be to use chemicals that are confirmed on other worlds. Chemicals like Methane and Oxygen.
 
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