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How ISRO šŸ‡®šŸ‡³ is working on next generation rockets

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With seven straight successful launches, the LVM-3 rocket that took the 4-tonne Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to the drop-off point 180 km above the earth has proved to be a reliable one. Now ISRO, Indiaā€™s space agency, is working on upgrading it further so that it can carry 6-tonne heavy payloads up to Geostationary Transfer Orbits (GTO).

But a rocket like the LVM-3 is good only up to a point. To go further and faster, the LVM-3 will not do. Nor is LVM-3 quite the thing for bringing down the cost of launching satellites, for which purpose, you would need reusable launch vehicles and vehicles that use cheaper fuels.

The good news is, ISRO is working on a bunch of rocket technologies- some of which are sure to hit commercial service in a decade.

Here is a quick look at some of them.

Air-breathing rockets
ISROā€™s Chairman, Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, calls air-breathing rockets ā€œa dreamā€. Air-breathing rockets have scramjet engines that can accelerate by themselves during their flight through the atmosphere, conserving chemical fuels for use later.

To put it simply, ā€˜scramjetā€™, or supersonic ram jets, have funnel-like openings on their bodies, with the mouth of the funnel facing the direction of flight. During flight, air enters the funnels at very high speeds and gets compressed as it passes through the thin end of the funnel.

The compressed air is fed into the combustion chamber where it meets the vaporised fuel (as in an automobile engine) and self-ignites. This creates a thrust. In a ramjet, air is fed into the combustion chamber at speeds lesser than the speed of sound (subsonic); in a scramjet engine, it happens at supersonic speeds.

Ramjets and scramjets are commonplace in missile technology. Indiaā€™s Brahmos missile is fitted with ramjets; a supersonic variant has a scramjet engine. However, scramjets have not been successfully used in rockets, which need to travel not at supersonic speeds (1.2 to 5 Mach), but at hypersonic speeds (above Mach 5).

One Mach is the speed of sound, roughly 1,225 km per hour.

Some years ago, ISRO successfully tested an air-breathing engine on a sounding rocket, but it is now working on a bigger engine (called air-frame integrated air breathing engine) that can sustain longer durations in flight. The engine is actually under manufacture for testing, but even as this is happening, ISRO is in talks with the industry for producing the rockets.

LOx methane engines
Methane engines are hot today, they take rocketry to the next level. The advantages are well known. Liquid methaneā€”essentially LNGā€”is not as potent a fuel as hydrogen. But the temperature at which it needs to be kept in rocket tanks is much higher than hydrogenā€“about minus 161Ā°C compared with minus 253Ā°C for hydrogen.

Moreover, it does not leakā€”the methane molecule is a much bigger one than hydrogen. And, methane is a lot cheaper and abundantly available.

So, every space company is eyeing methane rocketsā€”or, Liquid Oxygen-Methane (or LOx)--because you need an oxidizer for methane to burn. Yet, liquid methane rockets are not yet commonplace, because quite a few challenges must be first overcome.

One is the problem of ā€˜cokingā€™, or ā€˜soot depositionā€™. As the gas approaches the combustion chamber, some of it splits into carbon and hydrogen and the carbon gets deposited on the insides of the tubes as soot, which creates a host of problems such as combustion instability. Researchers are trying to tackle this problem by developing soot-resistant materials, such as ceramics, and adding specially designed additives to the fuel.

Also, the industry needs to get familiar with this technology to develop confidence to put in money into manufacturing.

While practically everybody (SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, etc.) is working on methane rockets, the first to do a proper space flight with one is the Chinese company Landscape, whose Zhuque-2 rocket achieved the feat on July 11ā€”three days before the Chandrayaan-3 launch.

Somanath had told this writer in 2019 that ISRO was working on a LOx methane (or, Methalox) rocket, but it is still under development. Its idea is to convert a cryogenic engine into a LOx-methane.

Jayant Patil, Member of Executive Council of Management, L&T, says that LOx-methane engines are ideal for reusable rockets. Compared with kerosene, liquified methane has 20 per cent lower relative density with the same calorific value and a slightly higher specific impulseā€”therefore, the fuel is a fifth less heavy than kerosene with a better thrust.

HAVA-Indiaā€™s space shuttle
1689954806502.png

ISRO is also working on a space shuttleā€”a vehicle that can deliver payloads to orbit. It is called HAVA, for Hypersonic Air-breathing Vehicle Assembly, which can deliver payloads of up to 500 kg to low earth orbit. Based on the ā€˜re-usable launch vehicleā€™ technology, which itself is under development, the HAVA is a space-shuttle-like vehicle, which will fly on the back of a GSLV, deliver the payload, and return to land on an airstrip, like an airplane. A prototype is expected to be ready for testing in a few years.

These are just a few technologies that ISRO is working on, but there are many moreā€”such as vertical take-off and landing (V-TOL), electric propulsion, nuclear propulsion, not to speak of areas like additive manufacturing in space and research into functional materials.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...t-generation-rockets/article67093249.ece/amp/
 
View attachment 940093
With seven straight successful launches, the LVM-3 rocket that took the 4-tonne Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to the drop-off point 180 km above the earth has proved to be a reliable one. Now ISRO, Indiaā€™s space agency, is working on upgrading it further so that it can carry 6-tonne heavy payloads up to Geostationary Transfer Orbits (GTO).

But a rocket like the LVM-3 is good only up to a point. To go further and faster, the LVM-3 will not do. Nor is LVM-3 quite the thing for bringing down the cost of launching satellites, for which purpose, you would need reusable launch vehicles and vehicles that use cheaper fuels.

The good news is, ISRO is working on a bunch of rocket technologies- some of which are sure to hit commercial service in a decade.

Here is a quick look at some of them.

Air-breathing rockets
ISROā€™s Chairman, Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, calls air-breathing rockets ā€œa dreamā€. Air-breathing rockets have scramjet engines that can accelerate by themselves during their flight through the atmosphere, conserving chemical fuels for use later.

To put it simply, ā€˜scramjetā€™, or supersonic ram jets, have funnel-like openings on their bodies, with the mouth of the funnel facing the direction of flight. During flight, air enters the funnels at very high speeds and gets compressed as it passes through the thin end of the funnel.

The compressed air is fed into the combustion chamber where it meets the vaporised fuel (as in an automobile engine) and self-ignites. This creates a thrust. In a ramjet, air is fed into the combustion chamber at speeds lesser than the speed of sound (subsonic); in a scramjet engine, it happens at supersonic speeds.

Ramjets and scramjets are commonplace in missile technology. Indiaā€™s Brahmos missile is fitted with ramjets; a supersonic variant has a scramjet engine. However, scramjets have not been successfully used in rockets, which need to travel not at supersonic speeds (1.2 to 5 Mach), but at hypersonic speeds (above Mach 5).

One Mach is the speed of sound, roughly 1,225 km per hour.

Some years ago, ISRO successfully tested an air-breathing engine on a sounding rocket, but it is now working on a bigger engine (called air-frame integrated air breathing engine) that can sustain longer durations in flight. The engine is actually under manufacture for testing, but even as this is happening, ISRO is in talks with the industry for producing the rockets.

LOx methane engines
Methane engines are hot today, they take rocketry to the next level. The advantages are well known. Liquid methaneā€”essentially LNGā€”is not as potent a fuel as hydrogen. But the temperature at which it needs to be kept in rocket tanks is much higher than hydrogenā€“about minus 161Ā°C compared with minus 253Ā°C for hydrogen.

Moreover, it does not leakā€”the methane molecule is a much bigger one than hydrogen. And, methane is a lot cheaper and abundantly available.

So, every space company is eyeing methane rocketsā€”or, Liquid Oxygen-Methane (or LOx)--because you need an oxidizer for methane to burn. Yet, liquid methane rockets are not yet commonplace, because quite a few challenges must be first overcome.

One is the problem of ā€˜cokingā€™, or ā€˜soot depositionā€™. As the gas approaches the combustion chamber, some of it splits into carbon and hydrogen and the carbon gets deposited on the insides of the tubes as soot, which creates a host of problems such as combustion instability. Researchers are trying to tackle this problem by developing soot-resistant materials, such as ceramics, and adding specially designed additives to the fuel.

Also, the industry needs to get familiar with this technology to develop confidence to put in money into manufacturing.

While practically everybody (SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, etc.) is working on methane rockets, the first to do a proper space flight with one is the Chinese company Landscape, whose Zhuque-2 rocket achieved the feat on July 11ā€”three days before the Chandrayaan-3 launch.

Somanath had told this writer in 2019 that ISRO was working on a LOx methane (or, Methalox) rocket, but it is still under development. Its idea is to convert a cryogenic engine into a LOx-methane.

Jayant Patil, Member of Executive Council of Management, L&T, says that LOx-methane engines are ideal for reusable rockets. Compared with kerosene, liquified methane has 20 per cent lower relative density with the same calorific value and a slightly higher specific impulseā€”therefore, the fuel is a fifth less heavy than kerosene with a better thrust.

HAVA-Indiaā€™s space shuttle
View attachment 940102

ISRO is also working on a space shuttleā€”a vehicle that can deliver payloads to orbit. It is called HAVA, for Hypersonic Air-breathing Vehicle Assembly, which can deliver payloads of up to 500 kg to low earth orbit. Based on the ā€˜re-usable launch vehicleā€™ technology, which itself is under development, the HAVA is a space-shuttle-like vehicle, which will fly on the back of a GSLV, deliver the payload, and return to land on an airstrip, like an airplane. A prototype is expected to be ready for testing in a few years.

These are just a few technologies that ISRO is working on, but there are many moreā€”such as vertical take-off and landing (V-TOL), electric propulsion, nuclear propulsion, not to speak of areas like additive manufacturing in space and research into functional materials.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...t-generation-rockets/article67093249.ece/amp/
Reliable? Indian style 'reliable'?

Screenshot_20230722_015240.jpg


 
Reliable? Indian style 'reliable'?

View attachment 940115

India is not a Space behemoth like the USA, EU, Russia, China or even Japan. But we are slowing moving up the ladder. We are now actively working on semi-cryogenic engine(SCE 2000KN) which was successfully tested few weeks back. This engine when after replacing the second stage of GSLV MK3 will increase its the payload capacity to GEO from 4T to 5.5-6T. Moreover, we are now officially working on 1000KN Methalox engine which will be used in Next Generation Launch Vehicle(NGLV). These NGLV will replace the GSLV MK3 and even the SCE200. Sadly, if we are successful in making the Methalox engine quicker then the SCE(whose development has been going for well over a decade),it will see much less action, as we will simply jump to NGLV with Methalox, which will also be reusable.
 
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India is not a Space behemoth like the USA, EU, Russia, China or even Japan. But we are slowing moving up the ladder. We are now actively working on semi-cryogenic engine(SCE 2000KN) which was successfully tested few weeks back. This engine when replacing the second stage of GSLV MK3 will increase the payload capacity to GEO from 4T to 5.5-6T. Moreover, we are now officially working on 1000KN Methalox engine which will be used in Next Generation Launch Vehicle(NGLV). These NGLV will replace the GSLV MK3 and even the SCE200. Sadly, if we are successful in making the Methalox engine quicker then the SCE(whose development has been going for well over a decade) will see much less action, as we will simply jump to NGLV with Methalox, which will also be reusable.
Don't waste your precious time by engaging with a troll bro
 
ISRO and China have adopted very different paths.

ISRO- Spend as little possible and keep itself technologically current . While doing small projects for future.

China- Has huge budget and acts like a major power , rightly so. So china will always be ahead of India in big projects there's no passing this fact.

So both are very successful at the path they are following.
 
Reliable? Indian style 'reliable'?

View attachment 940115

5 out of 5 still translates to 100%, where did you learn your maths again?

China creates future in the present.

India hallucinates about the future.
What was the weight of the potato SUPARCO launched in orbit?

Don't waste your precious time by engaging with a troll bro
Hum troll karne aye hai, hum troll karke jayenge!
 
ISRO and China have adopted very different paths.

ISRO- Spend as little possible and keep itself technologically current . While doing small projects for future.

China- Has huge budget and acts like a major power , rightly so. So china will always be ahead of India in big projects there's no passing this fact.

So both are very successful at the path they are following.
what is ā€œtechnologically currentā€ļ¼Ÿ

In fact. The budget of Chinese private companies is also very small.



Don't waste your precious time by engaging with a troll bro
Just to be honest... Just '5'.

emmm.....5......
 

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