Indian Space Capabilities

[AnGrz_Z_K_Jailer]

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[AnGrz_Z_K_Jailer]

ISRO plans special launch pad at Sriharikotta

First Published : 10 Jan 2010 03:00:00 AM ISTLast Updated :


THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The third launch pad planned at ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, is going to be something special.


While it will meet the space agency’s needs for the 2015 Human Space Flight Mission, the launch pad is also being designed to accommodate the proposed Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), India’s dream space shuttle which is on the designing board, ISRO officials said.

‘’The preliminary design for the third launch pad is complete. It will be able to take care of all future programmes of the ISRO, including the Human Space Flight Mission and the Reusable Launch Vehicle,’’ officials said.

ISRO has also started designing a landing strip for the Reusable Launch Vehicle at the Sriharikota Range.

The third pad is coming up one kilometre south of the spaceport’s second pad, which was used to lift off the PSLV-XL rocket bearing the Chandrayaan-I mission in 2008. It is expected to be completed by 2015, coinciding with the Human Space Flight Mission for which the GSLV rocket is to be used.

‘’Since human beings are to be sent to space, the new pad is specially designed.

It will have facilities such as a Crew Escape Module which could come handy in an emergency during the launch,’’ sources said.

An Reusable Launch Vehicle is expected to save the space agency massively in mission costs.

Today, each kilogram of the payload costs around $ 12,000 to be placed in space.

Three launch pads will also enhance ISRO’s capability for multiple launches with the space agency’s annual number of launches on the rise.

Source : The New Indian Express - Best of South India News, Entertainment, Cricket, Business, Lifestyle plans special launch pad at Sriharikotta .

 

[sudhir007]

India to buy Soyuz spacecraft from Russia by 2013 idrw.org

India plans to buy a Soyuz spacecraft from Russia and to launch its cosmonauts into orbit in 2013, Interfax news agency reported Sunday citing Vitaly Davydov, Deputy Head of Roskosmos.

Davydov said that, by 2013 the Russian space corporation Energia (Energy) is to upgrade its production facilities and will be capable to build 5 Soyuz spacecrafts a year.

Davydov said that besides paying for the spacecraft India will also finance the training of the Russian cosmonaut who is to head the team of Indian cosmonauts. He noted that the project envisages the launch of the Indian cosmonauts into orbit but not the work on the International Space Station.

Roskosmos – is a governmental organization responsible for managing the Russian space program.

 

[gogbot]

India to buy Soyuz spacecraft from Russia by 2013 idrw.org

India plans to buy a Soyuz spacecraft from Russia and to launch its cosmonauts into orbit in 2013, Interfax news agency reported Sunday citing Vitaly Davydov, Deputy Head of Roskosmos.

Davydov said that, by 2013 the Russian space corporation Energia (Energy) is to upgrade its production facilities and will be capable to build 5 Soyuz spacecrafts a year.

Davydov said that besides paying for the spacecraft India will also finance the training of the Russian cosmonaut who is to head the team of Indian cosmonauts. He noted that the project envisages the launch of the Indian cosmonauts into orbit but not the work on the International Space Station.

Roskosmos – is a governmental organization responsible for managing the Russian space program.

If are are already in space by 2013 maybe We can have EVA by 2015 when we do it with the Indian space ship ?

 

[sudhir007]

India to launch first manned spaceship in 2013

India would launch its first manned space flights by sending two astronauts in an orbit in a Russian spaceship in 2013, according to reports.

For this, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is to finance the acquisition of a Soyuz spaceship and train its astronauts by a Russian commander.

The Russian cosmonaut would lead the two-member crew on an independent space flight lasting several days, 'Voice of Russia' radio reported.

Quoting deputy chief of Russian space agency (Roskosmos) Vitaly Davidov the radio said the flight of Indian astronauts would not involve a mission to the International Space Station.
fullstory

 

[gogbot]

India to launch first manned spaceship in 2013

India would launch its first manned space flights by sending two astronauts in an orbit in a Russian spaceship in 2013, according to reports.

For this, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is to finance the acquisition of a Soyuz spaceship and train its astronauts by a Russian commander.

The Russian cosmonaut would lead the two-member crew on an independent space flight lasting several days, 'Voice of Russia' radio reported.

Quoting deputy chief of Russian space agency (Roskosmos) Vitaly Davidov the radio said the flight of Indian astronauts would not involve a mission to the International Space Station.
fullstory

well it is a Russian Space craft.
And A Cosmonaut has been tanning in that space craft longer than the Indian cosmonauts. It would be unwise to send up a team without enough training, That would mean the team needs to familiarize it self with every aspect of the Soyuz space craft.

But to spend sever days in space. I am more than convinced now that India will be doing its EVA by 2015.

 

[AnGrz_Z_K_Jailer]

ISRO to launch rockets to study solar eclipse

13 Jan 2010, 1157 hrs IST, IANS

CHENNAI: The Indian space agency will launch a series of rockets from its two centres between Thursday and Sunday to study Friday's solar eclipse
and its aftereffects.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is getting ready to send up a series of sounding rockets - rockets carrying instruments to measure the physical parameters of the upper atmosphere - from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh and Thumba in Kerala to study the effects of the solar eclipse.

The solar eclipse Friday will be for a duration of 11.8 minutes. The sounding rockets will be fired before and after.

"On January 15 and 17, Rohini 560 (RH 560) sounding rockets will be launched in a parabolic flight path to measure various atmospheric and ionospheric parameters connected with the solar eclipse," Satish Dhawan Space Centre Associate Director M Y S Prasad told IANS from Sriharikota.

The nine-metre RH 560 rockets weigh 1.5 tonnes and carry a 100-kg payload of instruments each. The two-stage rocket will take the instruments 500 km above the earth's surface.

From Sriharikota, there will be one launch each on Friday and Sunday.

Most of the rockets will be launched from ISRO's Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in Kerala.

According to ISRO officials, four rockets will be launched on Thursday from TERLS and five Friday.

The rockets fired from TERLS are smaller than RH 560. They will reach 75 to 120 km above the earth.

A similar coordinated experiment was conducted in 1980 and since then ISRO has set up several facilities to study the data.

Source : ISRO to launch rockets to study solar eclipse- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times

 

[RPK]

GMV Awarded Contract by Raytheon for India's GAGAN Program | GPS World

GMV, a private, multinational firm headquartered in Madrid, has been awarded a contract with Raytheon Company to develop a prototype algorithm for the detection of ionospheric depletions in the magnetic equatorial region that may be utilized in the user receiver data processing for the space-based augmentation system for the GAGAN program operated by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This is GMV’s second contract with Raytheon Company. In 2007, GMV began a contract with Raytheon to provide maintenance and training support for Raytheon’s commercial ground systems.

GAGAN (Global Positioning Satellite-Aided Geosynchronous Augmented Navigation System) is a space-based augmentation system (SBAS) developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Airports Authority of India. "Gagan" is the transliteration of a Hindi word that means sky. GAGAN will provide satellite-based navigation for civil aviation across South and East Asia, giving India an accurate, flexible, and efficient air navigation system.

The program is in its final operational phase, incorporating critical navigation components.

Raytheon has deployed various elements of the system, both in this and in earlier phases of the program. It has signed a contract with ISRO for incorporating the necessary modifications in the system data processing, message generation, and user receiver processing to increase the availability of precision approach guidance to civil aircraft using SBAS in the equatorial region.

Within this contract, Raytheon has turned to GMV to develop specific elements of the system that related to user-level mitigation of safety problems that civil aircraft may encounter through GMV’s analysis and modeling.

Because of India’s location along the equatorial crest, ionospheric effects occur, which makes it difficult to predict and model navigation. GMV is working on a prototype algorithm for the detection of ionospheric depletions in the equatorial region for the receiver the operator uses to retrieve and process information provided by the GAGAN ground segment. This algorithm will then form part of the user receiver of the GAGAN space-based augmentation system, improving the safety performance for GAGAN users.

GMV expects to deliver its portion of the project in June 2010.

 

[RPK]

ISRO denies Russian report

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has denied reports that the proposed Human Space Flight Mission would lift off in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.


News reports from Moscow, citing a Voice of Russia Radio broadcast, on Tuesday had also claimed that the mission would lift off with two astronauts in 2013. According to the report, the ISRO is to finance the purchase of the Soyuz craft. A Russian cosmonaut will lead the crew, the report said.

“Quoting deputy chief of Russian space agency ROSKOSMOS Vitaly Davidov, the radio said that the flight of Indian astronauts would not involve a mission to the International Space Station,” added the report.

According to the ISRO, there is no change in the plans. “That report is not correct. The mission is on track and will take place during 2015-2016 as planned,” an ISRO spokesperson said from Bangalore.

The ISRO had earlier announced plans to send a two-member crew to Low Earth Orbit by 2015. The Rs 12,400-crore mission will be lifted off in a GSLV Mk II rocket which is under development.

Recently, a 23-member Russian team, which included Russian cosmonauts, had visited ISRO facilities in Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram to discuss the proposed space flight.

 

[RPK]

The Hindu : States / Kerala : India soon to become self-reliant in cryogenic propulsion technology: ISRO chief

ISRO Chairman, K.Radhakrishnan, at Sabarimala Sannidhanam

India is getting ready to launch Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with indigenously developed cryogenic engine, said Dr K.Radhakrishnan, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman.

Dr. Radhakrishnan was talking to reporters at Sabarimala Sannidhanam during his 47th pilgrimage to Lord Ayyappa Temple there on Sunday.

He said ISRO is planning to test GSLV-D3 carrying the communication satellite GSAT-4 with a two tonne payload at Sriharikottah on January 24.

Dr. Radhakrishnan said achieving self-reliance in cryogenic propulsion technology would boost India’s image, besides taking it to the league of select countries having the technology. So far, India has been using Russian-made cryogenic engines in its launching vehicles.

He said ISRO was also planning to undertake a space mission to take man to space and bring him back safe after conducting studies for a few days there.

The ISRO chairman also said that the pilgrim facility at Sabarimala has been improved much in recent years.

 

[RPK]

Indian Space Research Organisation hunt on for vyomanauts - desi astronauts - dnaindia.com

Bangalore: The hunt for India’s first astronauts — ‘vyomanauts’ in a desi tweak — has begun. Two of the four selected vyomanauts (vyoma means ‘space’ or ‘sky’ in Sanskrit) will finally go on India’s first manned space mission scheduled to lift off in 2015.



The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is laying down criteria for short-listing 200 Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter pilots, from whom four will be selected for the space mission, director-general of medical services, IAF, Air Marshal P Madhusoodanan told DNA.

While two vyomanauts will finally go on the space mission, the other two will remain in reserve.

The reason for choosing vyomanauts from the pool of IAF fighter pilots is that they are already trained to endure high gravity forces. This makes it easier to train them for space missions. “The module (for the selection) is being prepared at the moment,” he said. The run-up to the selection process speeded up after February 2009, when the Union government gave its nod to the Rs12,400-crore manned space flight mission.

India’s first human space mission envisages a fully autonomous orbital vehicle carrying two vyomanauts into space at an altitude of 300-400 km from sea-level, and safely returning them to Earth. The mission is expected to last between four and seven days.

“The selection procedure will begin soon. But the final phase (when the four finalists will be selected) will be in 2012 as the selection criteria are very strict,” Madhusoodanan said.
The candidate vyomanauts will have to answer a Nasa questionnaire before being subjected to physical examination, which would include cardiac, dental, neurological, ophthalmologic, psychological, radiographic, ear-nose-throat (ENT), and other laboratory tests at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) in Bangalore.

The candidates will be tested on the human centrifuge machine at the IAM for endurance while experiencing extreme gravitational forces – of the kind one experiences during space flights.

Madhusoodanan said the facilities at the IAM were being upgraded in preparation for the tough selection process for vyomanauts.

The final four candidates will undergo astronaut training at the IAM as well as at ISRO’s astronaut training school. This will be set up on a 100-acre land in North Bangalore by 2012.

The vyomanauts will be trained to survive in the space vehicle environment while enduring micro gravity, pressure and gaseous changes, to keep alert under space flight stresses, to monitor and operate controls and instruments in the case of information failure, to scientifically observe and report beyond what instruments can do, and to control and improve flight systems and sub-systems like a true test pilot.

India has already completed a space capsule recovery experiment (SCRE) in January, 2007, to perfect the art of retrieving the vyomanauts safely after they return from their space mission.

The spacecraft carrying the vyomanauts will be programmed to splash at a predetermined location in the sea before Indian Navy vessels retrieve the vyomanauts for post-mission medical checks.

 

[RPK]

Indian 'vyomanauts' all set to rise up in space - dnaindia.com

London: Reports indicate that the Indian media has branded its astronauts as "vyomanauts", a word derived from the Sanskrit language.


According to a report in New Scientist, the tongue-twisting term comes from the Sanskrit for sky or space - that is - 'vyoma'.

The closest Sanskrit word to astronaut would have been vyomagami, for something that passes in the sky.

The other word for an Indian spacefarer that had been bandied about was gaganaut, as gagan is also Sanskrit for sky.

But "vyoma is very good", according to Choudury Upender Rao, a professor of Sanskrit studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "It's an appropriate choice," he added

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now in the process of choosing four vyomanauts from a pool of 200 fighter pilots, P Madhusoodanan of the Indian Air Force.

India's first crewed space mission is scheduled for 2015, designs for which were unveiled last year by Madhavan Nair, former chairman of ISRO.

The three-person vehicle will initially carry two vyomanauts into 275-kilometre low-Earth orbit. Before this flight, ISRO will launch its second moon mission in 2013.

 

[RPK]

Role of VLSI in SATCOM applications

K .S. Dasgupta is the director of DECU at ISRO, Ahmedabad. He highlighted the applications of SATCOM in society in his presentation at the VLSI conference which was part of the session targeted at the theme of the conference: Affordable technologies for the emerging markets

He focussed on the type of devices (primarily FPGA's) required for onboard applications and also the type of devices required for ground systems like telemedicine and tele-education network for societal applications.



SATCOM has many societal applications
SATCOM has many societal applications like disaster management, tele-medicine, tele-education. Normal VLSI view is to focus on mass production and to make it cost effective but not for space applications. Here one looks for reliability, quick turn around time in proving the concept, low power and remote configurability.

The usage of satellites can be used to reduce the gap between the have and have not's due to its diverse applications. In the modern area it can complement and supplement and co-exist with current technology. He cited various examples of SATCOM applications which have benefited the society.

Tele-education: With Vikram Sarabhai at ISRO's helm in 1975, a Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) covering 2400 villages over 6 states was accomplished with the use of an American satellite, ATS-6. This illustrates it can reach various segments of society.

More recently, the GSAT-3 or EDUSAT based on a high power Ku band transponder with multiple spot beams antenne is designed for educational services. It has a two way interactive method for education.

Distress Management: A distress alert transmitter, a ground GPS device with a satellite link where fishermen can press button located on the device, transmitting a signal with the GPS coordinates to alert the coast guard who can mount a rescue operation.

Tele-medicine: The Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad has been connected to the Apollo hospital via a satellite-link. This system allows a patient at the jail to be monitored by the doctors at the remote hospital and treatment may be administered.

Future for satellite technology
Now the genesis of the recent satellites involves the trend to maintain service support for longer time as these satellites have multi-features. Each satellite has different spectrums and bandwidths ranging from L to Ka and this also presents different designing challenges. The Ka band is gaining more importance and is more in demand as it has a larger bandwidth. Both GSAT and INSAT are communication satellites but the difference is that GSAT is a GSLV launched satellite.

The conventional paradigm where one has bent-pipe geo stationery satellites will be replaced by intelligent satellite constellations with on-board processing. These satellite systems will have inter-satellite links with beam switching and multi-beam antennas and protocols for satellite networks. The conventional VSAT to VSAT services made use of an earth hub but the GSAT 4 services are hubless. The advantages are many: it will improve channel efficiency, enhance system capacity, reduce errors, increase throughput and it increases system flexibility through network interconnection. Direct access to satellites via small (Handy) terminals without any Gateway Earth stations for multimedia data. Point to point access without spatial or temporal restrictions. To support large capacity demand of cellular structures (multi beam- different coverage)

VLSI's role
VLSI plays a major role in most of these applications as it will be embedded in all applications. Thus the design has to be highly reliable and tolerant of random failures. The need is for the design to be easily adaptable with a fast time to market. Single chip solutions are also needed.

The different VLSI based components that are frequently used both for on-board and ground based SATCOM applications are DSP processors, general purpose and embedded processors, FPGAs and reconfigurable computing, System on Chip —SoC and System in Package — SiP.

There is a need to incorporate in VLSI design hard IP-Core alongwith programmable gate array so that newer design can be easily customised in a short time.

For ground application cost and programmability and low power are the prime requirements where as, the key design driving parameters for a space application would be reliability, low power, high frequency and extended life cycle of the product, time to market i.e. it should allow for fast testing and proving of concepts, highly durable and safe, form factor as in a small or large footprint is not of prime importance, functionality and lastly the cost.

Their prime focus will be on highly configurable and reconfigurable software and hardware like the FPGA's due to the uniqueness of the space mission. The programmable element is a key feature as it needs to be easily changed and re-changed as per the change in the mission. Hence there needs to be a balance between programmability and reliability.

 

[Choppers]

India to follow $6 bn cosmic path into 2020

Srinivas Laxman I TNN

Mumbai: The nearly 40-yearold TIFR at Colaba, the cradle of India’s space and nuclear programmes along with other scientific institutions in the country, is expected to become part of a nearly $6 billion world-class global scientific programme, which will further probe what the universe is made of and provide exciting new insights into how it works.

In all probability, this project focusing on the critical area of particle physics, will take off in 2020.

At a media briefing on Tuesday, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), said India would be included in the prestigious international scientific project called the International Linear Collider (ILC), which will complement the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva.

About 200 Indian scientists are attached to the LHC project and the TIFR group as part of a collaboration in the field of detector instruments.

“I was in Mumbai to attend a meeting of the Funding Agencies of the Large Colliders (FALC) and strengthen collaboration between India and these international facilities. I also met the chairman of the atomic energy commission, S Banerjee, and it was a very positive meeting,’’ he said.

About the ILC, Heuer emphasised that it would be what he called a precision machine and would be truly global, receiving inputs from different nations. The new facility, whose location is yet to be determined, would provide the international scientific community with a new cosmic doorway to explore energy regimes that will be beyond the reach of today’s accelerators.

The ILC would consist of two linear accelerators that face each other. The colliders would hurl about 10 billion electrons and their anti-particles towards each other at the speed of light. Stretching approximately 31 km in length, the beams will collide 14,000 times every second at extremely high energies.

About the LHC, he said that it started functioning on September 10, 2008. Unfortunately a serious fault developed damaging a number of superconducting magnets. It was restarted in November 2009 but was closed again for Christmas and New Year.
The LHC will resume operations next month with seven TeV unit in energy, which will be a high intensity collision. Over a period of time, it will be scaled up to 14 TeV.

According to Banerjee, there were four big experiments in the LHC and India was contributing to two of them. “Indian scientists helped in the brain-work and played a major role in restoring the collider. India will also help in analysing data,’’ he said.

The country will participate in LHC via two experiments. One Indian team is connected with a CMS experiment with the TIFR as the nodal agency.

The other team is involved in the Alice experiment with the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata as the nodal agencies.

 

[Ruag]

India Soon To Become Self-Reliant In Cryogenic Propulsion Technology

India is getting ready to launch Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with indigenously developed cryogenic engine, said Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman.

Dr. Radhakrishnan was talking to reporters at Sabarimala Sannidhanam during his 47th pilgrimage to Lord Ayyappa Temple there on Sunday.

He said ISRO is planning to test GSLV-D3 carrying the communication satellite GSAT-4 with a two tonne payload at Sriharikottah on January 24.


Dr. Radhakrishnan said achieving self-reliance in cryogenic propulsion technology would boost India's image, besides taking it to the league of select countries having the technology. So far, India has been using Russian-made cryogenic engines in its launching vehicles.

He said ISRO was also planning to undertake a space mission to take man to space and bring him back safe after conducting studies for a few days there.

India Soon To Become Self-Reliant In Cryogenic Propulsion Technology