Indian Space Capabilities

[Tejas-MkII]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...rayaan-II-experiments/articleshow/5056300.cms

Water on moons prompt ISRO rethink on Chandrayaan-II experiments

PTI 25 September 2009, 04:54pm IST


BANGALORE: Discovery of water on moon by Chandrayaan-I has prompted ISRO scientists to rethink on the experiments to be carried by its sequel
mission scheduled for launch by 2013.

ISRO plans to land two rovers on the lunar surface as part of Chandrayaan-II besides conducting several in-orbit experiments.

"Following findings of Chandrayaan-I, it would have to now look at midcourse correction of its objectives. We have to finetune it. There is some loud thinking on the issue going on," ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters in Bangalore.

Nair indicated that scientists were exploring possibilities of equipping the lunar rover with some instruments that could dig the moon surface and carry out in-situ experiments.

While almost all experiments on Chandrayaan-II will be by Indian scientists, the lunar rover which will land on the moon will be sourced from Russia, Nair said.

ISRO is also looking at ways to send a smaller indigenous version of the rover to the lunar surface.

"Right now Chandrayaan-II is full," Nair said adding that scientists were looking at how they could accommodate some additional payloads.

 

[All-Green]

Excellent progress, congratulations to our Indian friends is in order...


Now presently it is too optimistic to suggest a lunar colony, however if Moon can retain moisture in any form, it does present an exciting challenge for all those who dream to terraform the moon and eventually the universe...

 

[Khajur]

I didn't get a chance to contribute in this thread, but if Chandrayaan-1 has discovered water on the Moon, I believe it's a great development for mankind. Correct me if I'm wrong, but NASA stopped its moon missions decades ago. They didn't get a chance to use their latest machinery up there and I believe that's why Chandrayaan-1 was successful in finding traces of h2o on the moon.

After this development, I think NASA will show some sort of a "Special" interest in moon missions once again.

No,its infact the data collected by M3 ,a NASA contribution among several indian and foreign payloads that had piggy ride on the indian space craft chandrayaan-1 confirmed the presense of Water on moon surface.

Yes,its true that NASA had not sent any new spacecraft to moon in recent past ,but its gonna send one in 2010.

There are lots of data yet to be analized that were sent back by other scientific payloads on board chandrayaan-1,so let hope some more interesting news would emerge out of this mission .

 

[R.A.W.]

BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation may have stolen the thunder of discovering water on the
Moon.

The Moon Impact Probe on Chandrayaan-I appears to have sensed water earlier than Nasa's Moon Minerolgy Mapper (M3) but protocol did not allow ISRO to declare the discovery. While MIP detected water molecules on November 14, 2008, just 22 days after Chandrayaan-1's launch, M3 did so in March 2009.

J S Goswami, principal investigator for Chandrayaan-1, told TOI: ``We had indications of water on November 14, the day MIP crash-landed on the Moon. It sensed some sort of water molecules. We were absolutely delighted but it had to be corroborated. Without international examination and cross-examination and confirmation of the evidence, it would not have been right on our part to go public about it.''

Mylswami Annadurai, project director, Chandrayaan-1 and 2, explained why India did not go public with the discovery. ``International protocol requires us to discuss the evidence, cross-calibrate it with experts and it goes through a peer review and gets their approval. After all this, if it's a credible finding comes the go-ahead for its publication. This process can take three to four months, sometimes even seven. Only after publication can we speak about the evidence.''

ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said the MIP showed indications as it was crash-landing - it caught signatures of water. ``As the MIP was landing, it took some pictures that indicated the water molecules eventually found by M3.''

The MIP had picked up strong signals of water particles towards the polar region from 70 degree latitude to 80 degree latitude, according to Goswami. While this was known in November 2008, the M3 discovery of water in March 2009 was confirmed only three months later ^ in June. That's because US scientists wanted to be sure they had indeed found water and it took three months of rigorous cross-examination to confirm it. Publication after the confirmation also took time.

Officials said India scientists waited all this while to make the discovery public as they wanted the findings of such global significance to be first published in a scientific journal.

 

[Beskar]

All future reports regarding Indian Space capabilities should be posted here and and here only!

Threads Merged.

 

[ISRO2]

Yes sir our ISRO found water on moon in june but NASA requested ISRO to wait till september. They wanted to be sure. ISRO said our impactor which was size of shoe box found water first in june and then ISRO told NASA. Nasa then requested ISRO to wait until they too go through their findings. Date was set september and thats how world came to know.

 

[Brisingr]

In my perception it should be treated as a joint discovery by both India and US. More credit must go to US for their advanced sensitive equipments on board.

 

[sudhir007]

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/...4A=&SectionName=EL7znOtxBM3qzgMyXZKtxw==&SEO=


TIRUNELVELI: The first indigenous cryogenic engine that is set to be installed on GSLV Mk II was flagged off from Mahendragiri Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre here to Sriharikota on Monday.


After flagging it off, ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair told reporters, “We have been using Russian cryogenic engines for the GSLV rocket for taking the satellite to its geo-transfer orbit. With the indigenous engine, we can now become totally self-reliant for GSLV launch.”

The entire engine has been developed with indigenous technology. The ground test has been successfully completed and it is ready for the fire stage.

“GSLV Mk II could be launched by December-end. We hope this would be a benchmark event in the ISRO programme for indigenous launching technology. Our next step is to develop a bigger cryogenic engine with a stress of 20 tonnes compared to 7.5 tonnes now,” he added.

Nair informed that the Oceansat-2 satellite that was launched a few days ago was working well and its first set of images has been received.

 

[Brisingr]

how much money does it take to build a single cryogenic engine and are these engines reusable...mean are the scientists collecting back the engine ( i don know whether it will fall back to earth after launch!!!) after launch and mounting it to another vehicle for another launch...any idea guys???

 

[ironman]

ISRO developing a more powerful cryogenic engine ​

Posted by vkthakur on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 (EST)

​

ISRO, which will flight test its first indigenously developed cryogenic engine in late December this year, is already working on a more powerful followup cryogenic engine. Photo Credit: ISRO​

September 29, 2009, (Sawf News) - ISRO, which will flight test its first indigenously developed cryogenic engine in late December this year, is already working on a more powerful followup cryogenic engine.

"Our next step is to develop a bigger cryogenic engine with a stress of 20 tonnes compared to 7.5 tonnes now," Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), G Madhavan Nair, told PTI.

The current version of the Indigenous Cryogenic Engine (ICU) develops a thrust of 73 kilo Newtons (kN) in vacuum with a specific impulse of 454 seconds and provides a payload capability of 2200 Kg to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) for GSLV.

It will be flight tested on a GSLV Mk 2 launcher which will place the GSAT-4 satellite in a geosynchronous orbit.

ISRO had earlier announced plans to tweak the ICU to step up its thrust to 90 kN.

One of the most powerful cryogenic engines in use is the RS-24. Three of them power the Space Shuttle at lift off along with two solid rocket boosters. Each RS-24, commonly referred to as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), produces almost 1.8 mega-newtons (MN) or 400,000 lbf of thrust at liftoff.

The two-ton GSAT-4 satellite, besides being used to monitor the performance of the CUS equipped GSLV Mk 2, will also serve as a technology demonstrator.

The satellite will feature a communication payload comprising multi-beam Ka-band pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload in C, L1 and L5 bands.

The satellite will also carry a scientific payload, Tauvex, consisting of three ultra violet (UV) band telescopes developed by Tel Aviv University and Israel space agency for surveying a large part of the sky in the 1,400-3,200 angstrom wavelengths.

Amidst the new technologies being tested on board GSAT-4 are stationary plasma thrusters, Bus Management Unit (BMU), miniaturized dynamically tuned gyros, 36 AH Lithium ion battery, 70 V bus for Ka-band and on board structural dynamic vibration beam accelerometer.

GSAT-4 spacecraft will have a power generation capability of 2,500 watts and will be positioned at 82 degrees east longitude in a geo-stationary orbit, about 36,000 km above the earth.

 

[ironman]

ISRO to test plasma thrusters on GSAT-4 ​

Posted by vkthakur on Thursday, October 01, 2009 (EST)

​

ISRO is poised to test a plasma thruster on board GSAT- 4 which is slated for launch in late December 2009. Photo Credit: ISRO​

October 01, 2009, (Sawf News) - ISRO is poised to test a plasma thruster on board GSAT- 4 which is slated for launch in late December 2009.

A plasma engine generates thrust by ionizing a propellant using electrical power and ejecting it from a nozzle. Conventional rocket engines generate thrust from the explosive combustion of a propellant and oxidizer.

Plasma thrusters are characterized by lower thrust, higher efficiencies and sustained operation as compared to conventional rocket thrusters.

ISRO hopes to use plasma thrusters to increase the lifespan of its satellites from ten to fifteen years.

Plasma engines are also useful for long-distance Interplanetary space travel missions. The former Soviet Union first developed a plasma engine to propel its spacecraft to Mars in the early sixties.

More recently ESA's SMART lunar probe, launched on September 27, 2003, used an ion engine as its primary propulsion system, the second spacecraft to do so after NASA's Deep Space 1 probe launched in October 1998.

GSAT – 4 will be launched using GSLV-D3, a development version of GSLV Mark 2. The two-ton technology demonstrator satellite will feature a communication payload comprising multi-beam Ka-band pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload in C, L1 and L5 bands.

The satellite will also carry a scientific payload, Tauvex, consisting of three ultra violet (UV) band telescopes developed by Tel Aviv University and Israel space agency for surveying a large part of the sky in the 1,400-3,200 angstrom wavelengths.

Amidst the other new technologies to be tested on board GSAT – 4 are Bus Management Unit (BMU), miniaturized dynamically tuned gyros, 36 AH Lithium ion battery, 70 V bus for Ka-band and on board structural dynamic vibration beam accelerometer.

GSAT-4 spacecraft will have a power generation capability of 2,500 watts and will be positioned at 82 degrees east longitude in a geo-stationary orbit, about 36,000 km above the earth.

 

[owais.usmani]

 

[Tejas-MkII]

ISRO develops tech to boost satellite life by five years | Deccan Chronicle

ISRO develops tech to boost satellite life by five years

For the first time, India's space scientists have developed electric propulsion technology that is expected to boost the life of geostationary satellites by upto five years.

In other words, the satellites which today have a lifespan of ten years, could last upto 15 years.

The system - plasma thrusters - would be tested in GSAT-4 spacecraft slated to be launched on board GSLV later this year, said Isro chairman Madhavan Nair.

"Electric propulsion is going to be a unique thing. It will be used in GSAT-4. This is a concept we are going to prove in this (GSAT-4). Once proven, it can be adopted as standard for future geostationary orbits", he said.

So far, Isro had been using chemical propulsion for station-keeping, altitude control, precision spacecraft control, stabilisation and orientation.

With the use of electric propulsion, the life of the spacecraft can be enhanced, Nair, also Secretary in the Department of Space, said.

"Today, most of the geostationary satellites' life is controlled by fuel availability. If it's going to be sustained for two-three years by electric propulsion and the remaining using chemical propulsion again.....so that way 15 years of life what we are targeting can be easily achieved. Right now, the satellite's life is 10 years", Nair said. Plasma thrusters (using xenol gas as propellants) provide high specific impulse and operate with low fuel consumption, an Isro scientist said.

Isro spokesperson S. Satish termed electric propulsion "more efficient", while another scientist said that plasma thrusters would be extremely useful for inter-planetary missions.

 

[CrazyEagle9]

Isro seeks Russian spaceship for manned flight

What the hack....!!! I thought ISRO would develop it's own spaceship for manned flight....

 

[indiatech]

Isro seeks Russian spaceship for manned flight

What the hack....!!! I thought ISRO would develop it's own spaceship for manned flight....

It says for sending space tourists to ISS . Not sure if it has any relation to Indian human space flight programme.