Mars to ISRO to SC-Ramjet aka Scramjet

[joey]

1.
NEW UAV TESTED

Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), this is reportedly an improved version of PTA, which was inducted into the Indian Air Force in 2000.

2.
Nanowork Presents: India Moves Towards Millitary Nanotechnology

(Nanowerk News) The Indian Express reports today that the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt of India will be making use of the Agharkar Research Institute's (ARI) expertise in nanotechnology for the defence establishment. The work, which is to begin soon, will see the ARI providing nanoparticles to the defence establishment.
This was stated by Prof Hari Gopal, senior scientist, DST on the concluding function of the diamond jubilee of ARI.
At ARI to inaugurate its Rs 3-crore new microbiological laboratory, Hari Gopal said that the government has approved filling up of 20 posts at the ARI.
Dr VS Rao, director, ARI said that the new lab will start functioning from next year and will help bring all the works of microbiology that are now scattered, under one roof.
The institute will also add up new staff to increase its efficiency in different fields of molecular biology, stem cell research, pharmacology, nanotechnology.
The Indian Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) has undertaken certain initiatives for making the country self-sufficient in a number of strategic materials, e.g. technology for fullerenes and carbon nanotubes which have potential applications in stealth, smart materials and nanoelectronics have been initialized.

3.
Futuristic Automated Data Handling System - FADHS Developed by CMC

4.
ISRO CHIEF INTERVIEW : Must Read

Some questions ..

How important is the Deep Space Tracking Network for future missions to the moon? You have already installed a satellite antenna with a dish diameter of 18 metres at Byalalu to track Chandrayaan, and you are soon going to erect one with a diameter of 32 metres. ISRO is going to invest Rs.100 crores out of Rs.386 crores for the Chandrayaan-I mission on the Deep Space Network. Is it a sound investment and why do you locate it near Bangalore?

First of all, the Deep Space Network is going to be a national effort. It is going to serve not only the moon mission, but other spacecraft missions at a later date, such as one to Mars.

Secondly, the technological challenges associated with developing large antenna systems, accurate tracking systems and so on, are providing a challenge to the technical people at BARC [Bhabha Atomic Research Centre], ECIL [Electronics Corporation of India Limited] and ISRO. Thirdly, it will provide us with the opportunity to offer our support to other countries if they have deep-space missions

In January 2007, ISRO will launch a PSLV from Sriharikota, which will orbit the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE), a recoverable satellite. In what way will this SRE be useful for a manned mission to space?

The SRE is a small capsule to demonstrate zero-gravity experiments and the results (payloads) in the SRE will be recovered. But a capsule for a manned mission has to be much bigger. Compared to the 500 kg capsule for the SRE, the manned mission capsule will weigh a few tonnes, three to four tonnes at least. Also, the type of requirements for the life-support systems, the radiation environment, zero-gravity and so on will be very complex. So the manned mission is an order of magnitude higher than that of the SRE. Some inputs related to the breaking of the orbits, bringing the capsule back to the surface on a safe mode and so on, will form the inputs for the design of a manned capsule.


At what stage is the development of ISRO's re-usable launch vehicle?

We have not embarked on the development of the vehicle itself but a technology demonstration to study the hypersonic behaviour... of the vehicle and how to make the controls at a high mach regime. [One mach equals the speed of sound.] These experiments have been conceived and in two years from now, we will have a demonstrator flight. These inputs will go towards the design of a recoverable and reusable launch vehicle by 2010 or so.

Through a series of ground tests, you were able to achieve supersonic combustion and you held the flame for seven seconds when the velocity was Mach six (that is, six times the speed of sound).

There are very few countries that have demonstrated this capability, and perhaps we are the third in the series. The next step we are planning is a sounding rocket experiment. Sounding rockets are used to conduct experiments in the upper atmosphere. A sounding rocket will be modified to carry one of the air-breathing modules and that will be flown soon

^^ Rest read on the site.

5.
DRDO plans to test a Mach-7 engine

Manu Pubby
Posted online: Thursday, December 14, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print Email

PUNE, DECEMBER 13 : The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is planning to conduct ground tests for the country’s first flight version of a Supersonic Combustion Ramjet (Scramjet) engine in Hyderabad next year. This is will be followed by the first Scramjet flight test in 2008.

The design of a flight version of the Scramjet engine is on and it will be ground tested in 2007, followed by a flight test a year later, Chief Controller R&D (Service Interaction), DRDO, Dr Prahlada, told The Indian Express on the sidelines of a conference on ‘Air Breathing Engines and Aerospace Propulsion’ at the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) here on Tuesday.

As per plan, the flight test will be carried out onboard an indigenous platform, a prototype of which has already been developed by DRDO. “The vehicle will be 7-m long and we have already developed a prototype for the test. It will enter a 20-second long flight to go up to mach 7,” Dr Prahlada said. DRDO has already ground tested a scramjet engine to speeds in excess of Mach 2, he added. A Scramjet engine makes it possible to design smaller, lighter and faster aircraft as it takes oxygen needed for fuel combustion from the atmosphere itself instead of carrying liquid oxygen.