Bharat Rakshak

NO!!!!!!!!!! A space shuttle is the most fault prone, dangerous and expensive way to put people in LEO. The american space shuttle is the only human orbiter without an escape system. So american astronauts fly 'bhagwan bharose' from the moment the engines start till they touch down. The Soyuz in con...

ISRO could build a gemini class vehicle (4 tons- 2 astronauts) for launch by the PSLV-XL or PSLV-HP in less than a year if 1] It had adequate funding (upto 500 million dollars). 2] The latitude to make a few big mistakes (a few f**kups). 3] Negligible political interference from outside and inside (...

I am just stating the obvious- If you want respect, you have to make others respect you. You cannot petition for respect and acceptance. Look, India has many smart, motivated and innovative people. We as a nation must support our people. But we must also make sure that such support is meaningful and...

If that is the case, then get rid of those who indoctrinate! I suspect respecting age without consideration to ability is a flaw in Indian Culture. I think the real issue is that conventional indian culture is too subjective, feminised, non confrontational and risk averse. It is necessary to expose ...

When I look at the current state of the Indian Space Program, a few aspects of the average indian psyche bother me- Warning- this is somewhat of a rant (but with clear suggestions about solutions) 1] Most indians accept being defined by others. Our best sources of news about indians and indian histo...

RTGs require Plutonium 238- an isotope made from waste products in light water reactors. You can use other isotopes like Strontium 90, but Pu238 is the best isotope. The technology to make them is very well understood. We could always get a couple from the russians, if we do not want to build our ow...

You know.. we could easily make a better version of this rover http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Pathfinder or this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover_Mission There is no shame in copying and improving on a good idea. We should not be in the business of reinventing the wheel eve...

The rover part of Chandrayaan-2 lander is not a technological challenge. We have enough publicly available information about the surface conditions on the moon to test a variety of models in simulated chambers on earth. We can simulate the temperature ranges, day/night periods, vacuum, soil type/ co...

ISRO requires a budget of about 50 million rupees to start a decent PR division. A few good IT and publicity people, a couple of knowledgeable and well spoken scientists, support staff, equipment and office space + travel/ entertainment expenses should not require more than 5 crore (50 million rupee...

Ok, The attitude of people who have spent too much time under bureaucratic pressures to cut cost typically is- 1. We do not require resources (bandwidth and a slick website) to handle public interest.. it is too costly (not true in a media driven age). 2. We do not have a mandate to fulfill public c...

There is a much simpler explanation for the resolution of the chandrayaan-1 images Ok, most digital devices store or record in numbers that are the n th powers of 2. That is why numbers like 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 (or their multiples) are seen in everything from memory cards,...

How do all these stupid white non-proliferation types believe that an indian ICBM will use a cryogenic engine for the third stage? Are they just stupid or..

A 50 km orbit is possible if you are prepared to burn more fuel for orbit corrections. The moon has no worthwhile atmosphere but 'mascons' can distort the orbit. The lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) to be launched in 2009 will have an orbit that will be dropped to 50-60 km for high resolution imag...

The problem with most white people (and their colored chamchas) is that they want to live in the period between 1830-1960. That was the period in which the west had a true edge over the rest of the world. That age is over! They have stagnated since the 1970s and the rest of the world has caught up o...

Happy to oblige Titan 34D SRBs Stage0: 2 x Titan UA1206. Gross Mass: 251,427 kg. Empty Mass: 40,827 kg. Mass Fraction 0.83 Thrust (vac): 6,226 kN. Isp (Vac): 265 sec. Burn time: 114 sec. GSLV Mk3 SRBs Stage0: 2 x GSLV-3 S200. Gross Mass: 2400,000 kg (554,301 lb). Empty Mass: 40,000 kg. Mass Fraction...

There is one rocket engine India should get their hands on.

RD-171 A russian Kerosene/LOX engine developed in the 80s. This engine at 8 MN of thrust is 1 MN more powerful than the similar F1 engine of Saturn 5. Half size versions of it (RD-180) are used in the Atlas 5. It is very reliable.

Ok, here is how I went about my little exercise. Q1. Do the S200 SRBs resemble any other SRBs? A1. Yes, they resemble the SRBs used in the Titan-3 program. They had 206 tons propellant and an empty mass of 41 tons. Looks a lot like the proposed S200! I am assuming that the mass fraction ratio is sim...

I do not pull figures from thin air. You might want to read my previous post. About administrators being political animals. Anyone who becomes an administrator in any institution in any country has good political/ survival skills. That is just the unfortunate truth. Whether they work in NIH, NASA, E...

I got this info from < http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/SPACE/space-launchers-gslv.html#gslvmk3 > GSLV Mk3 "GSLV Mk-III will be a three-stage launch vehicle with first stage consisting of two S200 Large Solid Booster (LSB) with 200 tonne solid propellant stage, that are strapped to the second stag...

Lets see, The GSLV Mk3 uses 2 SRBs (S200) with 200 tons propellant-so lets say 240 tons each. 240 *2 = 480 tons (let's say 7.8 mN *2 = 15.6mM). Core stage uses 2 upgraded vikas engines (850 kN for 240 seconds)= 1.7 mN. 110 tons propellant, say.. 125 tons. Cryogenic stage has 25 tons of propellant + ...

The ideal human orbital payload for a GSLV Mk3 would be something like this < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gemini > Big Gemini was supposed to be the next generation of human orbital vehicles, but the space shuttle program was more politically acceptable. I think this design is among the best fo...

Rachel, I think the public relation babus at ISRO are confusing capacity to GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit) with capacity put into GEO (geosynchronous orbit). I hate it when Indians shortsell themselves! Typically GTO is twice the number actually put in GEO. Example Delta 5 Heavy GTO 12 757 kg (1...

I am talking about the Ariane 4 (40) - the basic version. Try < http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Launchers_Home/SEMU1E67ESD_0.html > or < http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/ariane.htm > Ariane 40. 3 stage core vehicle with original Ariane H10 upper stage. A fully fueled Ariane core cannot lift off the ground wi...

OT post moved.

FYI

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_planetary_probes> Look at the list of lunar probes- especially the post-cold war ones.

If the orbit of Chandrayaan-1 was reduced to 50 km, the resolution could be bumped up to 1.25 m. You could go down even further to a 25 km orbit and obtain a resolution of 0.3 m. Since there is almost no atmosphere on the moon, even a 25 km orbit is doable. However the gravity variations (esp. masco...

PS Both Chang'e 1 and SELENE have the same basic mission as Chandrayaan 1. It is just that they are heavier, do less and cost more. Chandrayaan 1 has the level of compactness and technology seen in NASA missions. We have blown past other countries in that category. Now hopefully we will extend that ...

Chandrayaan's TMC has the best resolution of any moon mapping mission to date. While previous US and Russian missions do have 1 m resolution data for a few areas of the moon, no one has ever mapped the entire moon below 10m resolution. Chang'e 1- 120m Selene - 10m Clementine- 7-20 m (distance depend...

I am not criticising any approach. I am just saying that ISRO requires 2 type of launchers rather urgently.. 1. A reliable non- cryogenic design to put 6-8 tons in LEO. The Indian version of delta 2,3 or older versions of Titan 3. 2. A heavy launcher that can put 20 tons in LEO or upto 10-13 tons in...

What about putting a dedicated rover with Chandrayaan-2. I am guessing that ISRO wants to put a 'Sojurner-1997 like ' rover on the moon. I think they could do better. A 200-400 kg rover with an RTG instead of solar power to explore the lunar south pole would be a coup! They would have to put a lande...

What about the Soyuz lauch Vehicle-

1st stage 4 * 1MN (4MN)
2nd stage 1MN
3rd stage 300 kN

Capacity to LEO ~ 7 tons

A question- Why can the GSLV lift only 5 tons to LEO when it uses 1st stage - 4 viking engines (2.7 MN) + SRB (4.3 MN) 2nd stage - 1 viking engine (0.7 MN) 3rd stage - 1 Cryogenic engine (75 kN) Compared to the Basic Ariane 4 which could also lift 5 tons to LEO 1st stage - 4 viking engines (2.7 MN) ...

What would be the increase in LEO and GTO payloads for the PSLV if- 1] Agni-3 based solid strapon motors were used instead of the Agni-1 based strapons. (over 1MN compared to 650 kN) 2] These strapons had more segments for a burn time of 80-90s. 3] The Vikas engine (2nd stage) had enough fuel for a ...

My questions about improving PSLV and GSLV lift capacity are more relevant to further unmanned and manned missions. That is why I put them as new posts.