Indian Space Programme Discussion

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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by member_27581 »

Philip wrote:India's "Jugaad" route to success.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/m ... mangalyaan
Shoestring theory: India's pioneering budget space probe is halfway to Mars
If the £46m 'Mangalyaan' orbiter mission succeeds in reaching the red planet, it will be a triumph of ingenuity over big spending

Anu Anand in Delhi
The Guardian, Friday 2 May 2014

india mars probe mangalyaan
Work on the Mars orbiter at the ISRO satellite centre in Bangalore. Mangalyaan was conceived in just 15 months on a tiny budget. Photo: Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty

On the pitted rural roads running through millions of India's small towns and villages, the jugaad vehicle is a source of peculiar pride.

Often it's a hand-cranked diesel engine crudely bolted on to a flatbed wagon and is used to carry people, steel rods, livestock or sacks of food in places where no public transport exists. It is loud, polluting and not officially roadworthy.

Yet it stands for a quality valued by most Indians: an ability to find a cheap solution to complex problems in a country where infrastructure is poor and technology is still largely unreliable. Jugaad represents a triumph of Indian ingenuity against incredible odds.

India's Mars orbiter, Mangalyaan, is perhaps the country's most audacious and successful example of jugaad so far. A boxy probe built by scientists in just 15 months for the paltry sum of £46m ($75m) – less than the cost of the average Hollywood blockbuster film – Mangalyaan has completed more than half of its perilous journey to the red planet.

It is only a few days behind Nasa's Maven probe, which is propelled by powerful Atlas V and Centaur rockets.

If Mangalyaan enters Martian orbit in September to survey the topography and sniff out evidence of methane, a key sign of life, India will enter the history books as a pioneering nation. It will be Asia's first country to carry out a successful Mars mission. Japan, China and 21 other countries have failed.

At the Delhi offices of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a crumbling government building characterised by the usual profusion of with sprouting electrical wires and urine-soaked stairwells, the head of India's space programme explained that Mangalyaan's success on a shoestring budget was down to factors including reusing spacecraft modules, carrying out fewer but more efficient ground tests, and opting for the longer, cheaper route to Mars in the absence of powerful rocket technology.
PS orbiter spacecraft, India's first mission to Mars, blasting off in 2013 The PSLV-C25 rocket carrying the Mars orbiter spacecraft, blasting off from Sriharikota in 2013. Photo: Isro/AFP/Getty

"We used the launch vehicle that was available to us to the best of its capability, tailoring the launch time and angle to achieve the correct trajectory," said Koppillil Radhakrishnan, the ISRO chairman. "While Mangalyaan was in Earth orbit, we tested its performance and the instruments on board, so this was another advantage."

Access to India's space programme is severely restricted, but videos posted by ISRO show teams of scientists wearing plastic shower caps assembling the probe and its components at different stages. Unlike at Nasa, India's space programme does not adhere to strict design and review audits, saving money in the process.

While European scientists stick to a 35-hour working week, 18 to 20-hour days are common for Indian scientists, according to Radhakrishnan. "Our wages are less, yes, but the rigour of the design and our reliability are second to none," said Radhakrishnan.

Bruce Jakosky, principal scientist on Nasa's Maven, said: "I'm very impressed by India's mission so far. They sent [the Mangalyaan probe] into orbit around Earth and used a series of small rocket motor burns to get into higher altitude. They used the last burn to break free of Earth's gravity to slingshot to Mars. I thought it was a very clever way to do it."

In the recent Indian elections, voters have been mainly concerned about the flagging economy, inflation and corruption in government-run programmes. In the context of widespread poverty, how can India's £600m space programme be justifiable?

Radhakrishnan said ISRO spent a tiny proportion of its budget – 7% – on pure science, such as the Mars mission. Most of its budget is used, he said, on projects that help India's poorest citizens and fight corruption. "If you look at the Indian space programme, it is primarily for the people; 55% of our budget is used for satellites that help more than 100,000 fishermen find their daily catch. We help the government monitor crops, and ground and surface water. Our satellites have helped millions of people escape cyclones in time and we've even helped develop tele-medicine for people who live too far to visit a specialist," he said.

The agency is also using satellites to monitor whether promised government projects are delivered. "When you have a lot of developmental work on paper in rural areas, satellites can certainly be used to monitor progress in a very major way," he said. "If you look at Nasa, you won't find them running the communications satellites for the entire country. People consider India a role model. [Our space programme] did not stay in an ivory tower."

Despite the success of India's Mars probe, most Indians still identify the red planet with its astrological power, not with whether it ever sustained life.

Radhakrishnan, a classical Kathakali dancer and Carnatic music vocalist, said he did not believe in astrology, but he was not averse to making sure the gods and good luck were on his side: Mangalyaan was launched on a Tuesday, mangalvaar or "Mars day" in Hindi.

And a day before theprobe's launch, he sought the blessings of deities at a local temple. "Every person has their own values and beliefs," he said. "I go to temple, to church and mosque. But what is finally important is the power of your mind to face challenges, because the line between success and failure in space is very thin."
Suhanallah..bus yehi dekhne-sunne ko meri aankh kaan taras rahe the.. no clue why they forget kennedy speech in indian context
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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At the Delhi offices of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a crumbling government building characterised by the usual profusion of with sprouting electrical wires and urine-soaked stairwells, the head of India's space programme explained that Mangalyaan's success on a shoestring budget ........
They have to denigrate even in positive story what an @ss *ole Anu Anand and the Guardian
Added later
Costing is tricky
they have to be apportioned and spread across many simultaneous participation especially if its Human resources cost, component costs are easy to break up even there the cost of ordering , selecting evaluating a component involves human decision making for which hours have to be logged and apportioned as well
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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At the Delhi offices of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a crumbling government building characterised by the usual profusion of with sprouting electrical wires and urine-soaked stairwells, the head of India's space programme explained that Mangalyaan's success on a shoestring budget was down to factors including reusing spacecraft modules, carrying out fewer but more efficient ground tests, and opting for the longer, cheaper route to Mars in the absence of powerful rocket technology.
India's space program stands proud and tall and *earned* respect. The above description is completely uncalled for. The Guardian needs to be reminded who has an active space program and launch facilities and who doesn't.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by JE Menon »

TSJ, thanks for that vote of goodwill which I'm sure comes from a good place...

However, it is in our (that is to say India's) tactical interest that such stories, images and prejudicial views are perpetrated and perpetuated.

The only people who will feel bad about it are us, i.e. Indians like me and Nijalingappa who are English-speaking, read widely, engage with foreigners a lot, and don't want them to think of us as ugly, dirty, disorganised, inferior creatures. And that's because we can afford to give a sh1t. The vast majority of Indians don't, either because they don't speak English and read Western newspapers or watch English-language TV, or they do but are too poor to bother about it.

But, a lot of people in "the West" do read this sort of article and their beliefs about India - ingrained over decades in some cases of similar articles, radio and television programmes - are reinforced. This leaves them with a perception of India which allows them to easily underestimate it. And if they have any doubts, a visit to India will cure them of that; it is indeed dirty, urine soaked, sh1t-stained, messy, chaotic and stinky in parts where it shouldn't be, and so on...

So because the media in "the West" do this so much, free of charge, we don't have to worry about being perceived as a threat by the West, or even the East, and we can quietly develop our strength - more money is available for that pursuit. Sometimes, there is a jarring note, like the sudden, simultaneous nuclear tests, or the Mars orbiter, moon probe and so on... but these are easily written off by these same journalists as being for pride, prestige, political theatre for internal reasons, etc. And it is all true, in some measure.

India will always speak softly, but we prefer that no one worries about our stick getting ever bigger. In fact, the self-delusional approach perpetuated by the Western media (for lack of a better term) is such that even if some random guy (let's call him Ralph) goes on some random forum, or blog, or comments section and points out what I've said above, he will either not elicit a response, or will be laughed out of town by the Paks commenting with innovative "Western" sounding names.

This approach is also a kind of jugaad.

Still, we tend to be grateful when a foreigner comes to our defence on rare occasions.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by Supratik »

JTull wrote:I had a thought about these costs. In the West, whenever we estimate cost, the cost of salaries for employees and contract staff are added. I wonder if ISRO does the same for work done in-house. For components sourced from outside that is implicit. When my Dad retired as an OS from the department, he estimated the cost of his perks were 2 times his salary. Couple of Director level staff working on Mangalyaan for an year or longer, easily cost 1 crore plus to the country. Perhaps someone had a better insight.
AFAIK, it is going to be like any other Govt salary that is basic + grade pay + DA + HRA + some minor allowances. No perks or benefits like pvt sector.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by rsingh »

JE Menon wrote:TSJ, thanks for that vote of goodwill which I'm sure comes from a good place...

However, it is in our (that is to say India's) tactical interest that such stories, images and prejudicial views are perpetrated and perpetuated.

The only people who will feel bad about it are us, i.e. Indians like me and Nijalingappa who are English-speaking, read widely, engage with foreigners a lot, and don't want them to think of us as ugly, dirty, disorganised, inferior creatures. And that's because we can afford to give a sh1t. The vast majority of Indians don't, either because they don't speak English and read Western newspapers or watch English-language TV, or they do but are too poor to bother about it.

But, a lot of people in "the West" do read this sort of article and their beliefs about India - ingrained over decades in some cases of similar articles, radio and television programmes - are reinforced. This leaves them with a perception of India which allows them to easily underestimate it. And if they have any doubts, a visit to India will cure them of that; it is indeed dirty, urine soaked, sh1t-stained, messy, chaotic and stinky in parts where it shouldn't be, and so on...

So because the media in "the West" do this so much, free of charge, we don't have to worry about being perceived as a threat by the West, or even the East, and we can quietly develop our strength - more money is available for that pursuit. Sometimes, there is a jarring note, like the sudden, simultaneous nuclear tests, or the Mars orbiter, moon probe and so on... but these are easily written off by these same journalists as being for pride, prestige, political theatre for internal reasons, etc. And it is all true, in some measure.

India will always speak softly, but we prefer that no one worries about our stick getting ever bigger. In fact, the self-delusional approach perpetuated by the Western media (for lack of a better term) is such that even if some random guy (let's call him Ralph) goes on some random forum, or blog, or comments section and points out what I've said above, he will either not elicit a response, or will be laughed out of town by the Paks commenting with innovative "Western" sounding names.

This approach is also a kind of jugaad.

Still, we tend to be grateful when a foreigner comes to our defence on rare occasions.
We have to keep this in good post thread. Well done
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by JE Menon »

^I'm not sure I should have posted it, but probably no one will take it seriously :)
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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JE Menon wrote:^I'm not sure I should have posted it, but probably no one will take it seriously :)
And thank you for your reply, JE. When something earns respect, it should be given.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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JE Menon wrote:^I'm not sure I should have posted it, but probably no one will take it seriously :)
I am sure Ralphy would ...
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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^?? Didn't get that
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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JE Menon wrote:^?? Didn't get that
You were referring to Ralph posting to random blog/comments section. TSJ used to post as Ralphy in a random blog comment section few years ago. What a coincidence :rotfl:
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by JE Menon »

^^That's OK, even if it is true. We all post stuff that we may be uncomfortable with a few years down the line. And even if we are comfortable with it, one is free to hold one's views. There's no reason to be inhospitable unless forum guidelines are violated...
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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Chandrayaan’s rover and the moon rocks from Salem villages
At the lunar terrain facility of the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore is a big spread of the “lunar” simulant soil. As commands erupt into life, a 17-kg rover, akin to the rover of Chandrayaan-2, revs up. It turns right, then left, lurches forward and backs up. Applause from a group of ISRO engineers fills the air.

About 260 km away, villagers of Sithampoondi and Kunnamalai, 65 km from Salem on the Salem–Tiruchengode highway, cannot wait for the rover from Chandrayaan-2 to land on the moon in 2017. For, the “lunar” soil on which the rover goes through its paces in Bangalore is from their villages. Anorthosite rock from Sithampoondi and Kunnamalai, which closely resembles the lunar soil in the latter’s chemical and mechanical properties, was pulverised and brought to the lunar terrain facility in the ISRO Satellite Integration and Testing Establishment (ISITE) in Bangalore to test the rover’s movements.

M. Annadurai, Programme Director, Indian Remote-sensing Satellites and Small Satellites Systems, ISRO, said: “We identified Sithampoondi, from where we excavated 60 tonnes of rocks which are geologically similar to the lunar composition. We made a special effort to pulverise the rocks to various sizes ranging from 30 to 200 microns and mix them in various proportions to match the chemical and mechanical properties of the lunar soil to study the rover’s movements on it in a simulated environment.” Since the gravity on the moon is one-sixth of the earth’s gravity, a helium-filled balloon which will lift five-sixths of the rover’s weight is being used in the lunar terrain facility.

“We have realised a six-wheeled rover and it is being tested in the lunar terrain facility. The design work on the lander is in progress in ISRO. Everything about the Chandrayaan-2 mission is Indian. The launch vehicle, the orbiter, the lander and the rover are all from India,” Dr. Annadurai emphasised.


Geologists from Periyar University, Salem; the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi; the, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, “concurred” that the rocks from Sithampoondi and Kunnamalai were similar in properties to that of the soil on the moon, Dr. Annadurai said.

Special study on lunar soil

S. Anbazhagan, Professor and Head of the Department of Geology, Periyar University, said: “We had done spectral studies on the lunar soil and we discovered its equivalent at Sithampoondi in 2004 when I was working in the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. ISRO’s soil scientists coordinated with us in this project.”

The moon has two types of rocks — basaltic and anorthosite. The latter covers a vast area of the moon. “The chemistry and mineralogy of the rocks at Sithampoondi are the same as that of the lunar soil,” added Dr. Anbazhagan.

The Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-Mark II) with an indigenous cryogenic engine will put Chandrayaan-2 in orbit in 2017.

A lander from the orbiter will land on the moon. From the lander, the rover will roll out on to the lunar soil. The rover will move about on the high latitude area of the moon and conduct experiments.

Weighing 20 kg, it will move about on the moon for one lunar day, that is, 14 earth days, Dr. Annadurai said. It would be loaded with commands for turning to the left and right, for going forward and backing down.

The rover will carry two instruments, laser-induced breakdown spectrometer and alpha particle-induced X-ray spectroscope, to study the chemical properties of the lunar soil.

As for D. Selvaraj and S. Suresh, two young men from Kunnamalai, they cannot wait for the GSLV lift-off with Chandrayaan-2 on board. “Sithampoondi and Kunnamalai villagers are happy that the rocks from their villages are being used to test the Chandrayaan’s rover,” they said.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by chackojoseph »

x post

DRDO Rail Track Rocket Sled Penta Rail Supersonic Track for Indian manned Space Mission

This four kilometer long RTRS Penta track will be extremely useful for the testing of wide range of critical systems such as payload for manned missions of ISRO, ...
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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http://www.deccanherald.com/content/406 ... rtian.html

You are here: Home » National » Mangalyaan doing well, will reach Martian orbit on Sep 24
Mangalyaan doing well, will reach Martian orbit on Sep 24
Thiruvananthapuram, May 12, 2014, (PTI):
India's maiden inter-planetary mission to Mars ''Mangalyaan'' was on course and the orbiter would reach the Martian orbit on September 24, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Radhakrishnan said here today. AP file photo
India's maiden inter-planetary mission to Mars ''Mangalyaan'' was on course and the orbiter would reach the Martian orbit on September 24, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Radhakrishnan said here today.

Dismissing the sceptical views expressed by certain quarters over the misssion, he said, "Mars mission is going well and will reach the orbit on September 24, 2014."

This will make all in ISRO and also the people of the country proud "as it will be a major milestone for ISRO," Radhakrishnan said at a felicitation function organised by The Institute of Engineers India (Kerala Chapter).

Now it took four minutes for a signal from the ground station to reach the spacecraft, launched from Sriharikota on November 5, he said.

Stating that many more missions were under different stages, Radhakrishnan said another major project in coming months would be the experimental mission of GSLV-MARK 3 with crew module for country's human space flight mission.

ISRO's rating among the countries with space missions had gone up, he said, adding a USA-based bench mark agency has placed the Indian agency in sixth place.

ISRO had 10 successful launches during the last one year, he said,, adding, "ISRO uses its resources judiciously for the benefit of the society."

Space scientists M Chandra Dathan, Director LPSC, K Sivan, Project Director GSLV and P Kuhhikrishnan, Project Director PSLV were also felicitated.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by saje »

O mama, we can have so much fun with this rocket sled thing...

Image

Image

Image

Image

It should be interesting to fit a kaveri engine into an old LCA airframe like below and see once & for all, what is what:

Image
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by Gagan »

Yes, I've been watching this facility being built over the years on satellite pictures.
Looks like they had a smaller (about 2-2.5 Km) facility in the area which they were using before. Not sure if that had a railtrack though.
Interesting times.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

Any reason why the ISRO annual report for 2013-2014 is still not out? It's May 26th, and they still have the old 2012-13 one on their website.

It's never been this late before! I even recall them putting out an annual report in February one year, though usually it's March or April 15th at the latest.

There should be all kinds of interesting nuggets about satellites, state of certain programmes, the RLV and of course the GSLV Mark 3.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by symontk »

Apart from rockets, missiles and aircrafts, it can be used to test the high speed railway too
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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Varsity-led Satellite Project Gets its Ground-act Ready - The Hindu
PISAT, a small, 6-kilo satellite spearheaded by PES University, Bangalore, and sponsored by four engineering colleges from Tamil Nadu and Kerala is the latest university-driven spacecraft to queue up for launch into space.

Over 100 students from across faculties have been working at it for nearly two years at PESU’s clean room. The experimental spacecraft carries an imported camera with a resolution of 80 metres to observe Earth from about 600 km above ground.

The nano-class craft is almost ready and expects to be launched around by the end of this year on an upcoming launcher of the Indian Space Research Organisation, according to V.K.Agarwal, Director of PESU’s lab, Crucible of Research and Innovation.

PESU expects this to be the first of a series of small, experimental satellites, but does not yet have a specific plan, Mr. Agarwal told The Hindu .

S-band station

On Thursday, PESU’s new S-band ground station or satellite tracking facility was launched by ISRO Satellite Centre’s Director S.K. Shiva Kumar in the presence of D. Jawahar, PES group CEO. It is said to be the first such in that frequency, unlike the UHF/VHF used by most student satellite programmes.

While ISRO does not charge Indian universities for putting their nano satellites in space, it has asked them to control them with their own ground stations. PESU expects the Rs. 40-lakh facility to teach students to monitor spacecraft could be globally useful in similar S-band experimental programmes.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by member_23694 »

any news from ISRO regarding next PSLV and LVM3 launch ?
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Post by SSridhar »

Trajectory correctiom of Mars mission likely by June 11 - Economic Times
Indian Space Research Organisation is likely to perform its next trajectory correction manoeuvre on its Mars Orbiter mission on June 11.

As its Mars mission is "on intended track" and was proceeding towards the red planet with "good health," ISRO had earlier announced that the trajectory correction manoeuvre scheduled for April was not necessary and postponed it for this month.

"The mission is in good health and is on the intended track. We have planned the next trajectory correction manoeuvre of Mars mission on June 11. It is yet to be finalised," a senior ISRO official told PTI.

The spacecraft has now crossed two third of the total distance -- 480 million km approximately, they said.

Another trajectory correction manoeuvre has been planned in August before the space agency performs Mars Orbit Insertion in September.

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Post by bharats »

dhiraj wrote:any news from ISRO regarding next PSLV and LVM3 launch ?
ISRO is focusing PSLV-C23, scheduled for the June and GSLV Mk III in July.
PSLV-C23 launch will put into orbit the 712kg French SPOT-7 satellite, along with the smaller CanX-4, CanX-5 and AISSat spacecraft. ISRO received the repeat order from the French after the successful launch of SPOT-6 on PSLV-C21 in 2012. Integration work is under way at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The next GSLV flight will be of an experimental Mk III version. The indigenous cryogenic engine is more powerful than the one that powered GSLV D-5 during its launch in January this year but it will not be ignited during the experimental flight. The launch is scheduled for July, but the cryogenic engine is yet to arrive at SDSC, where the two strap-on boosters and the L-110 core stage are undergoing integration.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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Experimental mission of GSLV Mark III in July/August.

Indian Space Research Organisation is likely to launch its experimental mission of GSLV Mark III with passive cryogenic stage in the last week of July or the first week of August, a senior official said today.

"The experimental mission of GSLV Mark III would be carried out in the last week of July or in the first week of August," GSLV Project Director K Sivan told PTI over phone.

Explaining the features of GSLV Mark III, he said that unlike the earlier version of GSLV, GSLV .the earlier version of GSLV, GSLV Mark III would be able to carry a payload of four tonne.

Observing that the works towards developing the cryogenic stage was "going on right now," he said ISRO would proceed with the solid and liquid stages during the experimental mission.

Detailing on the mission, he said the launch would also benefit ISRO in testing the module it has developed for its ambitious human mission.

"The module would be tested, after the liquid fuel stage is completed. The module is to test the safe landing of human after their trip to the space," he said.

It was in January this year ISRO successfully launched its first indigenous cryogenic engine on GSLV, whose expertise it was long managing to master.

After the successful launch of GSLV, ISRO is focusing on the development of GSLV Mark III, which if succeeded is likely to bring millions of dollars as foreign exchange.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by putnanja »

Hmm, the mark-III flight slipped from April to June, and now to August?
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by raj-senthil »

ISRO planning to launch French satellite SPOT 7 on June 26
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scienc ... 111644.ece
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by Vipul »

^^^
Asked if there would be any change in the date of launch, he said the date and time also depend on the availability of VIPs, if any, witnessing the launch.
:shock: :shock: :shock: Changing launching dates to accommodate VIPS (more often then not who are criminals themselves).
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by srin »

Vipul wrote:^^^
Asked if there would be any change in the date of launch, he said the date and time also depend on the availability of VIPs, if any, witnessing the launch.
:shock: :shock: :shock: Changing launching dates to accommodate VIPS (more often then not who are criminals themselves).
However, distasteful it may be to all of us, the VIPs are also their overall bosses and are key to the budgetary allocations. If no budget, then no MOM or astrosat or any research projects.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by SSridhar »

I have a feeling that the ISRO might have invited the PM for the event. What better way for him to understand about DoS which comes under him, than by making a personal visit. I do not think the ISRO would otherwise decide its launch window based on the schedule of all and sundry politicians. The PM has a tight schedule in June & July.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by Victor »

^ Title: 100 Days to go for Mars Orbiter Mission landing?
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by member_28108 »

Victor wrote:^ Title: 100 Days to go for Mars Orbiter Mission landing?
I missed that ! :D
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by kvraghavaiah »

Vipul wrote:^^^
Asked if there would be any change in the date of launch, he said the date and time also depend on the availability of VIPs, if any, witnessing the launch.
:shock: :shock: :shock: Changing launching dates to accommodate VIPS (more often then not who are criminals themselves).
You misunderstood. He meant, if there are any criminal VIPS wanting to witness the launch, then they will wait for them so that those VIPS can be sent in to space like a space junk, basically to free us.
SSridhar
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by SSridhar »

This is a 2-part series from Space Review. Part-2 will appear next week.
Planetary Orbit Insertion Failures - Part I - Andrew J. LePage
One of the most crucial phases of many interplanetary missions is orbit insertion. Everything must go right the first time or the spacecraft fails to enter orbit around its target. And, all too often, there are no practical opportunities at a second chance, so an orbit insertion failure usually translates into a mission failure. At this moment, there are a half a dozen spacecraft en route to various targets throughout the solar system destined to enter orbit around their targets. It seems like this is a good opportunity to review orbit insertion failures over the last four decades of planetary exploration to see what can go wrong.

Akatsuki

One of the spacecraft currently en route to enter orbit around its target already failed to do so on its initial attempt. Akatsuki, also known as Planet-C or the Venus Climate Orbiter, is a Japanese mission originally meant to study the atmosphere of Venus for two years from a 300 by 80,000-kilometer (190 by 50,000-mile) orbit using a suite of a half dozen instruments to observe Venus at wavelengths from the infrared to the ultraviolet. Launched on May 20, 2010, it reached its target on December 7. The plan was for Akatsuki to fire its 500-newton (110-pound-force) bipropellant main engine for 12 minutes to enter an initial four-day orbit with a periapsis of 550 kilometers (340 miles) and an apoapsis of between 180,000 and 200,000 kilometers (112,000 to 124,000 miles). Subsequent maneuvers would eventually place the spacecraft into the desired orbit for its primary mission.

Akatsuki’s engine ignited on schedule and flew behind Venus as planned, resulting in an expected loss of signal. Unfortunately, when it reemerged from behind Venus and communications were reestablished, the probe was found to be in a safe mode. Because of the slow communication rate through the spacecraft’s low gain antenna, it was not until the following day that controllers confirmed the cause of the safe mode and confirmed that Akatsuki had failed to enter orbit around Venus. A subsequent investigation showed that Akatsuki’s main engine had only fired for about three minutes before shutting down. It is believed that deposits formed in a valve between the helium pressurization and the hydrazine fuel tanks, decreasing the fuel flow to the main engine in the process. The high temperatures resulting from the combustion of the oxidizer-rich mixture damaged the engine, forcing an early shutdown.

After test firings of the main engine on September 7 and 14, 2011, showed that it was too damaged to be used again, engineers developed a backup plan to use the spacecraft’s smaller monopropellant thrusters (which share the hydrazine supply of the main engine) to enter orbit when the spacecraft once again reaches the vicinity of Venus in November 2015, a close approach made possible by a series of course corrections performed in November 2011. Unfortunately, because of the lower efficiency of its monopropellant thrusters and the fuel used to alter its course, Akatsuki will only be able to enter an orbit with a periapsis of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) and an apoapsis of between 300,000 and 400,000 kilometers (190,000 and 250,000 miles), compromising its science mission as a result. Another major issue is that this five-year delay in reaching Venus exceeds the original 4.5-year design life of the spacecraft, which is likely to be further reduced by the higher-than-expected temperatures Akatsuki has experienced as a result of its unplanned stay in a 203-day solar orbit largely inside that of Venus. Only time will tell if Akatsuki comes out of its current hibernation and can salvage something its original mission.


Nozomi

If the current problems for Japan’s planetary aspirations with Akatsuki were not bad enough, they followed the heartbreaking failure of Nozomi. Nozomi (also known as Planet-B) was launched on July 4, 1998, with the intent of entering orbit around Mars on October 11, 1999, to study the Martian atmosphere and, with a periapsis as low as 150 kilometers (93 miles), further investigate the magnetic patterns originally observed in the Martian crust by Mars Global Surveyor. Instead of being sent directly into a transfer orbit to Mars, engineers devised a complicated series of maneuvers in the Earth-Moon system over five and a half months that included a pair of lunar flybys to boost the payload sent to Mars.

The M-V launch vehicle successfully placed Nozomi into an extended 703 by 489,382-kilometer (437 by 304,153-mile) orbit around the Earth. Nozomi then completed a pair of lunar flybys on September 24 and December 18, 1998. The plan was to make one last pass 1,003 kilometers (623 miles) above the Pacific Ocean on December 20, coupled with a seven-minute burn of its bipropellant main engine, to finally send the probe on its way to Mars. A malfunctioning valve resulted in more fuel being used than planned, and Nozomi gained insufficient velocity to reach Mars. To compound the problem, a pair of course correction burns the following day also used more propellant than planned and left Nozomi with insufficient propellant to complete its intended mission.

Engineers developed an alternative plan to salvage the mission. Nozomi would stay in solar orbit for an extra four years and make a pair of flybys of the Earth in December 2002 and June 2003 to permit the probe to approach Mars at a significantly slower velocity in December 2003, allowing it to enter orbit with its remaining propellant. Unfortunately, the backup plan began to unravel on April 21, 2002, when powerful solar flares damaged Nozomi’s communications and power systems. While technicians devised workarounds to maintain contact with the craft, an electrical short in the system used to control the temperature of its hydrazine propellant meant that its vital fuel supply would freeze solid when the temperature fell below 2°C (35°F), as would happen when the spacecraft travelled beyond Earth’s orbit.

While the hydrazine thawed out in time for the first Earth flyby at a distance of 29,510 kilometers (18,341 miles) on December 21, 2002, and the second flyby of 11,023 kilometers (6,851 miles) on June 19, 2003, it froze solid on its way to Mars, preventing the propulsion system from working. These problems were compounded when all contact with Nozomi was lost on July 8, 2003
, and never regained as a result of the damaged communication system. Nozomi silently flew an estimated 894 kilometers (556 miles) above the surface of Mars on December 10, 2003, and continued on into a two-year solar orbit.

Mars Climate Orbiter

Probably one of the most infamous orbit insertion failures involved the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO), whose mode of failure could only happen in America with its stubborn refusal to go metric like the rest of the world. MCO was one of NASA’s ’90s-era missions touted as being “faster, better, cheaper.” Unfortunately, one of the ways to make the mission cheaper was to cut back on testing and oversight of the contractors. MCO carried a pair of instruments to study the atmosphere of Mars from a circular 421-kilometer (262-mile) orbit including one that was originally carried by the ill-fated Mars Observer spacecraft lost in 1993 in another orbit insertion failure. Initially, MCO would enter an elliptical orbit around Mars with a nominal periapsis of 210 kilometers and a period of about 15 hours. After entering orbit, MCO would use an aerobraking technique first employed by one of its predecessors, the Mars Global Surveyor launched in 1996, to gradually lower its orbit over the course of the next couple of months. One final propulsive maneuver would then raise its periapsis out of the Martian upper atmosphere and circularize its orbit for science operations.

MCO was successfully launched on December 11, 1998, and performed its first course correction ten days later. A second minor course correction took place on March 4, 1999. But by the time of the third course correction on July 25 just 60 days before arrival at Mars, the mission’s navigation team was beginning to suspect that something was wrong with the design and execution on the course correction maneuvers since their calculations consistently showed MCO tracking closer to Mars than their predictions. On September 19, a fourth course correction took place, but tracking showed that MCO would pass 173 kilometers from Mars instead of the nominal 210 kilometers. Since MCO could come as close as 85 kilometers of Mars and survive, controllers elected not to performa a fifth course correction.

But with only hours to go before orbit insertion on September 23, 1999, JPL navigators were reporting that MCO would pass only 110 kilometers from Mars. This would be survivable but MCO would need to raise its periapsis altitude during its first orbit. The full magnitude of the navigation error did not become apparent until it was too late. About five minutes into its 16-minute, 23-second orbit insertion burn, contact with MCO was lost as it passed behind Mars 39 seconds earlier than predicted. MCO was never heard from again. Apparently the navigation error had continued to grow and MCO passed as close as 57 kilometers above the Martian surface, where it was destroyed.

An investigation into the loss of MCO later revealed that the error was embarrassingly trivial. In order to predict accurately the path of MCO, JPL navigators needed to take into account all of the forces acting on the spacecraft, including the small impulses of its attitude control thrusters. Instead of being supplied with a table of thruster impulses in the metric units of newton-seconds that the JPL navigation programs required, the spacecraft contractor, Lockheed Martin, had supplied a table in units of pound-seconds. As a result, the navigational corrections for the attitude thruster firings were too small by a factor of 4.5. This error, combined with a greater number of thruster firings than originally planned because of the asymmetric arrangement of solar panels and other addendages, caused the fatal navigation error. The loss of MCO and NASA’s Mars Polar Lander two months later from unrelated causes resulted in a major review of mission engineering practices for such smaller missions and a two-year delay of further missions to Mars.

NEAR

The American NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) mission, which was the first of NASA’s Discovery class of small planetary science missions to be launched, experienced a propulsion system failure that nearly scuttled its mission to orbit the near Earth asteroid 433 Eros for one year. NEAR launched on February 19, 1996, and was later renamed NEAR Shoemaker after the late American planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker (1928–1997). On June 27, 1997, NEAR flew 1,212 kilometers (753 miles) from 253 Mathilde, gathering vital new data on asteroids in the process. On July 3, NEAR performed a two-part deep space maneuver using its primary 450-newton (100-pound-force) engine to set it on course for a 540-kilometer (336-mile) flyby of the Earth on January 23, 1998, and subsequently on course to rendezvous with Eros on January 10, 1999.

The rendezvous with Eros planned to use a series of four propulsive maneuvers over the course of three weeks. The first and largest one, on December 20, 1998, required the main engine to burn for 15 minutes to change NEAR’s velocity by 650 meters per second (1,450 miles per hour) roughly matching the spacecraft’s orbit with that of Eros in the process. Three subsequent maneuvers would adjust the spacecraft’s approach trajectory and finally establish an orbit around the low-gravity target. However, NEAR’s main engine shut down a fraction of a second into its burn and communications with NEAR were lost as the spacecraft began to tumble. After controllers finally reestablished communications 27 hours later, they found that its thrusters had fired thousands of times as the spacecraft tried to regain control of its attitude, expending 29 kilograms (64 pounds) of propellant in the process and reducing its propellant margins to zero. Investigators never definitively determined the cause of the problem, but software and operational errors apparently only made the problem worse.

Ground controllers immediately put a new plan into effect to salvage the mission. It was already too late to rendezvous with Eros this time around, so scientists had to content themselves for the moment with a quick reconnaissance as NEAR flew by Eros at a distance of 3,927 kilometers (2,441 miles) on December 23. Under the new plan, NEAR performed the major burn of its main engine on January 3, 1999, to roughly match the orbit of Eros. After another 13 months in solar orbit, NEAR finally completed its rendezvous with one final small maneuver on February 14, 2000. NEAR was able to successfully execute its one-year mission at Eros ending it with a successful touchdown on the asteroid’s surface (a mission-ending task for which NEAR was not originally designed) on February 12, 2001, where it remained until it was shut down 16 days later. Unlike most orbit insertion failures, NEAR was fortunate enough to recover and salvage its mission.

(Part 2 will conclude this survey by looking at three other Mars missions from the US and the former Soviet Union)
raj-senthil
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by raj-senthil »

raj-senthil wrote:ISRO planning to launch French satellite SPOT 7 on June 26
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scienc ... 111644.ece

ISRO official press release. PSLV C23 scheudled for June 30th.
http://isro.org/pressrelease/scripts/pr ... Jun20_2014
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by member_28108 »

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Vipul
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by Vipul »

ECIL’s giant telescope to be transported to Ladakh.

A giant Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) Gamma- ray Telescope is ready to be transported to Hanle, Ladakh from Hyderabad. The telescope weighing approximately 180 tonnes, has been designed, developed and manufactured by Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad for Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai.

MACE has undergone all field trials successfully and is ready to get dispatched to Hanle site in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. Similar telescopes set up in Namibia, Europe and US have been realized by collaborative efforts of multiple institutions, whereas, the present MACE Telescope has been designed and realized from conceptual stage to trial assembly stage by ECIL, Hyderabad with technology support from BARC, ECIL informed on Tuesday.

A flagging-off function of the MACE telescope by Dr. R.K. Sinha, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy & Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission has been organized at the Antenna Systems Group, ECIL on June 28. When fully operational by early 2016, the telescope will enhance understanding in the fields of astrophysics, fundamental physics, article acceleration mechanisms for gamma-ray generation and spectral cut off of Pulsars, ECIL said.

The 21m diameter MACE Telescope being set up at Hanle (32.80 N, 78.90 E, 4200 m above MSL) in the Ladakh region of North India, will be the second largest gamma ray telescope in the world. The largest telescope of the same class is the 28 m diameter HESS telescope operating in Namibia.
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by member_23694 »

so the PSLV launch has become so boring :)

FYI
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 368583.cms
The launch, originally fixed at 9.49 am on June 30, has been rescheduled for 9.52 am
Since no discussion on PSLV launch should signal ISRO to speed up now on LVM3, ULV and Human space flight :wink:
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Re: Indian Space Programme Discussion

Post by member_23658 »

SSridhar wrote:I have a feeling that the ISRO might have invited the PM for the event. What better way for him to understand about DoS which comes under him, than by making a personal visit. I do not think the ISRO would otherwise decide its launch window based on the schedule of all and sundry politicians. The PM has a tight schedule in June & July.
correcto!! PM Modi on the way to Sriharikota
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