HISTORIC WEDNESDAY: 'Mangalyaan' enters Martian orbit; ISRO makes space ...

ISRO's Mars Orbiter Insertion is a resounding success, making India the first country to be successful on its maiden Mars mission. The success of the Mars Orbiter Mission will boost India's five-decade-old space programme. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated ISRO's scientists and addressed the country on the historic ocassion.

India's 100th Space Mission launched successfully with a PSLV-C21 Rocket

India's 100th Space Mission was launched on 9^th September 2012 with a PSLV-C21 rocket's successful lift-off. The first mission took place in 1975 with the launch of the first satellite - Aryabhata.

ISRO launched PSLV-C18 successfully

The Indian Space Research Organization on Wednesday used a strategic delay to evade a possible encounter with space debris and ensured a perfect launch of the PSLV-C18. Lifting off from the Sriharikota spaceport at 11.01 am, a minute after its designated time, ISRO’s workhorse PSLV put in orbit three satellites, including the Indo-French Megha-Tropiques. With this, the PSLV, which was inducted in 1993, exceeded a half century of satellite launches. “The launch was a great success. We had targeted a circular orbit of 867 km for weather satellite Megha-Tropiques and we have achieved, as per initial reports, 865 km,” said ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan. “It demonstrates again the reliability and versatility of PSLV as a launch platform.” After beginning the 50-hour countdown at 9 am on Monday, ISRO got wind of the space debris. Three hours before the schedule lift-off time, it found that the probability of collision remained high. “We delayed the launch by a minute as there was a higher probability of the launch vehicle hitting space debris at an altitude between 600 km and 800 km,” an official said. One minute is a significant amount of time in this context as any object in space at that height moves at 8 km/second. The delay ensured that the rocket reached the altitude after the debris had moved away by about 500 km and the satellites could be safely ejected into the orbit. The 1,000kg Megha-Tropiques, put in orbit 22-and-a-half minutes after the rocket lifted off, was jointly developed by ISRO and French national space agency CNES. It will study the water cycle and energy exchanges in the tropics. Its circular orbit is inclined at 20 degrees to the equator allowing it to cover more area on both sides of the equator. “It will help us understand our climate better. This knowledge will also help our farmers,” said Radhakrishnan. It is only the second satellite of its kind in the world. The first, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) developed jointly by the US and Japan, was launched in 1997. “Megha-Tropiques, part of a global precipitation measuring mission, can be considered the contribution of India and France to the project.” The other satellites are the 28.7kg VesselSat-1 of Luxembourg, 3kg Jugnu of IIT Kanpur and 10.9-kg SRMSat of SRM University in Chennai.

ISRO plans second Mars Mission with Rover and Lander in 2018

After the success of the recent Mars Orbit Mission (MOM), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is planning to revisit the Red Planet in 2018 with a heavier satellite which will carry a lander and a rover.

Director of ISRO Satellite Centre S Shiva Kumar said the space agency is planning to launch a second Mars mission in 2018, to conduct more experiments for which they have to develop new technologies.

In September 24, the state-run space agency successfully inserted its spacecraft (MOM) in the Martian orbit with five scientific instruments to search for life-sustaining elements on the planet over nine months after it was launched November 5, 2013 from its spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 90 km northeast of Chennai.

“We will be able to take the Mars-2 mission after launching the second mission to the moon (Chandrayaan-2) in 2016 with our own lander and rover, which will help us develop a separate lender and rover for the red planet,” Kumar said, ahead of a three-day ‘Engineers Conclave-2014’ by the space agency with the Indian National Academy of Engineering here.

The space agency is looking for a slot in 2018 as the mission to Mars can be launched only after two years. They also hope to have a heavy rocket - fully operational to carry a lender and rover with scientific experiments as additional payloads by then.

“We hope to have fully operational heavy rockets over the next two-three years for carrying communication satellites weighting two-three tonnes into the geo-stationary orbits around the earth,” Kumar said.

The space agency has developed the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-Mark I-III) with indigenous cryogenic engine to launch satellites weighing more than two tonnes and three tonnes into the geo-orbit at 36,000km above Earth.

India starts to develop its heaviest satellite

India will soon design and develop its heaviest communications satellite GSAT-11 to provide advanced telecom services from 2011-12, a senior official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said here Friday. At 4.5 tonnes, it will weigh more than twice as much as the biggest Indian satellite in orbit now.

“Activities to design and develop GSAT-11 will start immediately, as the project has been cleared by the government at a cost of Rs.5-billion (Rs.500 crore),” ISRO Director S. Satish said.

The advanced communications technology satellite will be launched in mid-2011 on board the Geo-Synchronus Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-Mark III) from ISRO’s spaceport at Sriharikota, about 80 km north-east of Chennai.

“The satellite will be designed at our satellite centre in Bangalore, payloads consisting of 40 transponders in Ku/Ka band will be built at the space applications centre in Ahmedabad and the 630-tonne rocket (GSLV-Mark III) will be rolled out from the liquid propulsion systems centre in Thiruvananthapuram,” Satish told IANS.

The indigenously developed GSAT series of satellites are aimed at revolutionising communications, spanning digital audio, data and video broadcasting. The earlier versions of GSAT such as GSAT-1 and GSAT-2 were designed with two S-band and three C-band transponders.

“With 16 high capacity multi-beams in Ku/Ka band, GSAT-11 will provide much faster uplinks for a host of communications and broadcasting services, including direct-to-home (DTH television). With a dry mass of 2.1 tonne, the spacecraft will provide 10 GHz of bandwidth, which will be equivalent to about 220 transponders of 36 MHz,” Satish pointed out.

The advanced satellite will employ a new 1-4K Bus (computer network). It will be configured with two-sided large solar array panels generating 11 KW of power.

In the run-up to GSAT-11, the space agency is scheduling the launch of other communications satellites in the GSAT series over the next two years.

“The two-tonne GSAT-4, slated for launch by this year on board GSLV-Mark II, will have a communication payload comprising multi-beam Ka-band pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload in C, L1 and L5 bands,” Satish said.

GSAT-4 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.

Propulsion with four stationary plasma thrusters, Bus Management Unit (BMU), miniaturised dynamically tuned gyros, 36 AH Lithium ion battery, 70 V bus for Ka-band and on board structural dynamic vibration beam accelerometer are some of the new technologies developed for GSAT-4.

“GSAT-4 spacecraft will 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,” the official said.

GSAT-1 was launched on board a technology demonstrator (GSLV-D1) April 18, 2001 as an experimental satellite for performance monitoring, tracking, range safety/flight safety and preliminary orbit determination.

GSAT-2 was launched May 8, 2003 and is located at 48 degrees east Longitude and carries four C-band transponders and two Ku-band transponders.

“The dedicated satellite for distance education (Edusat), launched in September 2004, is part of the GSAT series and can be considered as GSAT-3. Its transponders and their ground coverage are specially configured to cater to educational requirements,” Satish added.

The remaining spacecraft in GSAT series such as GSAT-5, GSAT-6 and GSAT-8 will be equated with INSAT-4 series of communication satellites. In the series, the government has not yet approved the development of GSAT-7 and GSAT-10 satellites.

GSAT-5 or INSAT-4D will be configured as an exclusive C-band communication satellite. It will carry 12 normal C-band transponders and six extended C-band transponders with wider coverage in uplink and downlink over Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe as well as zonal coverage.

GSAT-5 will be launched on board GSLV in 2010 and positioned at 82 degrees east longitude.

The two-tonne GSAT-6/INSAT-4E will have a multimedia mobile S-band transponder to provide entertainment and information services to consumers and vehicles through digital multimedia consoles and multimedia mobile phones. It is also slated for launch next year and will have a mission life of 12 years.

GSAT-8/INSAT-4G is proposed as a Ku-band satellite with 24 transponders similar to that of INSAT-4A and INSAT-4B.

“It will also carry the second GPS aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) payload,” Satish told IANS. “The satellite is expected to be launched in the second half of 2010 and will be positioned at 55 degrees east longitude.”

India successfully tests Cryogenic rocket engine

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted a test of its indigenous cryogenic (supercooled fuel) engine to be used in the next geosynchronous launch vehicle (GSLV-D3) mission, the space agency said here Saturday.” The flight acceptance hot test of the Cryogenic engine was carried out at the liquid propulsion systems centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu Thursday. This engine will be used in the next GSLV launch in April 2009 for carrying the 2.3-tonne geo-stationary experimental satellite (GSAT),” ISRO said in a statement. Cryogenic engines are rocket motors designed for liquid fuels that have to be held at very low ‘cryogenic’ temperatures, as they would otherwise be gas at normal temperatures. Typically, hydrogen and oxygen are used which need to be held respectively below 20 degrees Kelvin (-253 degrees Celsius) and 90 degrees Kelvin (-183 degrees Celsius) to remain in liquid form. ISRO plans to use its own first cryogenic engine in place of the Russian-made engine in the upper stage of the rocket that will deploy the satellite with navigation and technology payloads into the geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The cryogenic engine develops a thrust of 73 kilo Newtons (kN) in vacuum with a specific impulse of 454 seconds (7.56 minutes) and can carry 2.2 tonnes. Working on a staged combustion cycle with an integrated turbo-pump, the engine will have 42,000 rotations per minute (rpm). It also has two steering engines developing a thrust of 2 kN each to enable three-axis control of the launch vehicle during the flight mission.” The hot test was carried out for 200 seconds (3.33 minutes) during which the engine was operated in the nominal and 13 percent up-rated thrust regimes. All the propulsion parameters were satisfactory and matched with predictions,” the statement mentioned. The cryogenic engine will be integrated with propellant tanks, stage structures and associated feed lines of the launch vehicle for the flight mission in April next from the spaceport at Sriharikota, about 80 km north of Chennai. The central government Friday approved the development of semi-cryogenic engines for space transportation at a cost of Rs.1,798 crore (approx Rs.18 billion) with a foreign exchange component of Rs.588 crore (Rs.5.88 billion).” This will be an important step towards self-reliance in advanced space transportation technology,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi. Cryogenic engine technology is currently present only in Russia and the US. The semi-cryogenic engines will facilitate applications for future space missions like the reusable launch vehicle, the unified launch vehicle and the vehicle for inter-planetary missions, Chidambaram added.