Indian Space Capabilities

[HitesH]

Dont forget to add "indigenous" after every other word. I am sure the audience ego will be satisfied with taking all credit away from foreigner technologies.

didnt ask for it
not much of the use either
but still thnx anyway

 

[Ecstacy]

Dont forget to add "indigenous" after every other word. I am sure the audience ego will be satisfied with taking all credit away from foreigner technologies.

surely it will...how 'bout a comparative study of space capabilities of India and Pakistan??U deserve a copy of it..oops..!!! did i just say space capabilities??

 

[Justin Joseph]

Planning Commission pulled up for hurdles in ISRO project

New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel has sternly told the Planning Commission not to interfere in the decision making process of ISRO, particularly in the ambitious Human Space Flight (HSF) programme.

"The Committee fails to understand that when the Space Commission, the highest policy making body of the Department of Space, has given the go ahead to this (HSF) programme, why stumbling blocks were created at the government level.

"Planning Commission should not come in the way of conception and realisation of a programme only because it is instrumental in providing allocations for the Department."

These strong words are in the 206th report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests which was tabled in the Lok Sabha today. The Committee is headed by Rajya Sabha member T Subbarami Reddy.

Government has already approved the pre-project activities for the Rs 12,400 crore human space flight project.

"We are now seeking phase-wise approvals for various steps in the project," an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spokesman said when asked to comment on the report.

The Committee appeared miffed at the drastic reduction in the allocation for the HSF at the Revised Estimates stage in 2009-10.

In its report, the Committee noted that while the HSF was allocated Rs 238 crore at the Budget Estimates stage, the was reduced to Rs 30 crore at the Revised Estimates stage.

It said that the Department of Space had submitted the Budget Report for the HSF which was reviewed and cleared by the Space Commission, as well as, by a high-level Committee chaired by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission.

"However, it was indicated through the subsequent discussions that the Human Space Flight programme could be taken up in phases and the first phase should focus on developing critical technologies such as crew module, service module, crew escape system, environment control and life support systems," the Committee report said.

It noted that the RE provision, therefore, had been reduced in view of the pre-project activities.

The Committee expressed the view that the HSF should not only be taken up in the right earnest but also be made successful at the earliest.

"The Committee strongly recommends that the right to take final decision in scientific and technical matters should be vested with the Department of Space only and financial constraints should not be allowed to come in its way towards progress of these crucial and critical programmes," the report said.

Planning Commission pulled up for hurdles in ISRO project

 

[Renegade]

The New Space Race. (Must Watch)

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/insidestory/2010/04/201041414835779191.html

 

[Bushy]

The New Space Race. (Must Watch)

Al Jazeera English - INSIDE STORY - The new space race

"Smack in the face of America..."

HAHAHAHAHA !!! That was funny as hell lol
He went so overboard, made everyone feel so awkward lol

 

[bumbgola]

The Hindu Business Line : The thruster that fell into sea

The thruster that fell into sea



A file picture of GSat-4 at Sriharikota


M. Ramesh

Chennai, April 24

Amid the din of big rockets and cryogenics, a small but very significant step into space, which plunged into the sea along with the GSat-4 satellite, went completely unnoticed.

Even its mention in the brochures and other publicity literature was so unobtrusive and couched in jargon that perhaps an enthusiast would probably have glossed over its significance.

We are speaking of the ‘plasma thrusters'.

Fuel is the key

First a little background. A satellite is put in a particular orbit the choice of which largely depends upon what the satellite is meant to do. In that orbit, it keeps circling Earth at a particular ‘orbital velocity', which is a function of Earth's gravity acting upon it. But, since in the cosmos a body is acted upon by a number of gravitational forces, a body like the satellite, often swerves from its orbit and could either crash into Earth's atmosphere or slowly spin away into space.

In order to prevent a satellite from thus getting lost, small engines are fitted in and these can be fired by signals from Earth. When a satellite begins to go astray, its trackers on Earth fire one of these engines to nudge it back in line. But once these engines run out of fuel, the trackers can't do this and the satellite goes out of control. Therefore, the fuel these engines contained determines the life of the satellite.

Typically, in a satellite, half the space is occupied by these engines, leaving only the rest for equipment such as transponders or cameras.

The GSat-4 was a little different. Instead of conventional chemical engines, it had four ‘plasma thrusters.' Because of this, the life of the satellite would have been seven years, instead of 4-5. At optimum use, these plasma thrusters could enhance the life of a satellite to even 15 years.

A plasma thruster is an engine that uses the discharge of plasma to propel an object. Plasma is a gas in which some electrons have been ripped off their atoms by the application of external energy. These electrons and the (remainder) ions co-exist, and this state is often referred to as the fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid and gas. Plasma exists everywhere. The sun, for instance, is a huge chunk of plasma.

Plasma, electrically charged gas, is influenced by magnetic field. In a plasma thruster (to put it in very simple terms), you create a magnetic field, with the help of which you can direct a jet of plasma out through a nozzle. A thrust, in the opposite direction, results.

Plasma thrusters are nothing new. They have been used off and on, even as early as the 1960s. There seems to be some resurgence in interest in them now. However, the GSat-4 was the first instance of them being used in India.

4 thrusters

The GSat-4 satellite had four of these thrusters – two made by Russians and two ‘made in India'.

Satellites launched by ISRO in future may be expected to use plasma thrusters for maintaining ‘attitude', or orientation. These thrusters last much longer than the chemical rockets used today, as they are powered by electricity that the solar panels generate from sunlight. Consequently, not only will the satellites live long. Also, more on-board space will be freed for instruments.

The GSat-4 would have been a good learning experience. Alas, it's gone!

 

[JamesD]

I'm really fed up with those keywords of will, plan,may,,,,in all news about India.

 

[zaidkhan1991]

lmao funny how none of our Pakistani friends have debated on this one. Shows you how much progress we have made in ISRO

 

[Gallion]

Need I remind everyone that's so worked up at things Indian to look at the Indian attempts at coming up with a locally designed and produced jet engine, a local trainer for the air force, the cryogenics rocket they just attempted to launch, the Arjun tank, the LCA, the helicopter they cant produce by themselves, the list is rather long but you get the point i am making, sadly in India's case the instructions goes something like this, open package, assemble numbered pieces in the package per instruction, paint and apply Indian decals, last step, call it a locally designed and produced item

 

[mrwarrior006]

^^^first open ur mouth and introduce urself in members section

 

[Mauryan]

Need I remind everyone that's so worked up at things Indian to look at the Indian attempts at coming up with a locally designed and produced jet engine, a local trainer for the air force, the cryogenics rocket they just attempted to launch, the Arjun tank, the LCA, the helicopter they cant produce by themselves, the list is rather long but you get the point i am making, sadly in India's case the instructions goes something like this, open package, assemble numbered pieces in the package per instruction, paint and apply Indian decals, last step, call it a locally designed and produced item:cheers:

So a newbie who just wokeup after reading some rupee news came onto this board and started critisizing the research establishments without even knowing a tiny bit of workculture in there and the capabilitites they incurred.

On behalf of that highlighted part, goto CERN and look for Indian inputs from BEL to ISRO to BARC and DRDO.period.

At the same time take pain to research about the JV of vikings. If ISRO has all dumb folks, then there is no need for CNES to do almost everything in Joint collaboration.
For LHC BARC spent a signigicant R&D and workforce there.

Ohh Mr. AQ.Khan ,can you please take pain to elaborate which ones of the strategic systems were assembled from imported knock-down kits?
One thing that indians should be proud of is,their reluctance to voilate IPR unlike some others who lead their life by continiously voilating IPRs.
can you provide me a solid proof that Russia flight tested those very cro engines which were supplied to India? but ISRO went ahead and got those systems and flight tested taking risk.Did your peanut brain tried to find the logic behind this?
And ISRO took 17 years to develope a cryo engine after receiving bule prints from russia??? That too the final version was put at a much diferent thrust levels?

Jet engine was a different story.Even china(which used to be a copy cat )was still struggling to fly its own turbofan.OTOH,Kaveri development has to be looked with broad spectrum like the spin-offs and provision of technologies which were unavailable untill the project was conceived. failure in the indian pov has two reasons. one is lack of industrial base,while the other is lack of proper project management.

Do you know what it takes to leapfrog from 2nd gen fighter to a 4+ gen fighter with no proper research facilities? and in just 20 years time frame?
Take it as granted ,LCA-MKI inits current form(IOC standard by 2010-dec) is far more capable than the craft its replacing and is going to be a pain the *** for some nations along the borders.Its low RCS and sensor fusion is the key.
When an educated person considers all the impacts of such development under the indian gov administrations(considering the level of facilities available,and the base needed to sustain the development along with paisa needed )and an un-educated who just taught reading sentences will certainly fail to realise the propers.

Critisizing takes just minutes,while thinking outside the box takes time...lot of time.

 

[Choppers]

India to be part of 'robotic network' on red planet
Last Updated: Apr 30, 2010

NEW DELHI (PTI): India has signed a statement of intent with space-faring nations including the US to work on the concept of establishing a "robotic network" on the surface of the Moon to conduct detailed scientific investigations.

Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan said the network called 'International Lunar Network' will carry out detailed scientific investigations on the Moon.

"This is an international cooperative effort and will not constitute any binding commitments on the participating nations," he said.

India to be part of 'robotic network' on red planet :: Brahmand.com

 

[Choppers]

India's space program takes a hit​

By Peter J Brown

In mid-April, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) tested a large, multi-stage rocket which was equipped with a new cryogenic engine that had been designed and developed by Indian engineers.

Roughly five minutes into this third development flight, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3) suffered a third-stage ignition failure and as a result of the malfunctioning launch vehicle, the GSAT-4 communications and navigation satellite on board was lost.

ISRO could do not dismiss or evade the media onslaught that ensued.

"After the unsuccessful flight, the ISRO chairman, K Radhakrishnan, initially suggested that two small cryogenic steering engines, which swivel to maintain the rocket's orientation, might have malfunctioned. Later, however, he indicated that the main cryogenic engine itself might not have ignited. In such a complex system as the cryogenic stage, even a small defect that escapes attention is sufficient to doom the flight," The Hindu declared on its editorial page, for example. "But the space agency would be unwise to confine its analysis to problems encountered with the indigenous cryogenic stage. This is an opportunity for a thorough examination of the entire GSLV rocket and its past five flights. There have, for instance, been problems with the Vikas liquid-propellant engine in previous flights. The procedures for the manufacture, assembly, and pre-flight testing of all liquid propellant engines and stages need particular attention. A comprehensive review would best ensure the future reliability of the GSLV." (1)

Over the last two to three years, the total space budget allocated to India's Department of Space has been growing at a rate greater than any of the other major space faring countries. The latest increase from 2009 to 2010 was approximately 35% - from 41.67 billion Indian rupees (US$934 million) to 57.78 billion rupees this year, just over $1.1 Billion. (2) While this huge spike in funding seems impressive on a percentage basis, it is worth noting that the US National Aeronautic and Space Administration's budget, for example, exceeds $18 Billion in 2010.

Still, this budgetary surge translates quickly into political pressure from Delhi to perform flawlessly, and certainly does not make this latest incident any easier to digest at ISRO headquarters.

The GSLV-D3 was launched from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Center, which occupies an island located off India's spectacular southeast coast in Andhra Pradesh.

The exact cause of the failure is still unknown. ISRO has spent years, indeed decades, working on cryogenic rocket technology in an attempt to match the satellite launch capabilities of top-tier space faring nations. The Europeans, Russians, Japanese, Chinese and the Americans have all successfully incorporated this technology into their space programs. In 2011, if everything proceeds on schedule, ISRO will attempt another cryogenic engine-propelled flight test.

Russia has supplied India with these cryogenic engines in the past and the next two GSLV flights will use these Russian-built engines, but ISRO considers mastery of this cryogenic technology, which involves super-cooled propellants, as extremely vital to ISRO's future plans to make very low-cost satellite launches a reality. ISRO has frequently declared that it is intent upon offering satellite launch services at bargain rates, but since its first successful launch of an Italian satellite in 2007, ISRO's campaign to become one of the world's top satellite launch service providers has progressed much more slowly than expected.

Antrix Corp Ltd - the commercial development arm of India's Department of Space - offers civilian launch services via both its existing GSLV and its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Antrix has already established an alliance with the European satellite consortium, EADS Astrium.

The PSLV is designed to launch payloads weighing up to 1.6 tons into so-called sun synchronous orbits, and it simply lacks the raw power or lift capacity necessary to carry typical communications satellites which can often weigh four tons or more deeper into space. This altitude is needed so these satellites can be stationed in their permanent orbital slots around the earth - 36,000 kilometers above the equator.

The same is basically true for the existing GSLV, which also is hindered by its carrying capacity. It can only accommodate satellites weighing 2.2 tons or less, which is why India is developing the GSLV-D3 and its successors to serve as India's heavyweight class of launch vehicles capable of lifting satellites and other payloads weighing four tons or more.

India's next launch attempt - a PSLV mission - was to take place in mid-May. However, in late April, ISRO postponed it and the new launch date has not been announced. The plan calls for PSLV-C15 to launch an Indian earth observation satellite named Cartosat-2B. Besides Cartosat-2B, an Algerian satellite known as Alsat, two Canadian tiny, so-called nano-satellites and a "Studsat" which is a one-kilogram satellite created by Indian university students, will make the trip, too.

Despite the GSLV-D3 loss, ISRO and Antrix remain active and seemingly unchanged by this experience. In order to accurately gauge how this incident has impacted ISRO, and to better assess ISRO's current overall status, Asia Times Online reached out to two experts on the Indian space program.

Professor Asif Siddiqi at Fordham University in New York is writing a book on the Indian space program. He is also one of the co-authors of "The Future of Human Spaceflight: Objectives and Policy Implications in a Global Context", which was produced last year as part of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences project entitled, "Reconsidering the Rules of Space".

Bharath Gopalaswamy, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's Arms Control and Non-proliferation Program, specializes in space security with a principal focus on India's civilian and military space programs.

Siddiqi views the loss of the GSLV-D3 as clearly having a psychological impact on ISRO personnel.

"ISRO has been surging recently with very ambitious plans and expectations that called for some unrealistic schedules. The GSLV-D3 failure will curb some of the lofty rhetoric coming out of ISRO in recent years," said Siddiqi. "The failure of the cryogenic engine has a more direct impact on the payloads manifested for the GSLV in the near future as well, particularly the GSAT satellites."

It has been widely reported that ISRO is definitely disappointed and that this represents a setback. However, ISRO had a backup plan in place involving Russian cryogenic engines that were obtained long before the GSLV-D3 headed for its launch pad.

"The setback primarily is because if this launch had been successful, it would have enabled India to launch its own communication satellites, its first manned space flight (now scheduled for 2017) and the Chandrayaan 2 lunar probe in 2012," said Gopalaswamy. "The decision to revert back to using Russian boosters is a prudent one. India has two scheduled launches of GSLV for the fiscal year 2010-2011 and it is quite doubtful if the indigenous cryogenic engines would be ready by then. Hence, this has to be considered a prudent if not an inevitable decision."

Siddiqi describes cryogenic engines as "notoriously hard to troubleshoot and it may make sense for ISRO to invite Russian cooperation to investigate the failure".

"From what I have heard there are conflicting accounts of exactly what happened. If it is discovered that the main engine did not ignite at all as some reports suggest, this will be a big setback," said Siddiqi. "If the engine ignited even for one second as other reports suggest, this would be relatively speaking good news."

The fact that ISRO has taken nearly 20 years to develop its own indigenous cryogenic engine is not the issue here. Instead, the real issue is that all of the other nations who now possess this capability were able to attain this level of competence much quicker than ISRO.

"So, on the one hand, we should be impressed that ISRO has joined such a select club, but on the other hand, the long development time indicates a general trend in ISRO programs involving chronic delays," said Siddiqi.

That said, Siddiqi considers ISRO to be a relatively robust organization that has achieved most of the goals it has set out to achieve, although almost none of its goals have been achieved on time. This is neither unusual nor exceptional. Routine delays and constant rescheduling are common to most of the world's space programs.

"ISRO has mastered technological systems that put it on par with the 'second tier' states such as the European Space Agency and Japan and [with respect to remote sensing, for example] on par with the best in the world," said Siddiqi.

Amongst ISRO's main challenges right now is encouraging young and bright Indian engineers to join the space program.

"There is a fundamental shortage of qualified young blood and it remains to be seen how ISRO will meet the demands of the future given that most technically-minded Indians gravitate to the IT industry rather than to the space program," said Siddiqi. "The organizational culture of ISRO is set to a large degree by the ISRO chief. Given that the new ISRO chairman, Dr K Radhakrishnan, has been in his position for a very short time, it is not clear how his leadership and management abilities will affect ISRO. The GSLV-D3 failure will undoubtedly be a big test for him."
There has always been a degree of tension both horizontally



between the many different ISRO centers spread across India, and vertically, that is between ISRO headquarters and the Department of Space in Delhi and the directorate at each of these centers.

"Any friction between the different centers has been less prevalent since the 1990s," said Siddiqi.

One cannot rule out the possibility that quality control or "QC" played a role in this incident. It is an issue that is always lurking in the background whenever a spacecraft or rocket falters. The US in particular has been waging an unusually visible and uphill battle against sloppy "QC" for years, and may be finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

For example in February, Gary Payton, US Air Force deputy under secretary for space programs, used a session sponsored by the Space Foundation to once again call attention to what can result when testing is poorly executed and QC procedures break down. Whenever poor workmanship and spotty managerial oversight prevail, and if substandard and defective parts as well as error-riddled software code somehow find their way to the launch pad, the launch in question is probably doomed from the start. (3)

In other words, failure to discover problems prior to launch is a common source of headaches in the space realm.

"As far as quality control, of course, there will always be problems, but ISRO has done an admirable job of trying to limit quality control shortcomings. Their record with the PSLV as well as the recent success of the Chandrayaan mission was exemplary in this regard," said Siddiqi.

After all the bugs are worked out, Siddiqi is not convinced that the GSLV-D3 will magically provide ISRO with a major competitive advantage in the geostationary launch market.

"[ISRO] faces undeniably low launch rates and stiff competition from other launch vehicles such as [Russia's] Proton and [France's] Ariane which have a robust record," said Siddiqi. "India's one advantage, pricing, will be compromised by insurance premiums. The failure of the indigenous cryogenic version certainly will not help."

It is no surprise that Siddiqi describes the PSLV as India's best bet for a commercial launcher, but there is no escaping the fact that PSLV was never designed to compete with the much larger and more powerful Proton, Ariane, or China's Long March and the US's Atlas launch vehicles, to name just a few, which are used routinely.

Gopalaswamy agrees with ISRO's objectives here. Entry into the commercial satellite launch market poses a considerable challenge, because one major obstacle that hinders any steady progress by ISRO is the wall of restrictions that must be surmounted. This has been put in place by major players, particularly the US which tightly controls all satellite components and satellite exports for launch overseas.

"Antrix made initial forays by offering launch services in piggyback mode to Germany, Belgium, Argentina and Korea. In 2007, a full-fledged commercial launch was performed by PSLV by carrying an Italian astronomical satellite, AGILE. This was followed by the launch of Tec-SAR, an Israeli spy satellite in 2008," said Gopalaswamy. "So, I am not surprised at this objective of ISRO. However, there may be a point where an international dispute over launch pricing may arise. The nature of how and what that dispute is all about is something quite speculative at this stage."

Like the deep space probe projects, ISRO's manned program signals what Siddiqi describes as a "major shift" in ISRO's priorities away from those established in the late 1960s which were intended to shape ISRO into an enlightened spearhead for a global development drive using space technology.

"This shift occurred some time just after 2000. ISRO did not abandon that mandate but it took a very ambitious step in adding projects including deep space and manned missions that have little or nothing to do with development. Given India's growing economic and political clout on the global stage, we can expect that such programs which have no tangible or practical benefits, will continue to be funded," said Siddiqi. "From a purely practical perspective, the manned program seems unnecessary to ISRO's original mandate; it is clear that the manned program is not about the pursuit of scientific or technical knowledge or about alleviating poverty - it is first and foremost about prestige."

Mandates or not, India's Chandrayaan lunar program warrants closer scrutiny, according to Gopalaswamy.

"I am not sure if the cost benefits can be adequately justified - nor the strategic priorities in initiating such a program," said Gopalaswamy. "It is somewhat puzzling that a country that is unable to launch its own communication satellites initiates a program in the exploration of the moon."

Although ISRO's human spaceflight program might be considered a high-risk project, recent information seems to suggest that ISRO is taking a more gradual approach and spacing out the program even more. ISRO projects that its first manned flight will happen by 2017. Siddiqi describes ISRO's total projected $2.8 billion outlay for this manned spaceflight program as conservative.
"We may expect that either the program will remain at that funding level and increase the risk of accident, or funding will be increased in the next few years, more probably the latter," said Siddiqi.

Siddiqi remains concerned, however, that ISRO's commitment to a manned spaceflight project may eventually become a major drain on more conventional projects, and, that "those firmly pushing the manned program will have to be careful not to cut into established competences and priorities within ISRO".

"In terms of budget allocations, ISRO is achieving the right mix of funding for operational launch vehicles and satellites, new launch vehicles and satellites, infrastructure, and experimental technologies," said Siddiqi. "If I had a concern, it would be the manned space program. If not handled prudently, I see it potentially having long-range deleterious effects on other unrelated ISRO operations."

Peter J Brown is a satellite journalist from Maine USA.

(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

 

[gogbot]

article lacks perspective

 

[sudhir007]

ISRO to launch weather satellite Megha Tropiques soon :: Brahmand.com

ISRO to launch weather satellite Megha Tropiques soon

NEW DELHI (PTI): The Indian Space Research Organisation is mulling launching of 'megha tropiques' satellite to study climate in collaboration with France, the government told Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh while replying to a question said that the satellite will provide data on atmospheric humidity, radiation budget and amount of precipitation to help in climate study.

"India and France are jointly developing the scientific payloads of 'megha tropiques'," he said.

The Megha-Tropiques Mission (MTM) is a collaborative effort between French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and ISRO.