Various Indian space projects

antigravite said:

Another view: RLV-TD Wind tunnel model

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antigravite said:

Some more Indian advanced aerospace projects wind tunnel models.


Source: http://www.icast.org.in/Resources/Dwttfi2.pdf

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which has set itself a January 3, 2019 deadline for the launch of India's second mission to Moon (Chandrayaan-2) has several technological challenges brought about by the new configuration that it must address. In fact, Isro Chairman Sivan K, after whose taking charge the Chandrayaan-2 project has undergone several changes, says that the Lander designed for the programme was ill-configured and would have led to the failure of the programme.

"You can say that this is Chandrayaan-3 as the project has been reconfigured completely. If we went with the previous configuration it would have been a disaster. They had not thought of so many issues, that are being corrected now," Sivan told TOI. "As things stand, January deadline looks difficult to meet, but as the chairman has said there's a window up to March," one person working on Chandrayaan-2 told said.

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Among major challenges are the integration of the fifth liquid engine to manage the additional load of the lander which now has to orbit the Moon, lander legs, rover integration, modified harness and so on. Earlier this year, after the changes were made to the configuration, the fifth liquid engine failed a crucial qualification heat test. The Chandrayaan-2 mission will not be possible without this engine.

While confirming this, Sivan had told TOI in August: "The engine is fine, there was a problem with the way the test was conducted. Out of enthusiasm, people did the test wrong. The space system is such that real space environment must be created. But the way this is simulated must be correct, otherwise, there will be a problem. In this case, instead of creating external heat, the engine itself was heated." On Monday, he reiterated that the engine was alright and that it would be ready for the mission soon.

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Also, in a recent development, the Rover team has written to the project management team that the new configuration has created a problem for the Rover unloading manoeuvre. According to the feedback given by the Rover team, the new extended solar panels - necessitated by the new configuration - now extends well beyond the body of the lander casting a shadow on the rover when it has to come out of the lander.

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One scientist explains: "Although we have a battery, we won't know if that is in charged condition as it would have remained off, so we wanted sunlight. Now, the extension of the solar panel (an additional 350 meters) is casting a shadow, depriving the rover of sunlight during this manoeuvre." Sivan, however, said: "These are design challenges which will be overcome without much problem. It will all be corrected." Sivan has been insistent that the testing of Chandrayaan-2 happen only after the entire configuration is ready. The complete integration is expected to be ready by November 30.

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Flyaway said:

India has shot down a live satellite in space, says PM Narendra Modi

India has shot down a live satellite in low-Earth orbit as part of a successful test of new missile technology, prime minister Narendra Modi has announced.

The operation, dubbed Mission Shakti, makes India part of a ”super league” of nations to have achieved such a feat, Mr Modi said, alongside the US, Russia and China.

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‘Problem in Chandrayaan-2 rocket, lucky to detect’, say ISRO sources

Chandrayaan 2 Launch Mission: A committee of experts will now examine what went wrong and suggest ways to remove the glitches, it will take about a week to determine what exactly went wrong, the source added.

www.hindustantimes.com

“The rocket functioning was not according to laid down parameters... we are extremely lucky to detect the anomaly just before the launch, we are in control, the rocket and satellite are safe,” the source added, hours after the moon mission was called off.

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A committee of experts will now examine what went wrong and suggest ways to remove the glitches, it will take about a week to determine what exactly went wrong, the source added.

“We will have to dismantle the rocket to get to the root of the problem… we have window till month end to launch the mission,” the source added.

There were four suitable window periods for the launch in the month of July – July 15 and 16 and then again during new moon on July 29 and 30.

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ISRO teams have pinpointed the leak in the GSLV-MkIII cryogenic engine to a ‘nipple joint’ of the helium gas bottle that supplies pressure to the fuel and oxidiser

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The good news is that we can fix the leak without dismantling the rocket, since there is an access door to the gas bottle which is atop the oxygen tank

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The bad news is that unless we ascertain the reason for the leak, there is a probability of the problem recurring

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Not having to dismantle means Chandrayaan-2 may be able to fly before the end of the July launch window, but a final failure analysis will be available only in a day or two

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leak wasn’t serious enough to impair the flight, but Isro decided to apply “abundant caution"

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The rocket could’ve still made it, but we didn’t want to take any chances

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A veteran of Isro failure analysis said teams would now look at the proximity of the faulty ‘nipple joint’ to the oxidiser tank that stores liquid oxygen at minus 183 degrees Celsius. “If the joint was close to such a low temperature, the reason could be micro shrinkage of the joint. In that case we need to insulate it or shift the joint away from the coldest point,” the scientist said.

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Chandrayaan 2: Isro pinpoints GSLV-MkIII leak to 'nipple joint' of cryo engine | India News - Times of India

India News: The technical snag due to which Chandrayaan-2 had to be aborted was a leak in the GSLV-MkIII cryogenic engine by a faulty ‘nipple joint’ to the oxidis

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Moon mission will have to be launched, latest by July 20, and not later, if the mission has to run successfully without risks of compromise or even failure

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Lunar transfer trajectory (LTT) (the movement of the spacecraft from the Earth’s orbit towards the Moon’s orbit) has to be completed on August 1, which is referred to as T+17, or 17 days after the initially calculated launch at 2.51 am on July 15.

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The scientist said delaying the launch beyond July 20 will mean making a rendezvous with the Moon at a different time and location, which could delay the lander’s separation, besides requiring more fuel. This, in turn, could reduce the life of the orbiter

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He said longer lunar orbital insertion or delays would also prevent the lander from separating. He explained that delays in orbit could affect the orbiter’s pyro-circuit, whose objective is to generate energy to light up the lander’s thrusters to separate from the orbiter and begin its descent towards the lunar surface

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He emphasised the need to launch not later than July 20, or wait and launch the mission in the next launch period

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Chandrayaan-2 launch, which was called off due to a technical snag on July 15, 2019, is now rescheduled at 2:43 pm IST on Monday, July 22, 2019.

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On Monday, an Indian rocket launched a spacecraft bound for the Moon from Sriharikota, a barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast. This Chandrayaan-2 mission is the second spacecraft India has sent to the Moon, and it represents a significant effort to explore the lunar surface and its potential as a source for water ice.
The GSLV Mark III rocket lifted off Monday after an eight-day delay due to a technical issue, and the launch proceeded normally. "Today is a historical day for space and science and technology in India," K. Sivan, chair of the Indian Space Research Organization, said after the launch. "I'm extremely happy to announce that GSLV Mark III successfully injected Chandrayaan-2 into the defined orbit."

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India has launched an ambitious mission to the Moon

“Today is a historical day for space and science and technology in India.”…

arstechnica.com

Chandrayaan2 update: Fourth earth bound maneuver - ISRO

Fourth earth bound orbit raising maneuver for Chandryaan-2 spacecraft has been performed successfully today (August 2, 2019) at 1527 hrs (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 646 seconds. The orbit achieved is 277 x 89472 km. All spacecraft parameters are...

www.isro.gov.in

Chandrayaan2 update: Fourth earth bound maneuver

Fourth earth bound orbit raising maneuver for Chandryaan-2 spacecraft has been performed successfully today (August 2, 2019) at 1527 hrs (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 646 seconds. The orbit achieved is 277 x 89472 km.

All spacecraft parameters are normal.

The next orbit raising maneuver is scheduled on August 6, 2019, between 1430 – 1530 hrs (IST).

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Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019). The duration of maneuver was 1738 seconds beginning from 0902 hrs IST. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km.

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Chandrayaan-2 update: Lunar Orbit Insertion - ISRO

Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019). The duration of maneuver was 1738 seconds beginning from 0902 hrs IST. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km. Following this, a series...

www.isro.gov.in

The first de-orbiting maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (September 03, 2019) beginning at 0850 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the maneuver was 4 seconds.

The orbit of Vikram Lander is 104 km x 128 km. Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter continues to orbit the Moon in the existing orbit and both the Orbiter and Lander are healthy.

The next de-orbiting maneuver is scheduled on September 04, 2019 between 0330 - 0430 hrs IST.

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A top ISRO official told Frontline, “Vikram’s descent was very good during the rough braking phase. During the transition from the rough braking phase to the fine braking phase, there was a problem. The velocity of the descent could not be controlled. We are trying to identify what failed and what went wrong. It is very disappointing.”

The official said the lander would have crash-landed on the moon’s surface, a point that he emphasised more than once. “There is no question of its soft-landing. From the data available, it is clear that it has crashed,” he said. “We have a lot of data available and they are being analysed. In a couple of days, we will be able to come out with what the problem was,” he added. The data included telemetry data, including on-board data from the lander.

Another top official of ISRO said a committee consisting of specialists in propulsion, control, guidance, navigation and sensors had been set up to identify the precise reason why contact was lost with the lander when it was only 2.1 km above the moon’s surface. He added: “In a few more minutes, we would have touched down on the lunar surface. What is the reason why no data were available when the lander had only 2.1 km to come down we have no clue as yet. However, enormous amounts of data are available and we will analyse them to find out what exactly went wrong.” He also stressed that a glitch occurred during the transition phase of the lander from the rough braking phase to the fine braking phase.

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A top ISRO official said, “It is not clear why it happened. We are unable to decipher anything out of it so far. We have set up a team consisting of specialists in propulsion, control, guidance, navigation and sensors to find out what went wrong. So far, we do not have any clue about what went wrong.” He was confident that ISRO would zero in on the exact cause of the failure because enormous data were available and they would be analysed. All the data would be correlated. What was clear was that the lander had crashed on the moon’s surface.

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India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission ends in a crash-landing

Dispatches News:India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission ends in a crash-landing

frontline.thehindu.com

"Once the image was taken yesterday (Saturday), we had to ascertain if the object we saw was Vikram. Then based on the latitude and longitude, we checked old images from the same site. The old images didn't show any objects, while the new one showed an object, which is how we concluded that it was Vikram," the scientist said.

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"At the outset, it appears that a more than optimal thrust, or a more than required horizontal velocity could have caused the lander to spin out of control. But we are also looking at other things, including what we may have not anticipated," the scientist said. Explaining further, he said that there could have been some "unknown" effect on the lander while it was performing the descent from which it couldn't recover. "It could as well be a natural phenomena we hadn't accounted for. We are still looking," he said.

On this specific question, Sivan said: "As of today we don't have enough...We are yet to find anything conclusive, we are still analysing the information. But yes, we are looking into all these angles."

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Reiterating that Chandrayaan-2 orbiter's bonus lifespan is a big takeaway, he said that the satellite will provide breakthrough data. ".. I am telling you that we will have another breakthrough with data about water. Given that our orbiter orientation is 90 degree, we have an advantage in locating ice and water. We will be specifically able to look at solidised or frozen water 10m under the surface of the Moon. We will make history," he added.

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"After about a year, once all the eight payloads complete the primary objective of collecting data from a 100km orbit and we receive all of that, there is a thinking about lowering its orbit," the scientist said. He added that the cameras, especially would be used more optimally from a lower orbit.

When asked, Sivan said: "If we go to a 50km orbit, the resolution would be even better. But at this point, no final decision has been taken and 7.5 years of life for the orbiter present us with an opportunity, for the first time, to map the whole of Moon using such good cameras."

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Chandrayaan 2: Orbiter has spotted Vikram lander, signals elusive: Isro | India News - Times of India

India News: Isro chairman K Sivan on Sunday confirmed that "we have the image (of Vikram lander) and are analysing the data". He said the cameras on board the orb

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

After a long silence, @isro releases statement. It says #Vikram is still quiet. All efforts being made to communicate. #Chandrayaan2 orbiter has spotted lander. My sources say that Isro is yet to ascertain the condition of transponder on Vikram, but no official word yet.

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