. Mars Exploration News .




.
MARSDAILY
India: From Ferrying Rockets on Cycles to Eyeing Mars
by Staff Writers
Chennai, India (IANS) Sep 10, 2012

Ferrying 27 foreign satellites till date, ISRO Sunday would carry a 715 kg French satellite (heaviest foreign payload to be carried by an Indian rocket) and a 15 kg Japanese micro satellite signalling the increased confidence in the space agency's rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

From the days of having a church as control room, the bishop's house as office, a bicycle as ferry, naked eyes to track the smoke plume at Thumba in Kerala, converting a toilet into a satellite data receiving centre in Bangalore, the Indian space odyssey has come a long way to launching lunar probes, working on a Mars mission and ferrying foreign satellites up for a fee.

On Sunday, ISRO will touch a major milestone, the 100th space mission with the launch of two foreign satellites.

"During those days infrastructure was not available and we used what was available. In Bangalore we even converted a toilet into a data receiving centre for our first satellite Aryabhata," U.R. Rao, former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS.

Today India is reckoned as a serious emerging player in the global satellite launch and manufacturing industry and the market leader in vending images sent by its remote sensing/earth observation satellites.

Ferrying 27 foreign satellites till date, ISRO Sunday would carry a 715 kg French satellite (heaviest foreign payload to be carried by an Indian rocket) and a 15 kg Japanese micro satellite signalling the increased confidence in the space agency's rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The space agency has also jointly built two heavy satellites - 3,453 kg W2M and 2,541 kg Hylas - for the French agency EADS Astrium.

India's high point in its space odyssey was its moon mission in 2008 when it launched Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2 is slated for 2014. The government has also sanctioned a mission to Mars which is expected to happen next year.

But the achievement that ISRO started notching up in rocket and satellite launches since 1990s were due to the trials and tribulations that the ISRO's founding fathers underwent.

Though ISRO has been flying sounding rockets (experimental rockets) from Thumba since 1963, its efforts to launch a rocket with a heavier payload actually started with Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3) in 1980.

However by that time ISRO had already built and launched two satellites - 358 kg Aryabhata and 444 kg Bhaskara-1.

"Starting from the scratch was the challenge before us while we began the Aryabhata project. Majority of the team members were new to this field. The time given was just two and half years so that it could be flown in a Russian rocket. Building clean room, thermo vacuum room and other facilities were all new," recalled Rao.

After Bhaskara-1 the Indian space agency built the APPLE communication satellite laid the ground for the INSAT series satellites possessing multiple capabilities - telecom, television, meteorological and imaging.

"Building the four-in-one satellite was a challenge. While we designed the INSAT-1A satellite it was made by Ford Aerospace and was launched by an American rocket. The satellite had a short life," Pramod Kale, the first project director for INSAT now retired, told IANS.

Success started smiling at ISRO from INSAT-1B onwards which according to Rao ushered in communication revolution in India.

There was no looking back for the space agency on the satellite side. From one tonne satellites, the INSAT series started growing in weight to become three tonne and ISRO later started making satellites for others.

Meanwhile scientists at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, were initially toiling to get the rocket right as the SLV and Augmented SLV (ASLV) missions gave mixed results.

"The two ASLV failures were the real test beds for perfecting the PSLV rocket. Issues like rocket tumbling, monitoring of rocket's main forces, detailed profiling of wind and other issues were done," S.C. Gupta, former director of VSSC, told IANS.

The third ASLV with Stretched Rohini Satellite Series (SROSS) turned out to be successful but the result of the first PSLV flight in 1993 was negative owing to a software error, which was later sorted out.

Since then there was no looking back for ISRO as far as PSLV rocket is concerned. The space agency has now three PSLV variants.

"As technology was not available we developed our own navigational systems, propellent and all the elements of the launch vehicle with help of Indian industry," Gupta recalled.

But the serious issue before ISRO now is perfecting the technology for its heavier rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) so that heavy communication satellites can be launched.

"The challenge before ISRO is to perfect its own cryogenic engine that would power the final stages of GSLV rocket. Otherwise the rocket has the same reliability like PSLV," B.N. Suresh, former director of VSSC and now retired, told IANS.

Related Links
ISRO
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



MARSDAILY
Indian PM defends spending on space exploration
New Delhi (AFP) Sept 9, 2012
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday defended spending millions of dollars on space exploration despite many people in the country living in grinding poverty. India plans to launch a probe to orbit Mars next year at an estimated cost of four to five billion rupees ($70-90 million), and hopes to send its first manned mission to space in 2016. "Questions are sometimes asked about ... read more


MARSDAILY
Russian deputy PM proposes Moon station

Chandrayaan II may be delayed, says ISRO Chief

First man on moon to be buried at sea: Armstrong family

NASA's GRAIL Moon Twins Begin Extended Mission Science

MARSDAILY
China's manned spacecraft in final preparations for mid-June launch

Tiangong Orbit Change Signals Likely Date for Shenzhou 10

China Focus: Timeline for China's space research revealed

China eyes next lunar landing as US scales back

MARSDAILY
Luca Parmitano flying high

Astronauts Take Second Spacewalk

ISS crew complete space station repair

Crew Wraps Up Preparations for Wednesday's Spacewalk

MARSDAILY
The Kuiper Belt at 20: Paradigm Changes in Our Knowledge of the Solar System

e2v To Supply Large CMOS Imaging Sensors For Imaging Kuiper Belt Objects

Fly New Horizons through the Kuiper Belt

Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

MARSDAILY
Does Triton Have a Subsurface Ocean?

Saturn and its Largest Moon Reflect Their True Colors

Giant Ice Avalanches On Iapetus Provide Clue To Extreme Slippage Elsewhere In The Solar System

River networks on Titan point to a puzzling geologic history

MARSDAILY
More satellite launches planned for upgrading maritime monitoring

Astrium installs new terminal in Mexico to receive SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 imagery

Suomi NPP Captures Smoke Plume Images from Russian and African Fires

Remote Sensing Satellite Sends First Earth Imagery

MARSDAILY
Mankind's messenger at the final frontier

35 years on, Voyager 'dancing on edge' of outer space

Space-age food served up with seeds of success

Africa eyes joint space agency

MARSDAILY
Planets Can Form in the Galactic Center

Birth of a planet

A Hot Potential Habitable Exoplanet around Gliese 163

NASA's Kepler Discovers Multiple Planets Orbiting a Pair of Stars


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement