Author Topic: ISRO General News  (Read 511630 times)

Offline sanman

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #700 on: 12/30/2017 02:34 am »
Ukraine expands industrial rocket building cooperation with south-eastern Asian countries

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/473833.html

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State-owned Production Association Pivdenny (Yuzhny) Machine-Building Plant named after Makarov (Pivdenmash) based in Dnipro, one of the leading Ukrainian producers of space rocket equipment, is developing cooperation in rocket production with southeastern Asian countries, including South Korea and India.

A source among leaders of the concern told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency that today Pivdenmash is fulfilling contracts signed in 2016 on rocket engine with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KARI and preparing to expand the partnership.

"Work with KARI is being conducted in two areas – the production of turbo pump units and model valves for the RD-8 engine, as well as preparation of spherical tanks with capacity of 130 and 25 liters. In 2017 we signed one more contract for spherical tank production," he said, adding, "The experience of successful cooperation was the reason our South Korean partners wanted to broaden cooperation. Today we are conducting talks about signing another contract for the production of a rocket engine tank, as well as a contract for making elements of a liquid rocket engine for the South Korean rocket engine KSLV-II."

In addition, the source said Pivdenmash is also involved in a rocket project with the Indian organization of space studies ISRO.

"We signed a contract with ISRO for conducting through 2019 fire tests of Indian liquid rocket engines at the Pivdenmash testing grounds. The first stage of the contract has been successfully fulfilled.

The source said expanding cooperation in the area of creating space rockets with southeastern Asian countries is viewed as one of the areas of the Pivdenmash diversification production program, which is being conducted in conditions following the disruption of traditional cooperation with Russia.

Pivdenmash is one of the key enterprises of the space engine industry of Ukraine, known internationally as the producer of rocket engines and satellites used for civilian, scientific and military use. As a result of the disruption of traditional cooperation with Russia due to its annexation of Crimea and invasion of Donbas, for three years production capacity at the enterprise has dropped 50% and is practically at a standstill.

As of today Pivdenmash within the framework of cooperation with the U.S. produces the first stage of a new medium class rocket Antares for delivering equipment to the International Space Station under contract with NASA. Ukraine is currently in talks with the U.S. on organizing cooperation in the sphere of rocket production in a project to create rocket engines to replace the Russian RD-180 for the new generation of U.S. Air Force rocket engines.

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #701 on: 01/10/2018 12:26 pm »
VSSC Director K. Sivan named new ISRO chairman
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The government on Wednesday appointed renowned scientist K. Sivan as the chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to replace of A.S. Kiran Kumar.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved his appointment as secretary, Department of Space and chairman of Space Commission for a tenure of three years, an order issued by the personnel ministry said.

Mr. Sivan, at present Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, will succeed MR. Kumar, who was appointed on January 12, 2015.

Offline sanman

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #702 on: 01/10/2018 12:44 pm »

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #703 on: 01/15/2018 01:18 am »
"TSTO plans discussed at length, likely to take a decision in coming months" - K Sivan, new ISRO chief
Quote
"We are carrying out more tests of systems and components before the next flight of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). At the same time, the concept of two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) for designing new launch vehicles have been discussed at length, and we are likely to take a decision in the months to come," he added.

He must be hinting at either an HLV based on SC400 core (cluster of SCE-200 engines) that was showing up in their recent presentations or a ULV family based on the smaller SC200 core. More likely the former.

On the question of SCE-200 engine development,
Quote
He said work is apace on development of semi-cryogenic rocket engine with tests of sub-systems and the hardware required for this unique concept of powering rockets. "It is difficult to specify a timeline for the semi-cryogenic engine as all sub-systems must be tested extensively before integration," he added.
« Last Edit: 01/15/2018 01:26 am by vineethgk »

Offline russianhalo117

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #704 on: 01/15/2018 04:22 am »
"TSTO plans discussed at length, likely to take a decision in coming months" - K Sivan, new ISRO chief
Quote
"We are carrying out more tests of systems and components before the next flight of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). At the same time, the concept of two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) for designing new launch vehicles have been discussed at length, and we are likely to take a decision in the months to come," he added.

He must be hinting at either an HLV based on SC400 core (cluster of SCE-200 engines) that was showing up in their recent presentations or a ULV family based on the smaller SC200 core. More likely the former.

On the question of SCE-200 engine development,
Quote
He said work is apace on development of semi-cryogenic rocket engine with tests of sub-systems and the hardware required for this unique concept of powering rockets. "It is difficult to specify a timeline for the semi-cryogenic engine as all sub-systems must be tested extensively before integration," he added.

That would be based on either the Ukrainian RD-810M export version or the more powerful RD-815M export version currently in development within the Ukrainian RD-800 LRE Family.
RD-810M shown below (4 engine cluster. Export version is similar) Credit: KB Yuzhnoe.
« Last Edit: 01/15/2018 04:24 am by russianhalo117 »

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #705 on: 01/15/2018 06:22 am »
"TSTO plans discussed at length, likely to take a decision in coming months" - K Sivan, new ISRO chief
Quote
"We are carrying out more tests of systems and components before the next flight of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). At the same time, the concept of two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) for designing new launch vehicles have been discussed at length, and we are likely to take a decision in the months to come," he added.

He must be hinting at either an HLV based on SC400 core (cluster of SCE-200 engines) that was showing up in their recent presentations or a ULV family based on the smaller SC200 core. More likely the former.

On the question of SCE-200 engine development,
Quote
He said work is apace on development of semi-cryogenic rocket engine with tests of sub-systems and the hardware required for this unique concept of powering rockets. "It is difficult to specify a timeline for the semi-cryogenic engine as all sub-systems must be tested extensively before integration," he added.

That would be based on either the Ukrainian RD-810M export version or the more powerful RD-815M export version currently in development within the Ukrainian RD-800 LRE Family.
RD-810M shown below (4 engine cluster. Export version is similar) Credit: KB Yuzhnoe.
They have alternated between 4 engine and 5 engine clusters in their presentations with the later ones settling on a first stage having 5 engine cluster and ~400 tonnes of propellant loading. So it isn't known what sort of a cluster they would decide to go with in the end.

But ISRO doesn't have much experience with large engine clusters such as this one (the twin-Vikas cluster in GSLV-III being their first foray on this front other than the relatively small twins in PS4), so yes it is quite likely that they atleast sought Ukrainian expertise on the matter as hinted in Anatoly Zak's article even if they did not buy the designs of such a cluster outright.

Quote
In addition to assisting with the design of the engine, KB Yuzhnoe also advised ISRO on the development of the prospective launch vehicle itself.

Offline sanman

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #706 on: 01/17/2018 03:35 pm »
"TSTO plans discussed at length, likely to take a decision in coming months" - K Sivan, new ISRO chief
Quote
"We are carrying out more tests of systems and components before the next flight of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). At the same time, the concept of two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) for designing new launch vehicles have been discussed at length, and we are likely to take a decision in the months to come," he added.

He must be hinting at either an HLV based on SC400 core (cluster of SCE-200 engines) that was showing up in their recent presentations or a ULV family based on the smaller SC200 core. More likely the former.

On the question of SCE-200 engine development,
Quote
He said work is apace on development of semi-cryogenic rocket engine with tests of sub-systems and the hardware required for this unique concept of powering rockets. "It is difficult to specify a timeline for the semi-cryogenic engine as all sub-systems must be tested extensively before integration," he added.

Hmm - when you say HLV in response to his TSTO comments - are you suggesting that they might develop a reusable HLV?
My understanding was that the original plan was for TSTO to be able to lift 10 tonnes to LEO, via winged flyback booster. What kind of payload range do you think they might be considering for a TSTO HLV?

Using a cluster of SCE-200 for a winged flyback booster is a lot different than a cluster for VTVL. It seems like the original winged TSTO idea would have used the cluster of 4. So does that mean the idea for cluster of 5 is for VTVL, or could that be used for winged TSTO as well?

Gee, it would surprising but quite neat if ISRO were to switch its RLV development over to a VTVL design, since everybody else seems to be going that way. I guess it's early on enough that they can consider doing this?

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #707 on: 01/18/2018 01:44 am »
"TSTO plans discussed at length, likely to take a decision in coming months" - K Sivan, new ISRO chief
Quote
"We are carrying out more tests of systems and components before the next flight of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). At the same time, the concept of two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) for designing new launch vehicles have been discussed at length, and we are likely to take a decision in the months to come," he added.

He must be hinting at either an HLV based on SC400 core (cluster of SCE-200 engines) that was showing up in their recent presentations or a ULV family based on the smaller SC200 core. More likely the former.

On the question of SCE-200 engine development,
Quote
He said work is apace on development of semi-cryogenic rocket engine with tests of sub-systems and the hardware required for this unique concept of powering rockets. "It is difficult to specify a timeline for the semi-cryogenic engine as all sub-systems must be tested extensively before integration," he added.

Hmm - when you say HLV in response to his TSTO comments - are you suggesting that they might develop a reusable HLV?
My understanding was that the original plan was for TSTO to be able to lift 10 tonnes to LEO, via winged flyback booster. What kind of payload range do you think they might be considering for a TSTO HLV?

Using a cluster of SCE-200 for a winged flyback booster is a lot different than a cluster for VTVL. It seems like the original winged TSTO idea would have used the cluster of 4. So does that mean the idea for cluster of 5 is for VTVL, or could that be used for winged TSTO as well?

Gee, it would surprising but quite neat if ISRO were to switch its RLV development over to a VTVL design, since everybody else seems to be going that way. I guess it's early on enough that they can consider doing this?
In his preceding statement he had referred to RLV. So he may well have been referring to RLV-TSTO here rather than the more conventional HLV. Lets wait for further hints in the coming months. As it stands now, with so many LV studies floating around from an Ariane-5 style HLV with solid boosters, an F9 style with no strapons and the RLV thing - all essentially paper rockets at the moment - it is rather difficult to state with any degree of certainty what their future plans are.

Offline sanman

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Offline sanman

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #709 on: 01/20/2018 05:57 pm »

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #710 on: 01/25/2018 07:21 am »
India inks pact to activate satellite tracking station in Vietnam
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A meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc in New Delhi was followed by exchange of two pacts, including one on Indian Space Research Organization's Data Reception and Tracking and Telemetry Station at Ho Chi Minh City.

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The implementation arrangement inked by the Indian Space Research Organization and the National Remote Sensing Department of Vietnam would "define the framework and conditions of cooperation" for establishment of the tracking and data reception station as well as the data processing facility in Ho Chi Minh City

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Once activated and linked up with another existing station of the ISRO at Biak in Indonesia, the new facility in Ho Chi Minh City will help New Delhi track satellites launched from India and receive data from them. It will also help the ISRO share with the remote sensing agencies of Vietnam and other ASEAN nations the satellite data for management of natural resources, study of ocean and response to disaster in South-East Asia.

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #711 on: 01/27/2018 01:58 am »
SDSC/SHAR Director comments on upcoming launches, infrastructure upgrades

Highlights

- Three flights planned from SLP during next few months - GSLV F08/GSAT-6A, GSLV F10/Chandrayaan-II and GSLV MkIII D2/GSAT-29
- PSLV-C42 to fly from FLP after C41/IRNSS-1I. Payload yet to be finalized.
- Infrastructure upgrades at SHAR target an ability to make 26 launches per year (15 from FLP, 11 from SLP)
- ‎SVAB for SLP expected to be ready within 4 months
- ‎PSLV Integration Facility (PIF) for FLP is targeted for completion by 2019.
- ‎Augmentation of Solid Motor Production facility (ASMP?) in progress and expected to be completed by 2019.
« Last Edit: 01/27/2018 01:59 am by vineethgk »

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #712 on: 01/31/2018 03:50 pm »
ISRO invites proposals from Indian institutions for future astronomy missions

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The announcement solicits proposals from all institutions in India currently involved in astronomy / astrophysics and in the development of science instruments for space for future astronomy payloads / mission.  New and innovative science ideas based on technologies which are not yet mature at present can also be submitted which could become potential options for future missions of ISRO.

Possibly for a successor to the Astrosat observatory..

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #713 on: 02/03/2018 03:31 am »
A new SSTL-S1 Satellite EO Data Contract Signed Between SSTL and 21AT
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Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) has signed a £25M contract in Beijing with Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. (21AT) to provide data from a new Earth Observation (EO) satellite (SSTL-S1) that is due for launch via an ISRO PSLV launch vehicle mid-year.

Offline sanman

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Offline sanman

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #715 on: 02/13/2018 12:40 pm »
Interview with ISRO chief Dr K Sivan - an aerospace engineer whose background experience also includes farming:



Dr Sivan mentions that fuel/consumables are 15% of the cost of a launch vehicle (PSLV?) and the remaining 85% of the cost is in its hardware.

Shallow fellow that I am, I'd asked interviewer Mr Pallava Bagla about whether the Chandrayaan-2 mission might allow India's national flag to be photographed on the Moon's surface, for posterity - fortunately he was able to tack on that question at the end.

« Last Edit: 02/13/2018 05:31 pm by sanman »

Offline vineethgk

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #716 on: 02/17/2018 01:27 am »
CNES and ISRO doing studies on a future joint thermal infrared mission
Quote
Speaking in New Delhi, Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of French space agency CNES, has underlined the importance of relations between private “NewSpace” players in India and France.

Le Gall was in New Delhi to take part in the 4th Observer Research Foundation (ORF) Kalpana Chawla Space Policy Dialogue.
Quote
Two French-Indian satellites already in orbit, Megha-Tropiques andSARAL-AltiKa, are providing data for climate research and operational applications like monsoon forecasting, food security and water resource management.

They will be joined later this year by the jointOceansat 3 - Argos mission, while studies are under way for a future thermal infrared satellite.

Offline maint1234

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #717 on: 03/18/2018 03:39 am »
From ISRO site

"On Information Security Incident of March 10, 2018
 ISRO received an alert about a Trojan (XtremeRAT) in one of the ISRO Units, “ISRO
Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC).” Subsequent analysis
revealed that it was a false positive i.e. a software detected an issue which was
actually not present.
o It mentioned a victim IP address/ Port infected with XtremeRAT. However, this
was a UTM Port, not mapped internally to any systems (no internal system was
associated with that IP address/ Port). This Port was meant for login service
(with Multi factor Authentication) for specific employees of the organization.
o Nevertheless, the reported Port was disabled as a precautionary measure and
later the same service was enabled through an alternate mechanism.
 The alert was based on output of a search done on a third party website (for that
particular IP address of ISTRAC), which wrongly listed ISTRAC IP/ Port as infected
with XtremeRAT.
 After investigation, it was concluded that there was no infection of XtremeRAT on
ISTRAC systems and the reported incident was a false alert.
Note:
o Mission Critical systems in ISTRAC are not connected to Internet.
o ISRO is considering a separate mechanism for responsible disclosure of cyber
security incidents such that inputs are directly accessible to IT team.
o ISRO appreciates security researchers for responsible disclosure and their
efforts, within the ambit of applicable legal framework."

These are the details of the trojan from the net-
XtremeRAT allows an attacker to:

Interact with the victim via a remote shell
Upload/download files
Interact with the registry
Manipulate running processes and services
Capture images of the desktop
Record from connected devices, such as a webcam or microphone
Moreover, during the build process, the attacker can specify whether to include keylogging and USB infection functions.

So my doubts are -
Is a internet connection the only way to access a standalone intranet of a organisation ? ie excluding physical access through usb, etc.
Are ISRO's conclusions correct ?
Can India do something to prevent disruptions as we are dependent on foreign sources for most of our electronic hardware ?


Offline TheVarun

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #718 on: 03/26/2018 11:16 pm »
 A bit of important news, though no link provided :)  Mangalyaan, the Mars satellite, as of yesterday March 24th, has been  in orbit three and a half years. Which is 3 years longer than it was originally anticipated to last. It's still in good condition, beaming fine pictures. I figure the extra 3 years is significant enough to warrant mentioning. Quite remarkable!

Offline K210

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Re: ISRO General News
« Reply #719 on: 03/28/2018 05:29 am »
Quote
The next generation Vikas engine developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) is being flown for the first time. LPSC director V Narayanan told Express that the improved engine would give a significant advantage in terms of enhancing payload capability. “Usually, the chamber pressure is 58 bar, but with the use of high-thrust Vikas engine, we will achieve 62 bar, which is a 6% increase in thrust that gives us 70 kgs of additional payload gain in this mission. Right now, we are going to use the high-thrust Vikas engine only in the second stage. Basically, we are validating it. For Chandrayaan-2 mission, we will be using five such engines aiming for a payload gain of around 250 kgs,” Narayanan said.

Quote
Narayanan said this would be the best way of mission planning and optimum utilisation of propellants. “All these new things are being done keeping lunar mission in the mind and ISRO’s bigger game plan to increase GSLV payload capability. For Chandrayaan-2, we are formulating a perfect combination. The four strap-ons and second stage will be boosted with high-thrust Vikas engines; cryogenic upper stage will be loaded with enhanced propellants of 15 tonnes instead of current 12.8 tonnes and will be operated with 9.5 tonne thrust compared to the present 7.5.”

Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2018/mar/28/with-eye-on-lunar-mission-isro-to-test-high-thrust-vikas-engine-1793608.html

ISRO confirms that GSLV F-10 will be first fully upgraded GSLV. All four L40 strapons will have high thrust vikas engines and well as the second stage. The upper stage will have propellant loading increased to 15 tons and thrust of CE-7.5 engine will be increased from present 7.5 tons to 9.5 tons.

Payload capability to GTO for GSLV has been increased by 70kg for GSLV F-08 mission to bring the GTO capability of GSLV up from 2.25 tons to 2.32 tons. With additional upgrades on GSLV F-10 mission later this year this will further boost GTO capability by 250 kg to bring GSLV GTO capability to 2.57 tons.

In short:

Current GSLV GTO capability: 2.25 tons

GSLV F-08 GTO capability: 2.32 tons 

GSLV F-10 GTO capability: 2.57 tons

ISRO final goal for GSLV : 3.25 tons to GTO

« Last Edit: 03/28/2018 05:29 am by K210 »

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