Author Topic: ISRO General News (Read 571771 times)

antriksh · « **on:** 05/28/2013 03:16 am »

ISRO-CNES: taking the next steps together

On Monday, Jean-Yves Le Gall made a quick, quiet official trip to ISRO’s Bangalore headquarters.

What is this visit about?

As you know, I moved from [European launch services company] Arianespace to CNES last month. India is the one of the most important countries of cooperation for France. It is also the right time because last February when President Hollande visited India a letter of intent was signed between CNES and ISRO to define what could be the cooperation after the successes of [their joint weather satellite missions] Megha-Tropiques and SARAL-AltiKa, which were [respectively] launched by the PSLV two years ago and in February.

We have plenty of things to do together and this is why I decided to pay one of my first official visits to ISRO and meet [its Chairman] Dr. Radhakrishnan.

more....
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/isrocnes-taking-the-next-steps-together/article4757036.ece

antriksh · « **Reply #1 on:** 05/29/2013 02:44 am »

India plans to send seismometer to study moonquakes

How will man tackle quakes when he colonises moon in the not-so-distant future?

plans are afoot to send a seismometer on board the landing instrument of Chandrayaan-2

Sensors of the seismometer built by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are now undergoing calibration at the CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) here. The first phase of calibration is over and the second phase will start soon, according to seismologist D. Srinagesh, who will be studying the seismic aspects of moonquakes along with his team at NGRI. He told The Hindu that the largest moonquake ever recorded was 5.5 magnitude by the seismometers deployed on the moon’s surface during Apollo missions in late 1960s and 70s.

source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/india-plans-to-send-seismometer-to-study-moonquakes/article4761220.ece

antriksh · « **Reply #2 on:** 05/29/2013 02:47 am »

ISRO unveils hub for its navigation fleet

Minister of State in the PMO V. Narayanasamy presenting the Aryabhata award to V.K. Saraswat, Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, as ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan looks on, at Byalalu near Bengaluru on Tuesday.— PHOTO: PTI/ Shailendra Bhojak
The brand new ISRO Navigation Centre (INC) at the Indian Deep Space Network will be the nerve centre of the country’s forthcoming navigational satellite constellation, ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said after the centre was opened on Tuesday.

source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/isro-unveils-hub-for-its-navigation-fleet/article4761288.ece

antriksh · « **Reply #3 on:** 05/30/2013 02:50 am »

Use of Silicones@ISRO

antriksh · « **Reply #4 on:** 05/30/2013 02:54 am »

IRNSS Nerve Center

antriksh · « **Reply #5 on:** 06/09/2013 06:40 am »

Missions in the near future

antriksh · « **Reply #6 on:** 06/09/2013 06:41 am »

CUS5 at High alttitude test facility

antriksh · « **Reply #7 on:** 06/14/2013 06:34 am »

ISRO: launchers payload improvement and Cost reduction

Steven Pietrobon · « **Reply #8 on:** 06/14/2013 08:24 am »

Thanks antriksh. That gives a launch cost of $23.8M for PSLV, $32M for GSLV Mk.I, $40.6M for GSLV Mk.II (interpolating for a 2500 kg GTO payload) and $40M for GSLV Mk.III.

antriksh · « **Reply #9 on:** 06/14/2013 12:13 pm »

Quote from: Steven Pietrobon on 06/14/2013 08:24 am

Thanks antriksh. That gives a launch cost of $23.8M for PSLV, $32M for GSLV Mk.I, $40.6M for GSLV Mk.II (interpolating for a 2500 kg GTO payload) and $40M for GSLV Mk.III.

PSLV cost will depend on the variant used.
PSLV CA ($13.8M), PSLV ($20M), PSLV XL ($23.8M) roughly

for PSLV 3S (underdevelopment) 500Kg will cost $6.3M

AJA · « **Reply #10 on:** 06/26/2013 10:29 am »

This is from the

Joint Statement on Fourth U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue

The Secretary and the Minister welcomed the expanded work plan endorsed by the U.S.-India Civil Space Joint Working Group in a number of areas, including measures that will improve the use of earth observation data to promote sustainable development and the compatibility-interoperability between the U.S. Global Positioning System and the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. They applauded agreement by the Indian Space Research Organization and the U.S. National Aeronautic and Space Agency to explore further cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the moon and Mars. They welcomed the announcement of NASA support through its Deep Space Network facilities to ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission, and the ISRO-NASA technical discussions to integrate a U.S. L-band and Indian S-band synthetic aperture radar on an Indian spacecraft for earth observation studies. Both sides intend to cooperate bilaterally and in multilateral forums to promote efforts to ensure the long term sustainability of outer space. To this end, both sides plan to undertake discussions on areas of mutual interest such as space situational awareness, and collision avoidance as part of a Space Security Dialogue.

Source: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2013/06/20130624277486.html

Additionally, I thought the following (from the same statement) was interesting - atleast as an indication of the shift in the mindset toward trade and R&D in technologies that are common to both Aerospace and Defence - and the implications it may have for co-operation / transfer of technology etc. in the same.

Quote

Secretary Kerry and Minister Khurshid recognized the very successful partnership being built, through the Strategic Security Dialogue, on issues related to non-proliferation and international security. They reviewed the close cooperation of the United States and India to realize India’s intention of joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group. Secretary Kerry reaffirmed the United States’ support for India’s full membership in these groups. The United States also welcomed India’s March 2013 update to the Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment, and Technology (SCOMET) list.

Of course, this is only an endorsement of the support for the same, expressed by POTUS when he visited 3 years ago. But hey, atleast it's still on the agenda of the "highest level" regular bilateral talks. Also, the intent to back the membership card with some work, seems to have been clarified.

Quote

Secretary Kerry and Minister Khurshid also acknowledged the efforts that the United States and India are making to transform defense ties beyond buyer-seller relationships and to pursue opportunities for technological cooperation for co-development and co-production of defense equipment.

AJA · « **Reply #11 on:** 06/26/2013 12:54 pm »

Related Press Release from ISRO

http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/scripts/pressreleasein.aspx?Jun25_2013

June 25, 2013

NASA Chief visits ISRO Centre at Ahmedabad

Charles F. Bolden Jr., Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of United States, visited Space Applications Centre (SAC) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at Ahmedabad today (June 25, 2013).

The NASA Administrator had a meeting with Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO/ Secretary, Department of Space along with senior officials of ISRO to discuss the on-going cooperative activities between ISRO and NASA and also the potential areas of future cooperation.

Mr. Charles Bolden delivered a talk on 'NASA's Space Programme' highlighting the current work at NASA as well as future plans to advance space exploration and reach new destinations such as an asteroid and Mars. In his talk, he made a special mention of NASA's new asteroid initiative, which includes work to identify and characterise asteroids of all types and a mission to capture and redirect an asteroid into an orbit closer to Earth so that astronauts can visit it. The talk was delivered in SAC Auditorium and transmitted to all ISRO Centres and Units. Mr. Bolden also visited some of the technical facilities of SAC pertaining to the development of satellite sensors and antennas.

India and United States pursue active civil space cooperation mainly in the areas of earth sciences, space exploration, satellite navigation and professional exchange.

This is the first visit by Charles F. Bolden Jr. to any ISRO Centre after he took over as NASA Administrator in July 2009. Mr. Bolden is the third NASA chief to visit ISRO in the past 4 decades.

chota · « **Reply #12 on:** 07/24/2013 12:57 pm »

Information goldmine

http://www.frontline.in/science-and-technology/in-mission-mode/article4945199.ece?homepage=true

"Mars Orbiter Mission [MOM] any day between October 21 and the second week of November"

"GSLV-Mark III sub-orbital flight in January 2014. After three years, first operational flight in 2017"

"Chandrayaan-2 mission may not take place next year (based on lander schedule/availability from Russia) ?"

"Semi-cryogenic engine currently in the early phase of development"

"First RLV-TD may be an year away from now"

antriksh · « **Reply #13 on:** 07/31/2013 03:57 pm »

ISRO Rendezvous & Docking experiment

ISRO has been working on a rendezvous and docking (RVD) experiment mission involving two IMS (Indian Micro Satellite) series spacecrafts. ISAC, a ISRO centre, has been involved in developing navigation and guidance algorithm for RVD. In this experiment, two IMS Spacecrafts, one designated as target and the other designated as chaser, will be launched by a PSLV launcher into two slightly different orbits. There will be no communication link between the target and chaser during the far range rendezvous phase in which relative separation between the spacecrafts will be around 50km to 5km range and this phase will be a ground guided phase. In the docking phase of the mission, docking sensors such as Laser Range Finder during the relative separation of 5 km to 0.25km, Docking Camera during the relative separation of 300m to 1m ,Visual Camera for real time imaging during the relative separation of 1m to docking will be used respectively.

For the purpose of testing and verification of vision based docking algorithms before a real world implementation is carried out, ISRO has developed a 3D simulation environment that is being used to simulate docking phase of the mission. A snap of the simulation is presented in the Figure below.

chota · « **Reply #14 on:** 08/01/2013 01:19 pm »

ISRO reporting an "anomalous behaviour" with the recently launched INSAT-3D

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/isro-forms-committee-to-probe-anomalous-behaviour-of-insat-3d/articleshow/21531389.cms

antriksh · « **Reply #15 on:** 08/22/2013 03:10 am »

INSAT-3D Payloads Turned on

Two meteorological payloads (Imaging System, Atmospheric Sounder) were activated on August 7 - 8, 2013. Performance of payloads are satisfactory and the preliminary images received are of good quality. The cameras are undergoing testing and commissioning phase.

AJA · « **Reply #16 on:** 08/22/2013 10:27 am »

So, no news of the anomaly, and its resolution? I'm assuming they wouldn't have gone ahead and turned on the instruments if they hadn't fixed the issue - but it'd be nice to know why they had to use the redundant system in the first place.

antriksh · « **Reply #17 on:** 08/28/2013 02:32 am »

Static test of PSOM XL for Mars mission successful

The Shar scientists have successfully conducted some vital static tests for strap-on motor (PSOM-XL) related to PSLV-C25/Mars mission at Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 4.35 pm on Monday. The mission is scheduled for launch in October this year. Tests were conducted in presence of the ISRO chairman, Dr K. Radhakrishnan.

The objectives of the test include evaluation on the adequacy of PSOM-XL type motor (which was already used in the launch of PSLV-C11, C17 and C19 flights earlier). PSLV-C11 was the one used for India’s first Moon Mission ‘Chandrayaan-1’.

The ignition transient performance of PSOM-XL motor with RLV-SB igniter was also evaluated apart from ballistic performance of the motor. A test to revalidate the effectiveness of water based Post Fire Quenching/Cooling System at PSOM-XL level was also one of the objectives of the test held on Monday.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130827/news-current-affairs/article/static-test-mars-mission-successful

sanman · « **Reply #18 on:** 08/28/2013 05:28 am »

Lunar water detected by Chandrayaan-1 may have come from lunar interior:

http://www.space.com/22553-moon-water-mystery-source.html

AJA · « **Reply #19 on:** 10/03/2013 04:49 am »

Borderline relevancy to this thread (I'd have posted over at Bharat Raksak, but I don't have an account there), but nonetheless: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/separate-commands-for-spl-ops-cyber-security-space-iaf-chief-113100200574_1.html

Given that we only got our first dedicated military satellite (GSAT-7) last month - and that too on the back of an Ariane (so limited orbital elements and detail privacy), is the MoD really planning for many more birds? Are they budgeting for associated design and operational infrastructure i.e. home-launched / more tracking stations etc.?

Also, who was operating our national reconnaissance thus far? IAF/Navy/Army or ISRO personnel? NRSC?

I'd also love to be in the room when the IAF tries to wrest control of GSAT-7 from the Navy. LOL