This is a concept idea circulated within ISRO for an Indian Heavy Lift Vehicle(HLV), to bring 20 tonnes to lunar orbit, as part of a lunar return mission:
(Click to enlarge)So as can be seen, the proposed configuration would be 4 semi-cryogenic engines of 460 tonnes each, surrounding an 800-tonne semi-cryo core first stage, with a 460-tonne semi-cryo stage above that, and finally a 100-tonne cryogenic stage on top.
This design configuration would be capable of lofting 100 tonnes to LEO, or 20 tonnes to Lunar Orbit. Shown on the left for comparison is India's upcoming GSLV-Mk3 medium lift vehicle, which would be used to demonstrate preliminary capabilities like orbital rendezvous, docking and EVA.
The design appears to use the same stage (the 460 t semi-cryogenic one) as both a strap-on booster and as a second stage. Presumably the engines for these would be different so the boosters could be tuned for high thrust at sea level and the second stage could be tuned for high Isp at altitude. Is it a coincidence that 460 t is the right propellant load for both these applications? A tank stretch or shrink seems easy compared with utilizing different engines.
"semi-cryo" means LOX/HC I guess ? So basically they have very little heritage to build on. The upper stage could take lessons form the GSLV cryo stage, but will much larger. This appears to be a very paper sketch. OTOH, I can see not wanting to try to push their existing solid or hypergol technology that far.
One nice thing about this layout is the booster alone should make a pretty nice first stage for heavy GSO satellites or space station modules to LEO.
Yeah, semi-cryogenic would be LOX/Kerosene, I think.
Haha, India would probably go with bio-diesel/vegetable-oil if they thought they could get away with it - whatever's cheapest.
Well, even the US seems to be trying to get away from solids and build their own Soyuz. China seems to have gone that way some time ago. That would allow for more Angara-like stackability.
Everybody seems to want to be more Angara-like, since that's probably the cheapest. Cost trumps almost everything, and it's what determines whether your paper rocket stays a paper rocket.
This is a concept idea circulated within ISRO for an Indian Heavy Lift Vehicle(HLV), to bring 20 tonnes to lunar orbit, as part of a lunar return mission:
So as can be seen, the proposed configuration would be 4 semi-cryogenic engines of 460 tonnes each, surrounding an 800-tonne semi-cryo core first stage, with a 460-tonne semi-cryo stage above that, and finally a 100-tonne cryogenic stage on top.
This design configuration would be capable of lofting 100 tonnes to LEO, or 20 tonnes to Lunar Orbit. Shown on the left for comparison is India's upcoming GSLV-Mk3 medium lift vehicle, which would be used to demonstrate preliminary capabilities like orbital rendezvous, docking and EVA.
The boosters would be powered by 4 SC engines each producing about 2MN of thrust (similar to RD-191) ie each booster would generate about 800 tonnes of force. And the good part is that the development of the SC engine id underway and the design has been frozen.
On the use of solids by India, this is not the only Heavy lift concept that ISRO has. There is another one which includes development of a LV capable of 184 tons to LEO. It would use 8 S230 SRBs (similar to that of Ariane-5), an SC core stage and a Cryogenic EDS.
Concept - 1
Indian Moon Rockets: First Look Concept - 2
ISRO Heavy Lift Vehicle
This would be cool, but its not happening anytime soon. I highly doubt they can afford it. Maybe in the 2040's
