Category: Space Exploration

Image credit: ISRO

Mr. G Madhavan Nair has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Previous to this new position, Nair was the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, and has been involved in the agency since 1967 when he was first hired at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. His predecessor, Dr K Kasturirangan, left the position after he was nominated for India’s Upper House of Parliament.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Mr G Madhavan Nair as Secretary, Department of Space, Chairman Space Commission and Chairman, ISRO. Mr Madhavan Nair, who was Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, was holding additional charge of these posts since September 1, 2003 after Dr K Kasturirangan relinquished the office consequent to the President of India nominating him as Member of Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament).

Mr Madhavan Nair is a leading technologist in the field of Rocket Systems. He has made significant contributions to the development of multistage Satellite Launch Vehicles for the Indian space programme. As Director, VSSC, he has led research and development in the area of satellite launch vehicles for orbiting spacecraft for remote sensing and communications.

After graduating in Engineering from Kerala University in 1966, Mr Madhavan Nair underwent training at Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), Mumbai, and joined Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in 1967. Since then, he has held various positions posting illustrious milestones on his way to the present position. He made impressive contributions to the first Indian Satellite Launch Vehicle, SLV-3. Subsequently, as Project Director, he brought to fruition the development of India’s first operational Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV. With six successful launches so far, PSLV has convincingly demonstrated its reliability for not only launching multiple satellites including placing them in different orbits in a single launch but also its capability to place satellites in Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). PSLV is also proposed for launching India’s unmanned lunar craft under Chandrayaan-1 mission. Mr Madhavan Nair, also contributed to the indigenous development of cryogenic technology and as Dire
ctor, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre during 1995-99, he gave concrete shape for the vital infrastructure for its development.

Mr Madhavan Nair took over as the Director of VSSC in 1999 and in the following two years led the successful flight of GSLV in the very first attempt followed by another successful flight in May 2003. GSLV has since been commissioned into operational service for launching 2000 kg class satellites into GTO.

Mr Madhavan Nair has been the leader of the Indian delegation to the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS). He has received several prestigious awards including Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award, Swadeshi Sastra Puraskar Award, FIE Foundation Award and Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Gold Medal of ISCA. He was conferred ‘Padma Bhushan’ by the President of India in 1998.

The outgoing Chairman of ISRO, Dr K Kasturirangan, saw during his tenure of nearly a decade, the Indian space programme witnessing several major milestones including the commissioning of India’s prestigious launch vehicle, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and more recently, the commissioning of all important Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). Further, the world’s best civilian remote sensing satellites, IRS-1C and 1D, experimental remote sensing satellites, IRS-P2 and IRS-P3, besides
an exclusive ocean observation satellite IRS-P4 were launched. A 1-m spatial resolution experimental satellite, TES, was also built and launched during his tenure. He also saw the launching of second generation INSAT satellites that vastly enhanced the capacity of INSAT system for telecommunication, television broadcasting and meteorology. Three satellites under the third generation series, INSAT-3A, INSAT-3B, and INSAT-3C were also launched besides an exclusive meteorological satellite, KALPANA-1. He chaired some of the prestigious international committees, such as, the International Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), Panel for Space Research in Developing countries of COSPAR/ICSU, and the committee meeting at senior official level of UN-ESCAP, that led to the adoption of the “Delhi Declaration” by the Ministers of the region (1999-2000).

Dr B N Suresh is the new Director of VSSC. Dr B N Suresh, Outstanding Scientist at ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, has been appointed as the Director of the Centre and he took over charge on September 20, 2003 from Mr Madhavan Nair. Dr Suresh joined ISRO in July 1969 and is an expert in control and guidance systems. He has made significant contributions to the design and development of all satellite launch vehicles of ISRO – SLV-3, ASLV, PSLV and GSLV.

Original Source: ISRO News Release

Image credit: Scaled

Scaled Composites announced today that it has selected San Diego-based SpaceDev to build the rocket engine for SpaceShipOne. The hybrid engine uses nitrous oxide and rubber, and was chosen for both safety and performance. SpaceShipOne is Scaled Composite’s entrant into the X-Prize; a $10 million prize to the first private company able to launch a 2-person crew to an altitude of 100 km. No future plans or launch dates have been announced but the spacecraft must complete a successful flight before the end of 2004 to claim the prize.

Four years ago, Scaled conducted a study of rocket engine technologies that were appropriate for its future manned sub-orbital spaceship design. The results of this study were that a hybrid configuration using nitrous oxide (liquid N2O) and HTPB (rubber) propellants would likely provide the safest solution with operating characteristics that would complement the intended mission.

In Jan 2000, Scaled defined a new integrated concept for the hybrid motor that allowed the entire propulsion system to be mounted to the spaceship by simple skirt flanges on the oxidizer tank. This concept, which cantilevers the case and nozzle directly to the tank, required an advanced all-composite design approach. By early 2001, Scaled had committed to developing the two main motor composite components in-house: The first is the nitrous oxide tank, a composite liner laid up onto titanium flanges, with a graphite over-wrap provided by Thiokol. The second is a unitized fuel case/nozzle component fabricated using a high-temperature composite insulator with a graphite/epoxy structure laid up onto an ablative nozzle supplied by AAE Aerospace.

In mid 2001, Scaled awarded contracts to two competing small businesses for the “rocket science”. Each company was independently responsible for the development of the motor’s ignition system, main control valve, injector, tank bulkheads, electronic controls, fill/dump/vent systems and fuel casting. The vendors, Environmental Aeroscience Corporation (eAc) of Miami and SpaceDev (SD) of San Diego, were also tasked with conducting the ground firing tests of their motor systems in Scaled’s test facility during the development phase.

In June 2002, Scaled selected eAc to supply the components at the tanks’ front end: the nitrous fill, vent and dump system components and associated plumbing. Both vendors continued the development of all the other propulsion components.

The ground firing development program started in November 2002 with a 15 second run by the SpaceDev team and ended early this month with a 90-second run by eAc. Both vendors demonstrated full design-duration firings during the nine-month development phase. All tests have exclusively used 100% flight hardware, with no boilerplate components and both vendors’ motor systems met the contracted performance. The tests validated the inherent safety of hybrid type motors, with no instances of structural failure, hot-gas breach, explosion or other anomaly that would have put SpaceShipOne in jeopardy.

Because both teams were so closely matched, and since both have developed satisfactory motors the process to select one of these vendors to enter the motor qualification and flight test phase was difficult. However, today, Scaled is pleased to announce that it has awarded the contract for propulsion support for the SpaceShipOne flight test phase to SpaceDev, of San Diego.

Scaled now looks forward to entering into the historic phase of private manned space flight.

Original Source: Scaled Composites News Release

Brazil has pledged its renewed commitment to developing a rocket program in spite of the terrible disaster that killed 21 people at the Alcantra launch facility in August. They now plan to have a new rocket completed in 2006 and are willing to pay the $22 million required to repair the platform and equipment destroyed in the explosion. The government will also be compensating the families of the technicians who died in the accident and pay for the education of their children at university.

Image credit: Planetary Society

A full-sized replica of a Cosmos 1 solar sail is now on display at the Rockefeller Center “Centennial of Flight” exhibit in New York City. The 14.3 metre blade is made of a silvery Mylar-like material and joins several other exhibits at the show. If all goes well, the real solar sail will be launched on board a refurbished Russian ICBM some time this fall. The sail will be on display until August 18, 2003.

Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios will unfold a replica of one of the eight 47-foot blades that make up the Cosmos 1 Solar Sail spacecraft, which is slated to launch later this year. The silvery mylar-like blade will be on display in New York City as part of a large Rockefeller Center “Centennial of Flight” exhibit. The exhibit is from July 29 – August 18. Suspended from the soaring lobby ceiling, the blade will give the public their first-ever opportunity to see a technology that will likely fly missions throughout the solar system and to the stars.

A joint venture of The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, the Cosmos 1 Solar Sail is a visionary approach to space exploration. This is the first space mission ever conducted by a space interest group, and also the first by an entertainment media company.

“During the early 20th Century humanity found its wings above the sands of Kitty Hawk. Cosmos 1 represents the next centennial of flight, which will take us and our robotic emissaries from Earth to Mars, Pluto and beyond,” said Dr. Louis Friedman, Cosmos 1 Project Director and Executive Director of The Planetary Society.

“That a century after the Wright Bros.’ first flight, it is still possible for a small group of people with modest means to reach for the stars, is a good sign that the American dream remains vibrant,” said Ann Druyan, Cosmos 1 Program Director and CEO of Cosmos Studios. “Our launch vehicle, a Russian ICBM, has been converted from a weapon of mass destruction into a means of advancing the dream of exploring the universe. In this way, we hope to honor the inspiration of Carl Sagan and to give our kids a critically needed vision of a hopeful future.”

Solar sailing utilizes reflected light pressure pushing on giant panels, which adjust to the continuously changing orbital energy and spacecraft velocity. The sunlight pressure is powerful enough to push spacecraft between the planets. Beyond the solar system, space sailing can be done using powerful lasers focused over long distances in space. Solar sails might help us realize the long-sought dream of interstellar flight.

Other exhibits at the Centennial of Flight Anniversary will include a full-scale model of the Redstone Mercury rocket, a replica of Apollo 13, a model of the Wright Flyer, an X-43C (NASA’s prototype of the SCRAM JET engine), among other exhibits.

Cosmos 1 Solar Sail is a privately funded project with scientific and commercial applications that involve the cooperation of Russian space and defense organizations through a contract with The Planetary Society. The sail blade model being exhibited in part was developed by the Babakin Space Center near Moscow, Russia.

Babakin Space Center is the prime contractor for Cosmos 1. Babakin is a spin-off organization of NPO Lavochkin, one of the largest manufacturers of robotic spacecraft in the world. The Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Makeev Rocket Design Bureau also play major roles in project development. Makeev is responsible for development of the Volna rocket – which will launch Cosmos 1 – and has made arrangements with the Russian Navy for the launch.

Original Source: Planetary Society News Release

Image credit: ESA

The European Space Agency’s SMART-1 mission will use a revolutionary ion engine to help it search for evidence that the Moon was formed after a violent collision of a smaller planet with the Earth. An ion engine works by accelerating ionized particles of gas in a constant stream for months or even years. Although the thrust is very low, it’s very efficient and requires a fraction of fuel that traditional rockets use.

Science fiction movie fans know that, if you want to travel short distances from your home planet, you would use a sublight ‘ion drive’. However, is such an ion drive science fiction, or science fact?

The answer lies somewhere in between. Ion engines date back to at least 1959. Two ion engines were even tested in 1964 on the American SERT 1 satellite – one was successful, the other was not.

The principle is simply conventional physics – you take a gas and you ionise it, which means that you give it an electrical charge. This creates positively charged ions of gas, along with electrons. The ionised gas passes through an electric field or screen at the back of the engine and the ions leave the engine, producing a thrust in the opposite direction.

Very fuel-efficient
Operating in the near vacuum of space, ion engines shoot out the propellant gas much faster than the jet of a chemical rocket. They therefore deliver about ten times as much thrust per kilogram of propellant used, making them very ‘fuel-efficient’.

Although they are efficient, ion engines are very low-thrust devices. The amount of push you get for the amount of propellant used is very good, but they do not push very strongly. For example, astronauts could never use them for taking off the surface of a planet. However, once in space, they could use them for manoeuvring around, if they are not in a hurry to accelerate quickly. Why? Ion drives can get up to high speeds in space, but they need a very long distance to build up to such speeds over time.

Leisurely advantage
Ion engines work their magic in a leisurely way. Electric guns accelerate the ions. If the power for this acceleration comes from the spacecraft’s solar panels, scientists call it ‘solar-electric propulsion’. Solar panels of the size typically used on current spacecraft can supply only a few kilowatts of power.

A solar-powered ion engine could therefore not compete with the large thrust of a chemical rocket. However, a typical chemical rocket burns for only a few minutes, whereas an ion engine can go on pushing gently for months or even years – as long as the Sun shines and the supply of propellant lasts.

Another advantage of gentle thrust is that it allows very accurate spacecraft control, very useful for scientific missions that require highly precise target pointing.

Ensuring ESA’s place in space
Engineers tested an ion engine as a main propulsion system for the first time using NASA’s Deep Space 1 mission between 1998 and 2001. ESA’s SMART-1 mission, due for launch in late August 2003, will go to the Moon and demonstrate more subtle operations of the kind needed in future long-distance missions. These will combine solar-electric propulsion with manoeuvres using the gravity of planets and moons for the first time.

SMART-1 will ensure Europe’s independence in the use of ion propulsion. Other space science missions are expected to use ion engines for complex manoeuvres close to Earth’s orbit. For example, ESA’s mission LISA will detect gravitational waves coming from the distant Universe. ESA’s future missions to the planets will also use ion engines to send them on their way.

Now science fact
The present-day realities of solar-electric propulsion might not match the movie magic of sci-fi films with spacecraft flying around on our cinema screens. However, ESA’s work on SMART-1 and future missions is ensuring that ion drives are now more science fact than science fiction.

Original Source: ESA News Release

Image credit: NASA

NASA is working on several next-generation propulsion concepts that could help to push future exploration of the solar system, and one of the furthest along is the RS-84 kerosene-fueled rocket engine. The RS-84 is being designed by the Rocketdyne division of Boeing and it recently passed a detailed technical design review. The final, full-scale prototype engine should be ready for testing in 2007. Kerosene is more compact than traditional hydrogen fuel, saving launch weight, and it’s much safer to handle.

The kerosene-fueled RS-84 engine, one of several technologies competing to power NASA’s next generation of launch vehicles, has successfully completed its preliminary design review.

The RS-84 is a reusable, liquid booster engine that will deliver a thrust level of 1 million pounds of force. The design of the prototype engine is being developed by the Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power Division of the Boeing Company, in Canoga Park, Calif., for NASA’s Next Generation Launch Technology Program.

The program, part of NASA’s Space Launch Initiative, seeks to develop key space launch technologies ? engines and propulsion systems, hardware and integrated launch systems ? that will provide the foundation for America’s future space fleet.

The preliminary design review is a lengthy technical analysis that evaluates engine design according to stringent system requirements. The review ensures development is on target to meet Next Generation Launch Technology program goals: improved safety, reliability and cost. The review is conducted when the engine design is approximately 50 percent complete and engine drawings are approximately 10 percent complete.

“We’ve cleared our first major hurdle and the foundation is set for ensuring delivery of a safe, cost effective engine that will meet the next-generation launch requirements of NASA and the Department of Defense,” said Danny Davis, project manager for the RS-84 project at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

“We have a highly experienced team working on this unique design challenge,” Davis added. “I am very proud of the creativity offered by Rocketdyne, and of the thorough, constructive analysis provided by NASA’s insight team.”

The design team’s next major program milestone is the “40k” preburner test, a series of test-firings of a nearly full-scale preburner yielding 40,000 pounds of thrust. The test series, which will be conducted at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., is scheduled to be completed in September. The final RS-84 prototype is expected to begin full-scale test firing by the end of 2007.

The RS-84 is one of two competing efforts now under way to develop an alternative to conventional, hydrogen-fueled engine technologies. The RS-84 is a reusable, staged combustion rocket engine fueled by kerosene ? a relatively low-maintenance fuel with high performance and high density, meaning it takes less fuel-tank volume to permit greater propulsive force than other technologies. That benefit translates to more compact engine systems, easier fuel handling and loading on the ground, and shorter turnaround time between launches. All these gains, in turn, reduce the overall cost of launch operations, making routine space flight cheaper and more attractive to commercial enterprises.

“No engine yet conceived meets the expectations of high reliability, high reusability mission life and responsiveness that is part of the RS-84 design,” Davis said. “Our design incorporates the latest in materials development, advanced software to monitor and predict problems, and lessons learned from past engine technology efforts.”

“The RS-84 preliminary design was shown to satisfy NASA’s goals, supporting an order of magnitude improvement in safety/reliability and operating cost,” said Roger Campbell, deputy program manager of Boeing Rocketdyne’s RS-84 engine team.

NASA’s Next Generation Launch Technology Program is developing and demonstrating innovative technologies in the areas of propulsion, systems integration and launch operations. The work of the program is intended to yield complete, next-generation space transportation systems that will provide low-cost space access and reinvigorate the U.S. space launch market, enabling stronger competition with international space agencies and private commercial entities, enabling stronger domestic and international competition.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Image credit: Armadillo Aerospace

Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace successfully performed a helicopter drop test on a component of their spacecraft on Sunday. Armadillo is just one of the teams competing for the X-Prize, which will pay $10 million to the first private space ship capable of lifting three people to an altitude of 100km. The company is led by John Carmack, who’s better known as the founder of id software – creators of the popular video games Doom and Quake.

We finished up all of the prep work for the vehicle on Tuesday. We welded in strapping points to hold 600 pounds of ?passenger? sandbags in the cabin area, and we mounted five 45 pound Olympic barbell plates on a peg at the end to simulate the weight of the final engines, plumbing, and backup recovery system that will be on the full size vehicle. We mounted four 2? throat engine shells as placeholders. Total weight is just under 2400 pounds. We use a combination of multiple chain hoists, a palette jack, and a forklift to move the full vehicle around and get it up on the trailer, but we did wind up breaking one of the castor wheels that we had mounted on our tank cradle. If we wind up having to use the 1600 gallon propellant tank (the current one is 850 gallons), we aren?t going to be able to stand the vehicle up under the main girder inside our shop, which will be inconvenient.

On Saturday, we headed out to our test site for the drop test. There were quite a few stares on the road in transit? We had a few spatters of rain, and the wind occasionally gusted to 12 knots, but we were able to perform the drop in relatively calm 6 knot winds.

Anna rented a big RV for the day, which was very worthwhile. It was nice to be able to take a break in an air-conditioned space.

5 State Helicopters arrived with a big Sikorsky for the lifting. It was very convenient that they were based close by, and didn?t have a problem with our unusual application (although they did have us contact the local mayor and sheriff for explicit permission). We were very impressed with the precision that they were able to do the lifting ? we were afraid that the vehicle might get dragged or bounced on the crush cone, which could buckle it before the test even started, but they were able to perfectly pivot it up on the nose, and gently lift it off the ground. If we had known they were that precise, we probably could have skipped renting the forklift truck for recovery and just had them lower the rocket back onto the trailer after the test.

We made several 18? diameter test parachutes that were weighted to drift at about the same rate that the full size parachute was expected to fall. We did the test drop from 1500? AGL, under the assumption that the big vehicle would fall several hundred feet before the main chute was fully deployed. The landing point for the test parachute was satisfactory, so we planned the full vehicle drop for 2000? AGL. Neil rode in the helicopter to do the parachute releasing, and Anna hung out the side of the helicopter (with a safety strap) to get aerial footage.

We had to abort our first attempt to drop the vehicle, because the line that we ran from the helicopter to the Sea-Catch toggle release above the rocket had wrapped itself around the chain so many times that Neil couldn?t pull it hard enough to trigger the release. This was fixed by tying loose loops of plastic every few feet along the chain, which kept the pull-line in place.

On the second try, the release worked perfectly. You can clearly see the naturally unstable aerodynamics of the vehicle, as it starts to tip over almost immediately after release. We all held our breath as it started to fall, but the drogue immediately inflated and started pulling the main canopy out. It was nine seconds from release to full canopy inflation. The opening shock was negligible, barely hitting 2G?s. For high altitude flights, we are aiming for a 200 mph terminal velocity under the stabilizer drogue at the time of main canopy deployment, so opening shock will be much greater then.

The wake of the main canopy is so great that the deployment drogue just rests on the canopy during descent, without any inflation at all. The real deployment system will have a much longer line on the drogue (because it is used for vehicle stabilization before deploying the main), which will probably cause it to trail behind the main chute, still inflated.

The drift was going about where we expected, but we were a little concerned when we saw that the vehicle was oscillating +/- 13 degrees under the canopy, which is a pretty big swing at that length. The actual landing point was unfortunately just behind some low foliage, so we didn?t get a perfect shot of it, but we did see it hit at enough of an angle that it rolled almost back upright as it landed.

We ran over to collapse the chute and examine the state of the vehicle. The crush cone had buckled right at the mounting point from the angled impact, but the vehicle looked basically sound. None of the sandbags in the cabin had broken open. Two of the engine support studs were bent from when it tipped back up.

We had the helicopter pick it back up and drop it off by the trailer, which was a lot more convenient than driving the lift truck over to the vehicle.

When we got it back to the shop, we pulled some things apart to take a closer look. The bent mounting studs unscrewed right out of their mounts, so replacing those is trivial. We are considering adding some more bracing below the engine plates, which would probably keep them from bending at all. When we got the crush cone off, we did find that the cabin had been bent right at the end of the cone, and the buckle in the crush cone had pushed in far enough to crease the honeycomb bulkhead.

We are probably going to continue using this cabin for the first couple flights of the big vehicle, but start on a second-generation cabin structure that will incorporate some improvements for off-angle landings, as well as several other lessons we have learned in working with the current cabin. Because we bonded a mounting flange to the tank, we should be able to simply swap the cabin when we want to.

The accelerometer data showed 10G acceleration peaks during the landing and bounce, which is over twice what we saw with the straight down drop tests that collapsed perfectly. This is still acceptable, although bouncing up and back down in the cabin would have been a pretty harsh ride. Making some changes to the vehicle structure will improve the behavior of the crush cone and over tipping effects, and we are going to see if Strong Enterprises can do anything with the canopy design to reduce the oscillations during descent.

Overall, the operation was a good success, and demonstrates that recovering the complete vehicle after flight should work fine.

Original Source: Armadillo Aerospace News Release

US-based Space Adventures has selected the next tourist who will fly into space on board a Russian Soyuz rocket to visit the International Space Station. Space Adventures won’t reveal the identity of the tourist right now, but he or she is expected to blast off some time in 2004 or 2005. The tourist will next be required to sign a contract with the Russian space agency and pay the $20 million fee. If successful, he or she will become the third space tourist after Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth.

The prototype for a Japanese-built space shuttle crashed on landing Tuesday, breaking its left wing and nose cone. The 4-metre unmanned prototype was lifted by balloon in Sweden to an altitude of 21 kilometres and then plunged back to Earth, reaching 80% the speed of sound. Unfortunately, two of its three parachutes failed to open and it had a hard landing. Controllers got the aerodynamic data they needed, but the prototype is likely too damaged to be used again for future tests.

A team of Canadian private rocket builders announced their astronaut selection today, as part of their preparations to launch the Canadian Arrow – a ship based on the original V2 design used in World War 2. The six astronauts include three pilots, an aerospace engineer, a Ukrainian astronaut (who was a backup for a 1997 space shuttle mission), and a 28-year old who has the potential to be the youngest astronaut ever. The Canadian Arrow is considered one of the front-runners to win the X-Prize, which gives $10 million to the first private group to place a three-person team in space.