On the special test vehicle designed to evaluate critical abort technologies, Isro chairman S Somanath told TOI: “Whenever a new agency develops a human-rated space capability, they go through various tests for building such capability. Before the real human-rated vehicle flies we have to fly the critical aspects of this technology in a low-cost option. The full GSLV-Mk3 being launched for an abort mission is not economical, therefore, we looked to test the whole abort capabilities using a low-cost option. The US has already shown this during Apollo.”
After various analyses, Isro found that an economical option for developing such a test vehicle could be through using the liquid engine technology it already possessed. It then decided to build a rocket using the L40 stage of GSLV with its own engine.
“…But let’s make no mistake. This (test vehicle) is a brand new rocket with its own control systems, design and aerodynamics. We went through the design and development phase, hardware realisation is done, we’ve almost completed all qualifications and many numbers are already in store,” Somanath added.
Isro is now preparing for missions using this rocket. The crew module part is yet to come given the long-term development. The crew escape system hardware is undergoing testing.
“Together, we’ll be carrying out a mission soon with these two systems and the test vehicle. We don’t want to delay that. Our target is to do the first one in the middle of 2022 to demonstrate the first of abort conditions. This means we’ll intentionally cause an anomaly and allow the crew module to come out of it, do the tumbling manoeuvres, deploy the parachutes, and land in a designated spot on the sea before being recovered,” Somanath explained.
While this will be one of the types, there are different events — maximum dynamic pressure condition, maximum acceleration condition, some transient condition etc — in which abort will become critical in flight.
“Several such conditions exist but we’ll select the most crucial and critical conditions that control the design, in which abort will be tested before qualifying the entire crew escape system. While we have a programme to realise four test vehicles, the number of missions we are planning before the first uncrewed mission is two,” Somanath said.
Further, as per budget documents released on Tuesday that define expected outcomes during the fiscal, Isro is expected to achieve 50% of the readiness for the human spaceflight programme. This is defined as “number of tests successfully completed out of the total tests required across the mission.”
Aditya, other missions & budget
Aside from Gaganyaan, Isro is looking at a September-October window for the much-awaited Aditya-L1, India’s first solar mission. “The preparations have been progressing at a good pace and we are positively looking at a window in the second half of this year,” Somanath said. If this window is missed Aditya can only be launched in March 2023.
According to Isro, the Aditya-1 mission will be inserted in a halo orbit around Lagrange Point-1 (L1), which is around 1.5 million km from Earth. The satellite carries seven payloads, including the “Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC)” — the main payload — developed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA).
“The VELC will study the diagnostic parameters of solar corona and dynamics and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (3 visible and 1 Infra-Red channels); magnetic field measurement of solar corona down to tens of Gauss,” Isro has said.
Other expected outcomes or targets set for the year — as per the budget — include five satellites launched on PSLV, two satellites onboard GSLV and two onboard SSLV rockets. These are aside from other targets set, including those for technology transfer, reduction of import dependency and so on.
Also, for the 2022-23 fiscal, the department of space (DoS) has got Rs 13,700 crore in the budget presented on Tuesday, including Rs 7,465.6 crore for capital expenditure. This is compared to Rs 12,642 crore in the revised estimates of 2021-22, when there was a downward revision from the original Rs 13,949 crore allotted at the time of the budget presentation. In 2020-21, the DoS had only got Rs 9,474 crore.
