ISRO Spaceflight
@ISROSpaceflight
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Everything about ISRO and the Indian Space Program. Regular updates, news, pictures and more. (This is not the official account of ISRO)
India
Joined May 2020
๐๐-๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐ ๐จ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ: ISRO has successfully carried out an ignition test of their CE-20 engine under vacuum conditions at their High Altitude Test (HAT) facility yesterday! ๐ฅ It demonstrated the use of their multi-element igniter in vacuum, which will allow CE-20 (which is used on the 3rd stage of LVM3 & will be used on NGLV) to perform inflight re-ignitions in space! ISRO has a series of upcoming tests planned for CE-20 in which they will also explore engine ignition using bootstrap mode, where the turbopump spin-up takes place with the help of the available pressure inside the tank, rather than using pressurized gas stored in a separate tank to spin-up the turbopumps (Stored Gas System), which is what ISRO currently uses to ignite CE-20 at stage separation.
ISRO has successfully demonstrated in-flight engine re-ignition capability on their CE-20 engine!! ๐ฅ And, this test was carried out in a sea level engine test facility with CE-20's vacuum optimized nozzle extension still on! ISRO's vacuum optimized engines are tested either with the nozzle extension removed or at their High Altitude Test (HAT) facilty to mimick vacuum like conditions. Doing so otherwise can damage the engine due to a phenomenon called flow separation. Which is why, this test also demonstrated the use of a 'Nozzle Protection System' designed by ISRO to prevent damage due to flow separation, allowing for more simplicity and cost effectiveness in testing. Talking about the re-ignition test, ISRO developed a 'Multi-Element Igniter' system to make re-ignition possible. It uses three ignition sources within one unit to start the combustion process. For this test, only the first element was tested, and the health of the other two was monitored.
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๐จ ๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ซ ๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐จ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ: The undocking of the SpaDeX satellites has been delayed potentially to March-April, as the two spacecrafts are reportedly unable to generate sufficient power. ๐ฐโก๏ธ ISRO is also struggling with composite control of the docked spacecrafts, i.e. the ability to control one spacecraft with the Attitude Control System of the other spacecraft (which was one of the mission objectives). Due to the above reasons, there is currently no fixed timeline for when the undocking is to happen, although one senior ISRO scientist involved in the SpaDeX mission has stated it is โlikely to happen only in March-Aprilโ. Source:
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As you know, fire needs both fuel and oxygen to burn. Similarly, for combustion to take place inside a rocket engine, it needs both fuel and oxygen. The oxygen may be provided simply in the form of liquid oxygen or a chemical (oxidizer) containing a large amount of oxygen in its molecular structure. In this case, the valve controlling the flow of oxidizer from the tank to the thruster failed to open. As a result, the oxidizer is not able to reach the engine, causing the fuel to not combust and preventing the engine from firing. Currently, the satellite is in a highly elliptical 170ร36,577 km orbit. It needs to circularize its elliptical orbit by firing its engine at the highest point in its orbit. However due to the above issue, it is not able to fire the engine.
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Oxidizer valve failed to open means the thruster cannot fire.
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