Explained | What went wrong with the ISRO launch of SSLV?

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Explained | What went wrong with the ISRO launch of SSLV?


Why did the ISRO choose a SSLV over the PSLV or GSLV? What was the designated perform of the satellites on-board the automobile?

Why did the ISRO choose a SSLV over the PSLV or GSLV? What was the designated perform of the satellites on-board the automobile?

The story to this point: On August 7, ISRO received prepared for the first developmental flight of the SSLV-D1/EOS-2 mission. The launch passed off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) D1/EOS-2 mission, was carrying two satellites — the Earth Observation Satellite-2 (EOS-2) which weighed about 135 kg and AzadiSAT which weighed about eight kg. The mission aimed to position the EOS-2 in a round low-Earth orbit at a peak of about 350 km above the Equator and inclined at an angle of 37 levels. The preliminary half of the story was profitable with the launch automobile working easily. However, the mission failed to position the satellites of their required orbits, and the satellites, as they have been already indifferent from the launch automobile, have been misplaced.

What was the function of the SSLV-D1/EOS-2 mission?

The function of this mission was to position the two satellites in round low-Earth orbits at a peak of about 350 km above the Equator. The bigger one, the EOS-2 which was designed and developed by ISRO, supplied superior optical distant sensing operations. It would have operated in the infrared area and will have served many functions, from imaging for local weather research to easily maintaining a tally of Earth.

AzadiSAT, on the different hand, was a collective of 75 tiny payloads weighing round 50 grams every, which have been built-in by college students. It carried tiny experiments which might have measured the ionising radiation in its orbit and likewise a transponder which labored in the ham radio frequency to allow beginner operators to entry it.

Which half of the mission succeeded and the place did it fail?

The SSLV was composed of three phases powered by stable fuels and these three carried out their perform as deliberate. However, when it got here to the stage when the satellites needed to be set in orbit, there was a glitch which resulted in the satellites being misplaced perpetually. With a level of openness that’s unprecedented in ISRO, it was introduced that there was a malfunctioning of a sensor which resulted in putting the satellites in an elliptical orbit, fairly than a round orbit. The ellipse or oval form of the elliptical orbit is elongated in a single course and compressed in one other (the so-called main and minor axes, that are like two radii of the ellipse). The shortest peak above the Earth of this oval orbit was solely about 76 km.

Why have been the satellites misplaced?

If the closest distance to the Earth is barely 76 km, because it occurred this time, there may be an atmospheric drag skilled by the object at that peak. Thereafter, except sufficient thrust is utilized to beat the drag, it’s going to lose peak and fall in direction of the Earth as a result of of gravity and should finally fritter away as a result of friction.

What went wrong with the launch?

Today rocket know-how has progressed to such a stage that even when the course of the rocket is altering from its deliberate course, there will likely be sensors that feed again this data to a system. This will instantly set off a course correction which can restore the trajectory of the rocket. There are many sensors in addition to a built-in redundancy. That is, even when one or two sensors fail, there will likely be others that take over and impact the course correction. In the current case, the announcement was that “failure of a logic to identify a sensor failure and go for a salvage action caused the deviation.” This might presumably indicate that both redundancy was not in-built, which is very unlikely, or maybe that it was in-built however didn’t kick off as a result of a technical glitch.

Why do we have to develop an SSLV when now we have efficiently used PSLV and GSLV?

The PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) are fairly highly effective and might carry enormous masses. To place an Earth Orbiting Satellite in a low Earth orbit, one doesn’t want such energy horses. The SSLV can simply carry small-to-medium masses from 10 kg to 500 kg. It is cheaper. The three phases being powered by stable gasoline is one other benefit. Solid gasoline is simpler to deal with, whereas dealing with the liquid propellants utilized in the PSLV and GSLV is extra advanced.

What is the distinction between round and elliptical orbits?

Mostly objects equivalent to satellites and spacecrafts are put in elliptical orbits solely quickly. They are then both pushed as much as round orbits at a better peak or the acceleration is elevated till the trajectory modifications from an ellipse to a hyperbola and the spacecraft escapes the gravity of the Earth to be able to transfer additional into house — for instance, to the Moon or Mars or additional away.

Satellites that orbit the Earth are principally positioned in round orbits. One motive is that if the satellite tv for pc is used for imaging the Earth, it’s simpler if it has a hard and fast distance from the Earth. If the distance retains altering as in an elliptical orbit, retaining the cameras focussed can develop into sophisticated.

THE GIST

The SSLV D1/EOS-2 mission was carrying two satellites — the Earth Observation Satellite-2 (EOS-2 and AzadiSAT. However, the mission failed to position the satellites of their required orbits, and the satellites, as they have been already indifferent from the launch automobile, have been misplaced.

The EOS-2 supplied superior optical distant sensing operations whereas the
AzadiSAT on the different hand was a collective of 75 tiny payloads built-in by college students.

The malfunctioning of a sensor resulted in putting the satellites in an elliptical orbit, fairly than a round orbit. Satellites that orbit the Earth are principally positioned in round orbits. One motive is that if the satellite tv for pc is used for imaging the Earth, it’s simpler if it has a hard and fast distance from the Earth.



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