GSLV MARK III

ABSTRACT

GSLV MARK-III

GSLV mark-3 is a significant step for India’s space ambitions as it is the first step

towards India’s ambition to send Indian astronauts into space. It is also significant from

perspective of ISRO’s own cryogenic engine. It proved ISRO’s maturity in reentry technology,

its ability to develop braking techniques, deceleration technology and thermal protection system

for crew module. The new launch vehicle named the LVM-3 or Geostationary Satellite Launch

Vehicle Mk. 3 is the most capable rocket ever developed by India. It can carry up to 10 metric

tons, or about 22,000 pounds, of cargo into low Earth orbit and up to 4 metric tons 8,800 pounds

into geostationary transfer orbit once it is operational, a milestone Indian officials hope to

achieve within about two years.

To achieve low cost access to space, ISRO has chalked down a plan to develop a new

breed of reusable launch system called AVATAR to substantially cut down the launch costs. ).

AVATAR will be a Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) launch system that will attempt to reuse

maximum sub-systems and will use turbojet and dual mode ramjet-scramjet propulsion. SSTO

launch system will take a long time to develope. Accordingly, ISRO has decided to first develop

a Two Stage to Orbit (TSTO) reusable launch system for the immediate future by utilizing its

current capabilities and target development of AVATAR in the long term.

INDEX

Sl.no Topic Page no

1 History 3

2 GSLV MK-III 7

3 Stages 11

4 CARE 13

5 Future 15

6 Conclusion 20

7 Reference 21

HISTORY OF LAUNCH VEHICLES:

During the 1960s and 1970s, India initiated its own launch vehicle programme owing to

geopolitical and economic considerations. In the 1960s–1970s, the country successfully

developed a sounding rockets programme, and by the 1980s, research had yielded the Satellite

Launch Vehicle-3 and the more advanced Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV),

complete with operational supporting infrastructure. ISRO further applied its energies to the

advancement of launch vehicle technology resulting in the creation of PSLV and GSLV

technologies.

Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV)

The Satellite Launch Vehicle, usually known by its abbreviation SLV or SLV-3 was a 4-

stage solid-propellant light launcher. It was intended to reach a height of 500 km and carry a

payload of 40 kg. Its first launch took place in 1979 with 2 more in each subsequent year,

and the final launch in 1983. Only two of its four test flights were successful.

Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV)

The Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle, usually known by its abbreviation ASLV was

a 5-stage solid propellant rocket with the capability of placing a 150 kg satellite into Low

Earth Orbit. This project was started by the ISRO during the early 1980s to develop

technologies needed for a payload to be placed into a geostationary orbit. Its design was

based on Satellite Launch Vehicle. The first launch test was held in 1987, and after that 3

others followed in 1988, 1992 and 1994, out of which only 2 were successful, before it was

decommissioned.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, usually known by its abbreviation PSLV, is

an expendable launch system developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing

(IRS) satellites into Sun synchronous orbits, a service that was, until the advent of the PSLV,

commercially viable only from Russia. PSLV can also launch small satellites

intogeostationary transfer orbit (GTO). The reliability and versatility of the PSLV is proven

by the fact that it has launched, as of 2014, 71 satellites/spacecraft (31 Indian and 40 foreign)

into a variety of orbits. The maximum number of satellites launched by the PSLV in a single

launch is 10, in the PSLV-C9 launch on 28 April 2008 (690 kg CARTOSAT-2A, 83 kg

Indian Mini Satellite, and 8 nano-satellites, launched by PSLV's "core-alone" version).

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, usually known by its abbreviation GSLV,

is an expendable launch system developed to enable India to launch its INSAT-type satellites

into geostationary orbit and to make India less dependent on foreign rockets. At present, it is

ISRO's second-heaviest satellite launch vehicle and is capable of putting a total payload of

up to 5 tons to Low Earth Orbit. The vehicle is built by India with the cryogenic engine

purchased from Russia while the ISRO develops its own engine programme.

In a setback for ISRO, the attempt to launch the GSLV, GSLV-F07 carrying GSAT-5P,

failed on 25 December 2010. The initial evaluation implies that loss of control for the strap-

on boosters caused the rocket to veer from its intended flight path, forcing a programmed

detonation. Sixty-four seconds into the first stage of flight, the rocket began to break up due

to the acute angle of attack. The body housing the 3rd stage, the cryogenic stage, incurred

structural damage, forcing the range safety team to initiate a programmed detonation of the

rocket.

On 5 January 2014, GSLV-D5 successfully launched GSAT-14 into intended orbit. This

also marked first successful flight using indigenous cryogenic engine, making India the sixth

country in the world to have this technology.

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III (GSLV III)

GSLV-Mk III can launch four tonne satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. It is a

three-stage vehicle with a 110 tonne core liquid propellant stage (L-110) and a strap-on stage

with two solid propellant motors, each with 200 tonne propellant (S-200). The upper stage

will be cryogenic with a propellant loading of 25 tonne (C-25). It has a lift-off mass of about

640 tonnes, and is 43.43 meters tall. The payload fairing has a diameter of 5 meters and a

payload volume of 100 cubic meters. It will allow India to become less dependent on foreign

rockets for heavy lifting.

On 18 December 2014, ISRO successfully conducted an experimental test-flight of

GSLV MK III carrying a crew module, to be used in future human space missions. This

suborbital test flight demonstrated the performance of GSLV Mk III in the atmosphere.

ISRO’s NEW MONSTER ROCKET

Indian engineers are counting down to a test flight Thursday of a next-generation

launcher to verify the performance of two powerful solid rocket motors, a twin-engine core

booster and a prototype capsule designed for India’s nascent human spaceflight program.

The flight is set to take off at 0400 GMT Thursday (11 p.m. EST Wednesday) from the

Satish Dhawan Space Center, India’s spaceport on Sriharikota Island along the country’s east

coast about 50 miles north of the Indian city of Chennai.

The 24-and-a-half hour countdown started on time, and filling of the rocket with liquid

propellants was underway Wednesday.

The stubby 139-foot-tall rocket will not reach the velocity necessary to enter orbit, but

the demonstration launch will reach a top speed of 5.3 kilometers per second nearly 12,000 mph

and a peak altitude of 126 kilometers, or 78 miles.

The new launch vehicle named the LVM-3 or Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle

Mk. 3 is the most capable rocket ever developed by India. It can carry up to 10 metric tons, or

about 22,000 pounds, of cargo into low Earth orbit and up to 4 metric tons 8,800 pounds into

geostationary transfer orbit once it is operational, a milestone Indian officials hope to achieve

within about two years.

Started in 2002, the GSLV Mk. 3 program is projected to cost approximately $400

million by the time development is finished, Indian news outlets reported. Thursday’s flight

alone cost about $24 million, according to India’s NDTV television news network.

Thursday’s test launch will check the performance of the GSLV Mk. 3’s first stage and

strap-on boosters, which will carry the rocket out of the atmosphere beyond the boundary of

space. The launcher’s cryogenic upper stage, which will be active and fueled by liquid hydrogen

on future missions, will be dormant on Thursday’s flight.

“The primary objective of this experimental flight is to validate the complex atmospheric

ascent regime of this all new launcher, especially the aerodynamic and control features that

cannot be conclusively tested on ground,” the Indian Space Research Organization wrote in a

post on its official Facebook page.

Each of the GSLV Mk. 3’s two S200 solid boosters will generate 1.1 million pounds of

thrust, making them the second-most powerful solid-fueled rocket motors currently in service

after the strap-on rockets used by Europe’s Ariane 5 launcher, ISRO says on its website.

Burning a pre-packed mix of fuel, oxidizer and binding agent, the 10.5-foot-wide, 72-

foot-long boosters will fire for more than two minutes alongside the GSLV Mk. 3’s core stage.

The rocket’s first stage is powered by two hydrazine-fueled Vikas engines, the same type

of engines flying on India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and smaller versions of the GSLV.

The twin-engine liquid-fueled L110 first stage will ignite when the rocket is already in

the air, firing for more than three minutes and ramping up to peak power of 360,000 pounds of

thrust.

Stage 1 – solid boosters:

The GSLV-III uses S200 solid motors. Each booster has a diameter of 3.2 metres, a

length of 25 metres, and carries 207 tonnes of propellant. These boosters burn for 130 seconds

and produce a peak thrust of about 5,150 kilonewtons (525 tf) each.

A separate facility has been established at Sriharikota to make the S200 boosters. Another

major feature is that the S200’s large nozzle has been equipped with a ‘flex seal.’ The nozzle can

therefore be gimballed when the rocket’s orientation needs correction.

In flight, as the thrust from the S200 boosters begins to tail off, the decline in acceleration

is sensed by the rocket’s onboard sensors and the twin Vikas engines on the ‘L110’ liquid

propellant core stage are then ignited. Before the S200s separate and fall away from the rocket,

the solid boosters as well as the Vikas engines operate together for a short period of time.

Stage 2 – liquid motor

The core stage, designated L110, is a 4-meter-diameter liquid-fueled stage carrying 110

tonnes of UDMH and N2O4. It is the first Indian liquid-engine cluster design, and uses two

improved Vikas engines, each producing about 700 kilonewtons (70 tf). The improved Vikas

engine uses regenerative cooling, providing improved weight and specific impulse, compared to

earlier rockets. The L110 core stage ignites 113 seconds after liftoff and burns for about 200

seconds.

Stage 3 – cryogenic upper stage

The cryogenic upper stage is designated the C25 and will be powered by the Indian-

developed CE-20 engine burning LOX and LH2, producing 186 kilonewtons (19.0 tf) of thrust.

The C-25 will be 4 metres (13 ft) in diameter and 13.5 metres (44 ft) long, and contain 27 tonnes

of propellant.

This engine is slated for completion and testing by 2015, it will then be integrated with

the C25 stage and be put through a series of tests. The first C25 stage will be used on the GSLV-

III D-1 mission in early 2017. This mission will put in orbit the GSAT-19E communication

satellite. Work on the C25 stage and CE-20 engine for GSLV Mk-III upper stage was initiated in

2003, the project has been subject to many delays due to problems with ISRO's smaller

cryogenic engine, the CE-7.5 for GSLV MK-II upper stage.

K. Radhakrishnan, ISRO’s chairman, described the rocket as “a totally new

configuration” for India, according to the Hindu newspaper, an Indian English-language

newspaper.

“So if there are issues with respect to the configuration and we need to take care of that, it

is better to take care of [them] early,” he said in a report published on the Hindu’s website.

After the rocket’s propulsion shuts down, a gumdrop-shaped capsule will separate from

the GSLV Mk. 3’s dummy upper segment about five-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, according

to the Times of India, another English-language paper in India.

The capsule weighs about 8,000 pounds — about 3.6 metric tons. Indian engineers

from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. fabricated the car-sized module, and ISRO added sensors,

strain gauges, a guidance and control system and a heat shield for the suborbital flight, which is

called the Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment, or CARE.

CARE separated from the passive C25 cryogenic upper stage of GSLV Mk-III 330.8

seconds after lift-off and began its guided descent for atmospheric re-entry. After the successful

re-entry phase, CARE module’s parachutes opened, following which it gently landed over

Andaman Sea about 1600 km from Sriharikota, there by successfully concluding the GSLV Mk-

III X/CARE mission.  While the rocket cost Indian Space Research Organisation Rs 140 crore,

the crew module has taken another Rs 15 crore.

“This was a very significant day in the history of Indian space programme,”

ISRO Chairman K S Radhakrishnan said from mission control, as fellow scientists clapped and

broke into a round of cheers. President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi

were among other leaders who congratulated the ISRO scientists for the feat that will help carry

heavier communication satellites.

The 2.7 metre tall cupcake-shaped crew module CARE with a diameter of 3.1 metre

features aluminium alloy internal structure with composite panels and ablative thermal protection

systems and can carry two to three astronauts.

Though it would take at least 10 years for India to send humans into space, this

experiment has helped the space agency to test the module for safe return of humans from space,

according to ISRO.

Future: One of the Space Visions of ISRO is to enable low cost access to space, which is not

possible with the present expendable launch systems. The present launch cost of expendable

systems, is roughly 10,000 US $/ kg for LEO orbit and around 20,000 US $/ kg for GSO orbit.

ISRO is aiming to bring down this cost by half in the short term by the use of its new LVM3

(GSLV Mk3) and ULV expendable systems. But to make the harnessing of space resources more

affordable, it is imperative that the cost of access to space must be substantially brought down by

an order of magnitude. 

To achieve low cost access to space, ISRO has chalked down a plan to develop a new

breed of reusable launch system called AVATAR to substantially cut down the launch

costs (vehicle hardware contributes 70% of the total cost of the launch vehicle that is presently

expended after one launch).  AVATAR will be a Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) launch system

that will attempt to reuse maximum sub-systems and will use turbojet and dual mode ramjet-

scramjet propulsion. The use of air-breathing ramjet-scramjet engines will preclude need for

carrying all the propellants , particularly oxidizer, that will enable cutting the system cost. 

Avatar is an ambitious program and with the kind of engine and material technologies

required, such SSTO launch system will take a long time to develope. Accordingly, ISRO has

decided to first develop a Two Stage to Orbit (TSTO) reusable launch system for the immediate

future by utilizing its current capabilities and target development of AVATAR in the long term.

Targeted TSTO Features:

1. 10 Ton to LEO and GTO payload capability.

2. Vertical take off.

3. Semi-cryogenic booster stage with avg. Isp of 330 seconds and cryogenic orbiter stage

with avg. Isp of 400 seconds.

4. Total lift off weight < 700 tons.

Winged body booster that will boost the orbiter to Mach 10 at an altitude of 80-100 km

then separate and return to launch site and land conventionally on an air-strip.

1. Orbiter will deploy the payloads in the intended orbits and then deboost, re-enter  and

land on airbags or vertically on legs. 

2. Vehicle structure designed for 100 flights and engines for 50 flights.

3. Turn around time should be 30 days. 

4. Payload fraction = 2%.

5. Cost effectiveness < 1000 US $/ kg for LEO payload.

Possible TSTO mission profiles:

To realize the TSTO and associated new technologies, ISRO has been working on the

development of a RLV technology demonstrator (RLV-TD) and is setting

up necessary technology development infrastructure.

CONCLUSION

India successfully launched its biggest ever rocket on Thursday, including an unmanned

capsule which could one day send astronauts into space, as the country ramps up its ambitious

space programme.

The crew module separated from the rocket at an altitude of 126km and then re-entered

into the earth’s atmosphere at 80km. It then followed an uncontrollable trajectory into the Bay of

Bengal about 180km off the Andaman Nicobar Islands.

The crew module weighing 3.73 tonnes separated from the rocket about 325seconds (five

min) after the lift off from the launch pad.

One of the space visions of ISRO is to enable low cost access to space, which is not

possible with the present expendable launch systems. The present launch cost of expendable

launch systems is roughly 10,000 US $/kg for LEO orbit and around 20,000US $/kg for GSO

orbit. ISRO is aiming to bring down this cost by half in the short term by the use of its new LVM

3 and ULV expendable systems.

References:

http://antariksh-space.blogspot.in/2013/01/isro-reusable-launch-vehicle-program.html  http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/12/17/powerful-new-indian-rocket-poised-for-suborbital-test-launch/  http://www.pragyan.org/blog/2014/12/another-leap-into-space/  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_Satellite_Launch_Vehicle_Mk_III