The Indian Space Programme Read online

  The Indian Space Programme

  India’s incredible journey from the Third World towards the First

  Gurbir Singh

  Copyright © 2017 by Gurbir Singh

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests contact the publisher at the email address below.

  Gurbir Singh/Astrotalkuk Publications

  www.astrotalkuk.org

  [email protected]

  Front and back cover images adapted from ISRO. Front cover GSLV Mk3 launch on 05/06/2017. Back cover image of Earth taken on 1/12/2013 by Mars Orbiter Mission whilst in Earth orbit.

  Ordering Information:

  Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” via email to [email protected].

  The Indian Space Programme /Gurbir Singh —1st edition.

  N: 13 9780956933751

  ISBN: 10 956933750

  Mohinder – An older brother and an unlikely mentor

  About the Author

  Gurbir Singh is the publisher of www.astrotalkuk.org and the author of Yuri Gagarin in London and Manchester published in 2011 to mark the 50th anniversary of humanity’s first journey into space. A former college lecturer, he is working in the information security sector. He has a science and an arts degree.

  Once keen on flying, Gurbir holds a private pilot’s license for the UK, US and Australia. He was one of the 13,000 unsuccessful applicants responding to the 1989 advert “Astronaut wanted. No experience necessary” to become the first British astronaut, for which Helen Sharman was eventually selected and flew on the Soviet space station MIR in 1991.

  Born in India, he has been living in the UK since 1966 except for one year in Australia. He is married, with a nine-year-old daughter and lives in Lancashire in England.

    

  Contents

  About the Author

  Contents

  List of Figures

  List of Tables

  Introduction

  Chapter OneRise of National Space Programmes

  Tipu’s Rockets

  Rockets and Empire

  Founding Fathers of Modern Rocketry

  National Space Programmes

  Scramble for German Rocket Technology

  Korolev, the Chief Designer

  Von Braun and the Moon

  Sarabhai and India's Space Programme

  Chapter TwoFrom Vedic Astronomy to Modern Observatories

  Colonialism and Renaissance

  The Great Trigonometrical Survey

  Madras Observatory

  The Madras Catalogue

  Discovery of Helium

  The Earth-Sun Distance

  Kodaikanal Observatory

  The Evershed Effect

  Other Observatories

  Modern Astronomy

  Chapter ThreeEmergence of Scientific Institutions

  Aligarh Scientific Society

  Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science

  Astronomical Society of India

  Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

  Indian Institute of Science

  Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

  Scientific Temper

  Chapter FourScience and the Raj

  Jagadish Chandra Bose

  Srinivasa Ramanujan

  C.V. Raman

  Satyendra Nath Bose

  Homi Jehangir Bhabha

  Chapter FiveIndia's Forgotten Rocketeer

  Air and Rocket Mail

  Rocket Mail and World War II

  Smith’s Personal Life

  Chapter SixVikram Sarabhai: Leadership by Trust

  Education

  Sarabhai Family and Gandhi

  Marriage

  Peaceful Uses

  Sudden Peaceful Death

  Chapter SevenFirst Launch

  Indian National Committee for Space Research

  Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station

  Pakistan’s Space Agency

  First Launch in India

  One Village One Television: SITE

  SITE Infrastructure

  Chapter EightInside the Indian Space Research Organisation

  Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

  Space Applications Centre

  ISRO Satellite Centre

  Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre

  ISRO Propulsion Complex

  ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network

  Master Control Facility

  Recovering Costs - Antrix

  Chapter NineSriharikota. India's Spaceport

  Mission Control Centre

  First Launch Pad

  Second Launch Pad

  Solid Propellant Booster Plant

  Local Propellant Facilities

  Electric Propulsion

  Launch Dynamics

  Chapter TenISRO's Rockets

  Inertial Guidance System

  Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-3)

  Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV)

  Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

  Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle

  Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3)

  GSLV-Mk3

  Future Launch Vehicles

  Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV)

  Scramjet

  Chapter ElevenStruggle with Cryogenic Technology

  Cryogenic Engine Technology. Buy or Build?

  India’s Cryogenic Engine

  Russian Roulette

  Missile Technology Control Regime

  Commercial Space Services

  Chapter TwelveSatellites and Saris

  India's First Satellite: Aryabhata

  Earth Observation: Bhaskara and IRS

  Bhaskara 1 and 2

  IRS-1A

  Remote Sensing Instrument

  Passive instruments

  Active instruments

  Data from Earth Observation Satellites

  Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment

  Communication Satellites

  INSAT 1 Series

  INSAT 2 Series

  Education and Defence

  Satellite Assisted Search and Rescue

  Chapter Thirteen Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System

  Space Segment

  Ground Segment

  User Segment

  Navigation Satellite

  GAGAN: GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation

  Global Navigation Satellite Systems

  Chapter Fourteen Human Space Flight

  India’s First and Only Astronaut Rakesh Sharma

  Still-born Astronaut

  Roadmap for Human Spaceflight

  Chapter FifteenMoon, Mars and Science

  Destination Moon

  Building Chandrayaan-1

  Journey to the Moon

  Many nations, one spacecraft

  Moon Impact Probe

  Science from Chandrayaan-1

  Chandrayaan-2: Journey to the Lunar Surface

  Why India Went to Mars

  From Sriharikota to Mars

  Science from Martian Orbit

  Astrosat - Astronomy from Orbit

  Operational Status

  Future Science and Interplanetary Missions

  Return to Mars

  Aditya-L1

  Venus Orbiter Mission

  Tea
m Indus

  Chapter SixteenSpace and National Security

  Space Infrastructure

  For All Mankind

  War and Space

  Anti-Satellite Weapons

  Space Debris

  Chapter Seventeen The Road Ahead

  Rockets or Rotis

  Satellite TV, Demand and Supply

  Private Sector

  Research and Development

  Global Space Market

  Regional Space Power

  International Collaboration

  Value of Space

  Chasing a Chimera?

  Appendices

  Abbreviations

  List of Interviews

  Indian Currency

  Types of Orbits

  Satellite Communication

  International Treaties

  ISRO Spaceflight History

  References

  List of Figures

  Figure 1‑1 History of Mysore 1617-1799. Credit John Bartholomew & Co. 1897

  Figure 1‑2 Battle of Pollilur. The Ammunition Cart Exploding in the Middle of the Defensive British Square. A Mural in the Summer Palace, Srirangapatna. Credit Author

  Figure 1‑3 Congreve rocket fired at Stonington in August 1814. Credit Stonington Historical Society

  Figure 1‑4 Sir William Congreve Second Baronet. Circa 1812. Credit James Lonsdale

  Figure 1‑5 Congreve 32-pounder (15 kg) incendiary rocket. Credit National Air and Space Museum

  Figure 1‑6 Robert Esnault-Pelterie 1907. Credit San Diego Air and Space Museum

  Figure 1‑7 Robert Goddard at his launch control shack. Credit NASA

  Figure 1‑8 Sergei Korolev middle of picture transporting his glider to the launch site in October 1929. Credit Natalya Koroleva

  Figure 1‑9 Wernher von Braun with President Kennedy 16 November 1963. Credit NASA

  Figure 2‑1 Jantar Mantar in Jaipur. Credit McKay Savage

  Figure 2‑2 Transit of Mercury Recorded by Jeremiah Shakerley from Surat. 3 November 1651. Credit Indian Institute of Astrophysics

  Figure 2‑3 The Madras Observatory 1838. Credit Indian Institute of Astrophysics

  Figure 2‑4 Solar Eclipse. Turkey. 29 March 2006. Credit Toni May

  Figure 2‑5 Transit of Venus 8th June 2012. Had photography been available the 1761 transit would have looked similar. Credit Author

  Figure 2‑6 Kodaikanal Observatory. 1908. Credit Unknown Artist

  Figure 2‑7 Halley's Comet photographed by John Evershed from Kodaikanal 1910. Credit Indian Institute of Astrophysics

  Figure 2‑8 Eugène Lafont (1837–1908). Credit Grentidez

  Figure 2‑9 Bhavnagar Telescope in Ladakh 1984. Credit Indian Institute Astrophysics

  Figure 2‑10 Devasthal Optical Telescope. September 2015. Credit Aryabhatta Research Institute for Observational Sciences

  Figure 3‑1‑Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Credit Unknown

  Figure 3‑2 Original Building of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Calcutta. Credit IISc Archives

  Figure 3‑3 Seal of the Astronomical Society of India Designed by Member F.C. Scallan in February 1911. Credit Indian Institute of Astrophysics

  Figure 3‑4 Indian Institute of Science. Credit IISc Archives

  Figure 3‑5 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai. Credit Author

  Figure 3‑6 Max Born (front row fourth from the right) and Homi Bhabha (left-hand side fourth row) at an Informal Meeting on Nuclear Physics. Institute for Theoretical Physics Copenhagen 1936. Credit IISc Archives

  Figure 3‑7 India's First Digital Computer TIFRAC. 15 January 1962. Credit TIFR

  Figure 4‑1 Jagadish Chandra Bose at the Royal Society in London. Credit Wikimedia Commons

  Figure 4‑2 Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920). Credit Professor Richard Askey

  Figure 4‑3 Sample from Ramanujan's Lost Notebook. Credit University of Madras

  Figure 4‑4 C.V. Raman at the IISc. Credit IISc Archives

  Figure 4‑5 Raman in Europe. Credit IISc Archives

  Figure 4‑6 Transcript of S.N. Bose’s 1924 Letter to Albert Einstein. Credit S.N. Bose

  Figure 4‑7 Bose-Einstein Condensate. Credit Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Figure 4‑8 Homi Bhabha (second from the left) in Cambridge. Credit. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

  Figure 4‑9 Indian Institute of Science prior to the reorganisation in 1948. From Altor Homi Bhabha Registrar A.G. Pai Director J.C. Ghosh J. Taylor C.V. Raman. Credit IISc Archives

  Figure 4‑10 Sketch of C.V. Raman by Homi Bhabha. 1945. Credit IISc Archives

  Figure 5‑1 Stephen H. Smith. Credit Superior Galleries

  Figure 5‑2 Cover Flown in the First Airmail Flight, Allahabad 1911. Credit India Study Circle - India Post January–March 2011

  Figure 5‑3 Letter from the King to Stephen H. Smith Marking the First Airmail Flight between Britain and India. Credit Eric Winter

  Figure 5‑4 Regulus I Missile Fired from USS Barbero. 8 June 1959. Credit Smithsonian Postal Museum

  Figure 5‑5 Covers flown to the Moon on Apollo 15 July 1971. Credit NASA

  Figure 5‑6 King of Sikkim Igniting One of Smith’s Rockets. April 1934. Credit Stephen H. Smith

  Figure 5‑7 Stephen Smith and Fay Harcourt Married on 6 November 1918 in Dhurrumtollah Street Roman Catholic Church Calcutta. Credit Paul Sandford

  Figure 5‑8 Stephen Smith Centenary Commemorative Stamp. Credit Philately World

  Figure 6‑1 Vikram Sarabhai with Son Kartikeya and Daughter Mallika. Credit Mallika Sarabhai

  Figure 6‑2 Letter of Recommendation to Cambridge from Rabindranath Tagore. November 1935. Credit Vikram Sarabhai Archives

  Figure 6‑3 Mahatma Gandhi with Vikram’s sister, Mridula Sarabhai. 1942. Credit Unknown

  Figure 6‑4 Vikram Sarabhai R. Aravamudan and an Apollo 11 Moonrock at Thumba in 1969. Credit R. Aravamudan

  Figure 6‑5 Crater Sarabhai 4.66 mile (7.5 km). Photographed by Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden from Lunar Orbit. 30 July 1971. Credit NASA

  Figure 7‑1 International Geophysical Year 1957-58. Credit NASA

  Figure 7‑2 Sputnik. First Artificial Satellite Launched by the USSR. 4 October 1957. Credit NASA

  Figure 7‑3 Former Church now a Museum with model launch vehicles in the foreground. Thumba. Credit Author

  Figure 7‑4 Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission. Credit SUPARCO

  Figure 7‑5 Battle of Guntur 1780. Credit Charles Hubbell

  Figure 7‑6 Nike-Apache at Thumba. Credit Professor Praful Bhavsar

  Figure 7‑7 R. Aravamudan (right) and A.P.J Abdul Kalam (left) integrating payload for a sounding rocket launch in 1964. Credit Professor Praful Bhavsar

  Figure 7‑8 Sodium-Vapour Trail. 21 November 1963. Credit Professor Praful Bhavsar

  Figure 7‑9 Vikram Sarabhai and Jacques Blamont in Kanyakumari. January 1964. Credit Jacques Blamont

  Figure 7‑10 NASA’s Applications Technology Satellite (ATS-6). Credit NASA

  Figure 7‑11 Vikram Sarabhai and NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine Signing the SITE Agreement. 18 September 1968. Credit NASA

  Figure 7‑12 ATS-6 Footprint over India. Credit UNESCO

  Figure 7‑13 Chicken Wire Mesh Antenna and Television Used for SITE. Credit ISRO

  Figure 8‑1 ISRO Centres Providing Scientific, Technical and Administrative Support across India. Credit ISRO

  Figure 8‑2 ISRO Headquarters in Bengaluru. Credit Author

  Figure 8‑3 Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. Credit ISRO

  Figure 8‑4 Experimental Satellite Communication Earth Station Built in 1966. Credit ISRO

  Figure 8‑5 George Joseph Explaining to Prof. Dhawan (extreme left) and Prof. Yash Pal the Operation of the Multispectral Scanner Inside a Dakota Aircraft. 1976. Credit Dr. George Joseph

  Figure 8‑6 ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri. Credit ISRO

  Figure 8‑7 ISRO's 32-m Antenna at Byalalu. Credit Author


  Figure 8‑8 Main Building of Master Control Facility, Hassan. Credit ISRO

  Figure 8‑9 Ground Stations Used for Tracking Mars Orbiter Mission Including International and ISTRAC Centres. Credit ISRO

  Figure 8‑10 Indian Remote-Sensing Satellite RISAT-1. Credit ISRO

  Figure 8‑11 Profit After Tax Rs (Lakhs) Antrix Corporation Limited. Credit Antrix

  Figure 9‑1 Sriharikota on India’s East Coast. Credit Google

  Figure 9‑2 Sriharikota. Credit Google Earth

  Figure 9‑3 Mission Control Centre, Sriharikota. Credit ISRO

  Figure 9‑4 Second Launch Control Centre. Credit ISRO

  Figure 9‑5 Site of the First Launch Pad. Credit Google

  Figure 9‑6 First Launch Pad with PSLV-C18. 12 October 2011. Credit ISRO

  Figure 9‑7 Site of the Second Launch Pad. Credit Google

  Figure 9‑8 Second Launch Pad Noise and Vibration Suppression System. Credit ISRO

  Figure 9‑9 GSLV-D5 on the MLP moving from the VAB towards the SLP. Credit ISRO

  Figure 9‑10 Launch Trajectories from Sriharikota. Credit Bhushan Hadkar

  Figure 9‑11 International Launch Sites around India. Credit Adapted from Federal Aviation Administration Compendium 2016

  Figure 9‑12 Proposed Second Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit Adapted from ISRO

  Figure 10‑1 ISRO Family of Launch Vehicles. (Left to Right) SLV-3, ASLV, PSLV, GSLV Mk2, GSLV-Mk3. Credit Wikimedia Commons

  Figure 10‑2 Inertial Guidance System. Credit GEC Marconi

  Figure 10‑3 Attitude Control. Left: SITVC used by PSLV-XL booster for roll control. Centre: PSLV Second Stage engine gimbaling. Right: GSLV-CUS with Two Vernier Engines (circled). Credit Adapted from ISRO

  Figure 10‑4 ISRO’s First Hybrid Launch Vehicle with Strap-On, SO-300-200, to Test Strap-On Technology. 16 October 1985. Credit ISRO

  Figure 10‑5 Three Configurations of PSLV. Regular, Core Alone and XL (What looks like strap-ons in the Core Alone configuration are SITVC fuel tanks, which are present in all three configurations). Credit ISRO

  Figure 10‑6 Launch Profile of the PSLV-C27 IRNSS-1D. Credit ISRO

  Figure 10‑7 LVM3-X/Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment Flight Profile. Credit ISRO

  Figure 10‑8 Future Launch Vehicles. Based on fact and informed speculation. Credit Norbert Brugge

  Figure 10‑9 Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator. Credit ISRO