This morning (EST) India launched a pair of satellites into orbit designed to test out methods of docking two spacecraft autonomously.
A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off at 11:30 a.m. Eastern (1630 UTC; 10 p.m. local time) Dec. 30 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, with the rocket climbing into the night sky.
The PSLV-C60 rocket carried the primary payload in the form of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) as well as 24 different experiments aboard the POEM-4 secondary payload module. Of the latter, 14 are Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and institutional payloads and 10 further payloads from non-government entities. These include a walking robotic arm, a debris capture robotic manipulator, a compact plant research module and a range of sensors.
SpaDeX is a mission by India's Space Research Organization (ISRO) to demonstrate on orbit docking using two small spacecraft. Docking is one of those key technologies that the world's leading space programs have demonstrated the ability to do, going back to the 1960s with the Gemini program in the US. Success will make India the fourth country to demonstrate rendezvous and docking, which will be essential for India's Gaganyaan program with a first crewed flight currently planned for 2026. Uncrewed test flights are scheduled for 2025.
The SpaDeX mission consists of two small spacecraft (about 220 kg each) to be launched by PSLV-C60, independently and simultaneously, into a 470 km circular orbit at 55° inclination, with a local time cycle of about 66 days. The demonstrated precision of the PSLV vehicle will be utilized to give a small relative velocity between the Target and Chaser spacecraft at the time of separation from the launch vehicle. This incremental velocity will allow the Target spacecraft to build a 10-20 km inter-satellite separation with respect to the Chaser within a day. At this point, the relative velocity between the Target will be compensated using the propulsion system of the Target spacecraft.
The chaser spacecraft is referred to as SDX01, with the target called SDX02. The ISRO mission site doesn't talk about a schedule of when the various experiments will happen but it appears to be a long mission with the two spacecraft being used for more experiments after the initial docking and related experiments.
“After successful docking and rigidization, electrical power transfer between the two satellites will be demonstrated before undocking and separation of the two satellites to start the operation of their respective payloads for the expected mission life of up to two years,” ISRO stated in a mission briefing.
Image Credit: ISRO
Once they've demonstrated their abilities in this critical area, you can be sure we'll see it in more future missions. It has already been talked about for the Chandrayaan-4 lunar south pole sampling mission, expected to launch in 2027 or 2028.
Good for them. The more the merrier. Be interesting to see how they evolve basically Soviet tech to a modern world. And this is how. Small object docking. Excellent.
ReplyDeleteSame tech of small object docking could be used for satellite recovery or elimination.
Read other day next is launching/certifying human rated vehicles, so they are in line to go full on space occupation from the looks of their programs. Imagine, next up: 7-11's in space, I aint joking, because whats wrong with depots in orbit or Legrange points, stocked with consumables, you dock at a 7-11 outpost, load up with H2 and Lox, pantry goods, coolants, all the stuff you need from earth to stay up for extended time frames. Sounds corny? Bet its a multi billion dollar industry before long. Because once real manufacturing gets going up there, all sorts of support services will be needed. Its a big list now, imagine orbital factory's, corporate structure is corporate structure here or up there.
ReplyDeleteWell, the Chinese copied technology from the US, so why can't India do the same with Russian?
ReplyDeleteNo sense in re-inventing the wheel...
And you get to improve and upgrade it too. Didn't take long for others to use metha-lox engines after SpaceX first employed that fuel mix, Blue Origin says they use liquified natural has and Lox, whats the difference? I mean methane is natural gas, both come out of the ground naturally, though they synthesize liquid methane too.
DeleteTrying to figure out if there is any difference in stored power.
I looked into that LNG question. It comes down to LNG having ethane in it so that it’s not pure methane. I don’t remember what percentage ethane but the performance is going to be different.
Delete