ADMIRE test vehicle

AHMEDABAD: India is aspiring to move a notch up in the reusable launch system development programme with rockets that will have Vertical take-off and Vertical Landing (VTVL) capabilities. Now on Isro’s priority list are launch vehicles that will have similar capabilities like the one developed by SpaceX ’s Falcon 9 and Grasshopper rockets.

Distinguished Isro professor and founding director of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) Dr B N Suresh gave a peek into the ADMIRE test vehicle, that will have supersonic retro propulsion, special retractable landing legs which will in fact act as steerable grid fins, to guide the rocket back to its launch pad. The launch vehicle emulates technology that is embedded in US-based SpaceX’s Grasshopper and Falcon 9 rockets. Suresh explained how the new ADMIRE test vehicle will demonstrate Isro’s VTVL and recovery of launch vehicle capabilities and is carefully timed. The rocket will be guided by integrated navigation system that will have a laser altimeter and a NavIC receiver.

“A test and landing site is being developed by Isro for this purpose,” Suresh revealed at the three-day anniversary general meeting of Indian National Science Academy at its first symposium at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) on Wednesday.

Suresh was presenting Isro’s new technology development on behalf of Isro chairman Dr K Sivan who could not attend the session for an urgent cabinet meeting in New Delhi. Former Isro chairman Padma shri A S Kiran Kumar said how Astrosat India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory’s performance in the far ultraviolet wavelengths has the world’s best space angular resolution of 2 arc seconds which is better than the next best which has 6 arc seconds.

On the human space flight programme, Kumar said, “Almost one year before the actual launch of human space flight mission, probable astronauts may be from the Indian Air Force, but it all depends on the selection process.”

The human space flight mission, following PM Narendra Modi ’s August 15 speech is timed for 2022, the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence. Another important milestone was presented by Dr A K Sood, president INSA and an authority on nano sciences at IISc Bangalore. He threw light on the latest landmarks achieved in artificial microscale heat engines. Sood discussed the first experiments to develop heat engines that could utilise energy from bacterial activities. He showed the experiments conducted to realise micrometre sized active Sterling heat engine.

