India In Space Initiative 2025

With the increased budget to $6.5 billion, the Indian Space Research Organization will be granted a much larger focus as a part of India’s rise to prominence. Kailasaavadivoo Sivan, Secretary of the Department of Space have revealed the ISRO’s detailed plans for the 2020s, to bring the nation’s spaceflight program to prominence much like the nation’s trajectory. Space is the final frontier, where much benefits can be gained in all fields conceivable, and with the opportunity to provide high paying, well skilled jobs to millions of Indians, this is not an opportunity that Modi will pass up.

Launch Vehicle

The backbone of any space program is the launch vehicle. With 3 launch vehicles in the PSLV, the GSLV and the GSLV MkIII, the ISRO currently possesses decent, but not spectacular launch capability, and sharing no commonality between the 3 launch vehicles.

The Unified Launch Vehicle is a development project by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) whose core objective is to design a modular architecture that could eventually replace the PSLV, GSLV Mk I/II and GSLV Mk III with a single family of launchers. While orgininally planned to be smaller in scale, the project is to be scaled up in line with the Super Heavy Lift concept studies by ISRO, however its derived applications will still be able to provide cover in the medium to heavy launch scales.

The Unified Launch Vehicle Architecture includes:

Brahma I series (IA/IB/IC/ID) (ID is Human Rated)

• SC160 core (Semi-Cryogenic stage with 160 tonnes of propellant, in the ISRO nomenclature), would have 160,000 kg (350,000 lb) of Kerosene / LOX propellant and be powered by a single SCE-200 rocket engine. The upper stage, known as the C30 (Cryogenic stage with 30 tonnes of propellant) would have 30,000 kg (66,000 lb) of LH2 / LOX propellant and be powered by a single CE-20 engine

• The four booster options are:

• Brahma IA : 6 × S-13, slightly larger than the S-12 on PSLV, to burn longer, for 4.5 tons to LEO or 1.5 tons to GTO

• Brahma IB: 2 × S-60, a new solid motor development, for 10 tons to LEO and 3 tons to GTO

• Brahma IC: 2 × S-139, which is the first stage of PSLV and GSLV Mk I/II; for 12 tons to LEO and 4.5 tons to GTO

• Brahma ID: 2 × S-200, which is similar booster arrangement to the GSLV III, for 15 tons to LEO and 6 tons to GTO.

Brahma V (Human Rated)

• An SC700 core powered by 5 SCE-200 engines, with a diameter of 7.4m, and a height of 57.6m, and a propellent mass of 686,000kg and a burn time of 341s alongside a common upperstage powered by a single CE-20, with 30,000kg of propellent mass and a burn time of 605s.

• Six S-260 solid rocket boosters, which individually has a gross mass of 300 tons, including 264 tons of propellent. Each produces 5200kN of thrust and burns for 154s Fairing size of 6m, 8m or 10m.

• Up to 65,800kg to LEO, 30,400kg to GTO, 19,100kg on a Translunar injection.

The Brahma I is going to have its first flight on the 2nd of February, 2024, and entering commercial service the same year with all of its variantsThe SCE-200 is air-restartable, giving the SC160 core the ability to land propulsively and be reused, which will be extensively tested, firstly with grasshopper short sub-orbital jumps with the SC160 by 2023, and with actual propulsive landing trials begin in late 2024 during commercial launches, with IOC expected by 2025. The Brahma V is planned to have its first flight by 2027. It is going to be available for commercial uses, capable of launching massive payloads, allowing it to compete in the same market as Blue Origin’s New Glenn, Arianespace’s Ariane 6, and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.

Future Extraterrestrial Exploration

• Chandrayaan 3: A lunar polar lander with a rover to be launched in 2025 on the Brahma I, its mission is to explore the southern polar region of the moon with its water geology.

• Mangalyaan 3: A Martian Orbiter with 2 landers. One to land on Mars while the other explores its largest moon Phobus. To be launched in 2026.

• JEX (JupiterEXplorer): A Jovian orbiter to observe and conduct science on the Jovian magnetosphere throughout 33 orbits. To be launched in 2026.

Human Spaceflight Program:

Components:

• The Gaganyaan (Sky-craft): India’s first spacecraft, capable of sustaining 3 astronauts for 7 days in LEO, the first test bed for manned operations.

• The Antarikshayaan (Space-craft): India’s next generation spacecraft, with a reusable capsule capable of launching 6 times, extra shielding for the Van Allen belt, with the capacity for 6 astronauts to be ferried in LEO, or 4 astronauts on a 23-day mission to the moon. It has a diameter of 4m and a height of 3.8m (launch configuration) in a 12 degrees tapered cylinder for up to 11 meters squared of pressurized space. The LEO service module is 4m in diameter and 2m high for a total weight of 15 tons. There is a Lunar service module in the works which is 4m long and would raise the weight of the stack up to 22 tons, but would be able to support the Antarikshayaan in deep space missions.

• Indian Orbital Laboratory: The first generation of Indian orbital space station, with 2 docking ports and a pair of extending solar panels from its cylindrical hull it is capable of being resupplied. A 8 ton, 8m long and 3.5m wide orbital laboratory with 300kg of science experiments and a full life support system capable of supporting 3 man for a duration of 64 days.

• The Gaganyaan-U: An unmanned version of the Gaganyaan, capable of resupplying spacecrafts in orbit. Similar cargo capacity to SpaceX’s DragonV1.

Timeline

• December 2021: Parvati 1 launch, first human to space on an Indian spacecraft

• July 2022: Indian Orbital Labratory launches to a 450km orbit with low inclination.

• October 2022: Parvati 3 launch with a crew of 3 to dock with the IOL for a 2 months stay.

• December 2022: Parvati 3’s crew return to Earth, while the Parvati 4 is launched, an unmanned mission to dock with the IOL and resupplying it

• June 2023: Parvati 5 launch with a crew of 2 to stay at the IOL for 6 months. Launch of the Indian Orbiting Node, a 4m wide and 5m long module on the Brahma IC, a 12 tons orbital habitat with 6 docking nodes, which will dock with the existing IOL in orbit.

• November 2023: Parvati 6 launch with a crew of 2 as Parvati 5 undocks from the IOL to perform India’s first manned docking between the 2 spacecraft. One astronaut will transfer from Parvati 5 to Parvati 6, who will stay on orbit for another week, while Parvati 5 deorbits to land in the Bay of Bengal

• March 2024: First launch of the Brahma ID with the Antarikshayaan (unmanned), Parvati 7. A second Brahma ID launch brings an additional C30 upper stage to orbit for practice in the Earth Orbit Rendezvous architecture, where the unmanned Antarikshayaan will dock with the C30 upper stage, before being launched on a free return Lunar trajectory and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean 7 days later.

• May 2024: First launch of the Brahma ID with a crewed payload, the first launch of the Antarikshanyaan spacecraft alongside 4 astronauts on the Parvati 8 mission.

• June 2024: The Parvati 8 will dock with the ION for a 6 months stay.

That is the current extent of the current plans for the ISRO’s human spaceflight program, which will cost $15 billion by 2024. ISRO is interested in the ION and IOL to be the beginning of a larger space station with international cooperation.