Heaviness of Rockets

Why in news?

The ISRO’s LVM3 M2/OneWeb India-1 mission carried almost 6 tonnes of payload into lower-earth orbit, the most that any ISRO mission has delivered into space till date.

What is LVM3- M2?

• LVM3-M2 is the commercial satellite mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Department of Space.
• This mission is being undertaken as part of the arrangement between NSIL and OneWeb Ltd, a U.K. based company.
• The LVM3 weighing around 644 tonne carried 36 satellites weighing about 5.7 tonne.
• OneWeb in partnership with ISRO and NSIL demonstrated its commitment to provide connectivity across India by 2023.
• This launch represents more than 70% of OneWeb’s planned 648 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite fleet that will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity worldwide.
• Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) is the heaviest rocket of ISRO.
• Other heavier rockets - Ariane of Europe, Falcon Heavy of SpaceX, Long March of China, etc.

Salient features of the Mission

• First commercial mission of LVM3
• First multi-satellite mission with 36 OneWeb Satellites onboard
• First launch of LVM3 to LEO
• First Indian rocket with 6 ton payload
• First NSIL Mission with LVM3
• First OneWeb Mission with NSIL/DoS

What rockets does India have now?

• India currently has three operational launch vehicles
  • Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV
  • Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle or GSLV Mk-II
  • Launch Vehicle Mark-3 or LVM3
• In addition, ISRO has been working on a reusable launch vehicle (RLV).
• PSLV - The PSLV has been the most commonly used since 1993.
• It has carried as many as 53 successful missions and only 2 flights have failed.
• GSLV-MkII - The GSLV-MkII rocket has been used in 14 missions, of which four have ended in failures.
• LVM3 - The LVM3 has flown five times and has never disappointed.

What are the constraints?

• Tyranny of the rocket equation- The size of a launch vehicle is dictated by
  • The destination in space it is headed towards
  • The kind of fuel mix that is being used (solid, liquid, cryogenic)
  • The size of the payload
• The choice of any two of these variables places severe restrictions on the flexibility of the third, that is popularly referred to as the “tyranny of the rocket equation”.
• Gravity till LEO- Most of a rocket’s energy is burnt in travelling to the lower earth orbit because the force of gravity is the strongest here.
• Gravity of the destination - If a space mission is headed towards any celestial body, more energy would be expended compared to simply attaining a space orbit.
• Efficiency of the fuel - Most modern-day rockets use multiple sets of fuels to power the different stages of the flight to optimise the results.

What innovations can fulfill the objectives of future missions?

• The rockets can make multiple trips, carrying components of larger structures that can be assembled in space, similar to International Space Station being built.
• The other is the possibility of the use of resources available in situ on the Moon and Mars.

References

1. The Indian Express | Heaviness of rockets
2. ISRO | LVM3-M2 / OneWeb India-1 Mission
3. NSIL | New Space India Limited

Quick facts

Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3)

• Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) is the heaviest rocket of ISRO.
• LVM3 was earlier called Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III).
• The name of the vehicle is changed from GSLV to LVM because the rocket will not deploy the satellites in the geosynchronous orbit.
• In 2014, the GSLV-Mk-III was named LVM-3 as it launched the Crew module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) into space.

GSLV Mk III

• GSLV Mk III is a three stage vehicle with two solid strap-on motors, one liquid core stage and a cryogenic upper stage.
• It is a medium-lift launch vehicle primarily designed to launch communication satellites into geosynchronous orbit.
• GSLV Mk III has the capability to launch 4000 kg payload into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) and 8000 kg payload into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
• GSLV Mk III carried India’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 and will be used to carry Gaganyaan, the first crewed mission under Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.

New Space India Limited (NSIL)

• New Space India Limited (NSIL) is a commercial arm of ISRO.
• Its mandate includes
  • Owning satellites for earth observation and communication
  • Building satellites and launching them as per demand
  • Providing launch services for satellite belonging to customer
  • Building launch vehicles and satellites through Indian industry
  • Space based services related to earth observation and communication satellites on commercial basis
  • Technology transfer to Indian industry