Senior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists, who met at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram to examine the reasons for the failure of the GSLV-D3 mission with indigenous cryogenic upper stage, on Sunday ascertained that contrary to initial reports the cryogenic stage had doubtless ignited in the vacuum of the space.
After deliberating on the performance parameters of the cryogenic stage (the third stage) of the unsuccessful GSLV development flight last Thursday, they concluded that the mission failed after the fuel turbo pump that supplied fuel to the cryogenic engine had stopped working a second after ignition. ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan chaired the two-day meeting.
“The data clearly shows that combustion [of the cryogenic engine fuel, liquid hydrogen at minus 253 degree Celsius, and the oxidiser, liquid oxygen at minus 183 degree Celsius] had indeed taken place. The rocket's acceleration had increased for a second before it drifted off the designated flight path. Indications are that the turbine that powered the fuel turbo pump had somehow failed. [The propellants are pumped using turbo pumps running around 4,000 rpm.] There could be various reasons for its failure,” a senior ISRO scientist told The Hindu.
The ISRO will now constitute a ‘Failure Analysis Committee' to close in on the exact reason for the failure. It will come out with its report by May end, following which the national experts' panel, constituted to review and give clearance to the GSLV-D3 mission, will examine the report. Dr. Radhakrishnan will brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday on what had gone wrong with GSLV-D3.
Keywords: GSLV D3, cryogenic engines
Comments:
Every failure is a stepping stone for success! Hope ISRO achieves great success in their grand stride towards the exploration of outer space. This will just be a blip in history! Who said launching rockets was easy? The challenges are enormous and the determination of our scientists is greater than the challenges ahead.
It was really heartbreaking to witness through TV the deflecting signals of the GSLV-D3 from the expected curves drawn on the giant computer screen ! If this scene was so painful for a laymen like me, how those great scientists would have felt. But, we are confident of our hard working scientists and engineers to prove their class as one of the best in the world.
Failure is a steepping stone. Go India go.
It is always the smaller things that fail..that is unfortunate!
This is not the failure of ISRO but failure of dignity of the country. It gives very bad impression to the rest of the world. My request to ISRO scientists is please be very sure of your success. This is a country where many people die of hunger.
It is clear from the data that the Booster pump which is to pressurize Liquid Hydrogen feeding from the tank to the engine didn't function normally . Immediately after the run up for a few seconds ,the motor would have ceased due to severe temperature gradient within the system or the booster pump assembly would have catastrophically disintegrated due to misalignment in the assembly(since the assy.comprises of large parts of sheet metal components welded ).The Booster pumps are assembled few months back and the same is very rarely tested in the flight configuration.
Prior to the launch a self test mechanism of such mission critical assembly should have been planned.Otherwise go in for a stronger fuel tank with AL-LI alloy (which is a long term venture) eliminating the Booster pump.
Failure is a step towards further perfection. Encourage the ISRO team, worked for the mission. Let them findout the error and make next mission with zero defect. It is not an unusual thing, the child when learning to walk, fall. Let all ISRO personnel be sure that people of the country are backing them moraly from inside their hearts. We are proud of ISRO, indigenously developed the cryogenic engine. This is one of the place with exclusivity where we see good results of the expenditure of Tax payers money. ISRO! proceed further with higher motivation. We also wish a Good luck.
I would consider even this failure a commendable achievement. Kudos to ISRO team. The result of this test is no doubt a failure, but what is wrong in this since any success invariably preceeds one or more failures. It is, however, sad that media is making such scientific developments a mockery. What was the requirement first to hype the test plan and then to highlight the failure as if it is an utter waste of tax payers money? Do we know how many failures were faced by so called advanced countries who are now snugly sitting in their hi-fi status of these technologies?
Well Done ISRO. we are with you always. Ultimately we have achieved it, but only fine tunings will make it perfect and we are there for you always.
No matter, if we failed today, tomorrow we will succeed.We are proud of our scientists and technocrats.
There is nothing called failure in ROCKET science! It is all about experimenting, mastering the Laws of Gravity & applying extremely sensitive & Complex technology! Even the most advanced nations are still refining their applications & programs. Our achievements have been commendable so far. We are marching ahead pretty fast and will conquer this front (Cryogenic) very soon.
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Well done! We are all behind you!
Keep going, you will get there soon.
ISRO has achieved a lot of success in space research.One failure doesn't mean that they have done bad.I am confident that ISRO wil hit back strongly
Yes I agree Sandhya. There is a famous quote "The biggest enemy of SUCCESS is the FEAR of FAILURE" Since all developed nations rapidly experiment without worrying about failure, they are able to develop a good knowledge base. Also they share the knowledge to others, esp., to younger generation. We should also develop the same, share this information to schools/colleges/universities and ask student to think from the young age. Stop encouraging memorizing the test book concept and writing the exams. We need to encourage students to think what all the possible failures are and ask them to justify the answer. In that way they will start thinking innovatively and possibly find better solution collaboratively.
The failure illustrates the need for a simulation facility that could be used for testing in vacuum prior to launch. The US and Russia have such facilities and India must have one if we are going to be serious about space missions. As missions get more complex we cannot be spending our money using the first flight essentially as a test flight for any new technology. From the SLV onwards, the first flight has failed because scientists have been made to treat the first launch as a test case due to lack of a good simulation facility.
Well..better luck next time..
Hope the government learns a lesson in strict quality control in such high importance missions
People learn from failure. But don't make it a habit. I am sure our scientists will come over any hurdle and will prove it. Even the American scientists were failed thrice when they were working on CMD system.
It is all about going through thorns to achieve a memorable success. ISRO scientists will make India proud sooner.
In order to gain success forever, we should fail once. Then only we come to know the various steps to attain success. This may help India to achive more results.
18 years of effort, 350 crore rupees of investment, yes, it's a costly failure. But there lies the spirit of ISRO which thought of how to rectify and relaunch rather down with the failure at the very next second of failure itself.
Sooner or later we will do it, but it is hard to digest the fact that sweat, blood and time away from family of people involved in the project did not achieve the intended result. Anyway we have learnt one more way how not to make a rocket. ISRO has made us proud in the past and I honestly hope it will in future as well... no doubt about it...they are the best...
I m very much sure that next time we will be successful. Failure doesn't mean that we can't do it...All the best ISRO!!!!
As a space policy analyst, I am encouraged by the response of readers here to recent events. All major programs and technological development efforts suffer setbacks - some more dramatic than others - and the complex technologies of cryogenic engines are no exception. I wish to see ISRO succeed with this, and commit to human spaceflight and further exploration of the lunar surface.
Sccess is nothing but going from failure to failure witout losing entusiasam.Together we can and we will make the difference.All the best ISRO.
yes the dedicated hard work is always valued... i hope ISRO will surely celebrate a grand success soon.. a very good luck for the proud children of this country...
After 18years of development and doing 100s of ground testing, isro has shown it has failed. The biggest surprise not excepting failure by saying turbo pump is external to cryogenic engine, it Is like saying processor worked but power system failed but overall computer worked, they should be ashamed of such statements and talk respossibility.
Figure out where the fault is and fix it.
For a technology as tricky as that of cryogenic engine one or two failures is nothing unusual especially for a country like India which is a victim of severe international technology denial. Only ignorant people can make discouraging comments on such failures.
I' m very much sure that next time we will be successful. Failure doesn't mean that we can't do it...All the best ISRO!!!!
though failures are painful, im sure india is gonna achieve a great success in this space science field.
as we know that failure of a first leading step in any subject is very much pain full, but our proudful ISRO team is already started to delete the failure lines of our indigenous cryogenic story. I wish all the very best wishes to all our ISRO teams to reach winning plane in near future..!!
When we made something new & after testing many times lastly it fails then it doesn't mean that we lose, but it shows we are just behind one step of success.I wish to team who will make successful base to ISRO...