ISRO rolls out PSLV rocket, to launch SpaDex mission on 26 Dec

SpaDex is a technology demonstrator for in-orbit docking. The capability is crucial for future Gaganyaan missions.

New Delhi: ISRO is gearing up to launch its final spaceflight for 2024, and has rolled out its workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to the First Launch Pad at its spaceport in Sriharikota. The passengers on board are a pair of small satellites that will demonstrate the technology necessary for rendezvous, docking and undocking, capabilities necessary for the Chandrayaan 4 sample return mission, assembling and operating the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) and eventually landing a human on the lunar surface using domestic hardware. Such in-space docking is necessary when all the hardware required for a particular mission cannot be deployed on a single rocket, such as the ambitious Chandrayaan 4 mission.

The SpaDex mission consists of two spacecraft, SDX01 which is the Chaser, and SDX02 which is the Target. Each of the spacecraft weigh about 220 KG and will be injected into a circular orbit at an altitude of 470 kilometres. The precision of the PSLV will be used to give a small relative velocity between the Target and Chaser spacecraft at the time of the deployment. This will allow the Target spacecraft to move between 10 and 20 kilometres away from the Chaser spacecraft within a day. The onboard propulsion system will be used by the Target spacecraft to stabilise the distance using a drift arrest manoeuver.

Mission to continue for two years after docking experiment

The Chaser will then approach the Target slowly, progressively reducing the distance till it docks with the spacecraft. ISRO intends to test a number of novel technologies, including electrical power transfer between the two satellites, before undocking the two satellites to operate their expected payloads, for a period of two years. The small size of the spacecraft makes the docking challenging. After undocking, the two spacecraft will conduct surveillance and radiation experiments. A number of ISRO facilities around the country have worked together to realise the mission. ISRO is aiming to launch the PSLV-C60 mission on 26 December.

Quelle: news n9ne