Explaining Isro’s frugal approach, he said, “All the newer technology for NGLV will be tested in a small-scale vehicle, and all the learnings will be applied to the booster stage to achieve an economical advantage in development.” The NGLV director further added that once the tests on the rocket are successful, the number of tests on the booster stage will be limited, thereby reducing costs.
“By leveraging all the knowledge we have gained through the crew module of the Gaganyaan Mission, we can use this rocket for an Indian Space Tourism project.” In line with international tourism initiatives such as Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX, Sivakumar explained that this commercial project can be explored by Indian private industries.
The director spoke about space transportation systems for planetary explorations, their present and future, on Sunday during an online session. NGLV will need to have an advanced navigation system along with deployable landing legs, steerable grid fins, and advanced avionics which VSSC is developing, he said.
NGLV, a three-stage partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle, has been built with a modular architecture. Sivakumar believes that manufacturing will be a key area and a challenging one to penetrate if India wants to crack the reusable market. “We are talking about large-sized tanks and structures that will need to be lifted vertically and transported from one place to another. This is going to be an enormous challenge. Even when it (the rocket) lands on the platform at sea, the barge needs to be strong enough.”
He also expressed that today there is a shift in the design approach from a high-performance optimum system to a low-cost, reliable, and environmentally friendly vehicle.
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The director also briefly spoke about ‘Earth Independent Missions,’ which are longer in duration and require an intermediate point for technology demonstration and power transfer. “Using the Moon as a launching ground for deeper exploration would require significant robotic landings and several experiments. For that to happen, India needs an Artemis-like program, which the country has now signed,” Sivakumar said.Updating about the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk III), which is being converted into a Human-Rated LVM3 (HLVM3) that will support India’s ambitious Gaganyaan Mission, the director said that it has been modified and “the vehicle is now ready.”
During his session, Sivakumar also reiterated the need for private industries to ramp up their production and move from ‘build to print’ to ‘build to specification,’ which will help India reach its goal of $82 billion by 2047, occupying 15% of the global space economy.
