rockets and missiles

ISRO`s 100th successful launch- PSLV C21

2012-09-09T11:13:00.001+05:30

a ton of successful launches by ISRO has been completed by today. ISRO created history in Indian space journey. It is PSLV C21 that was choosen to launch its 100th indigenous rocket launch. prime minister manmohan singh, witnessing this awesome scene, that was going on in Satish Dhawan space Centre, Sriharikota, had congratulated the the team of ISRO and other groups that were involved in this launch. We din`t had any of our satellites in this launch as it consists french spot 6 of 750 kg and a micro satellite "Proiteres" which was designed by Japan in association with a private space industry of Mumbai.

Curiosity - The journey on Mars

2012-09-06T10:56:00.002+05:30

Curiosity made its step on mars for the first time. Enjoying its loneliness on mars but sharing its amusement with us by sending the pictures of the surface of mars. Its the most prestigious mission for NASA. The mars rover Curiosity is also known as the mars science laboratory was launched on Nov. 26, 2011 and was landed on mars on Aug. 6th , 2012. NASA started searching for life and habitat on mars with the eyes and wheels of the rover curiosity. Does the main purpose for this mission will be achieved or not ?
Anyway NASA`s curiosity on rover curiosity is undetermined.....

prithvi 2- tested again successfully

2012-08-27T18:41:00.001+05:30

A single stage liquid fueled surface to surface missile capable of carrying a nuclear war head was tested successfully on Saturday, from the Integrated test range near in Balasore in Odissa as a part of user trial by the army. A 9metre length and 1metre diametre carrying 500kg duplicate payload had hit the prefixed target in Bay of Bengal. It was first test-fired on January 27, 1996 and the development stages were completed in 2004. This variant has been inducted in to the Army as well.though it is a ballistic missile , it do has the capacity to work as an Anti ballistic missile also.After a failed test on 24 September 2010 , two more missiles were launched on December 22, 2010 which proved to be complete success.

Neil Armstrong - The legend

2012-08-27T18:06:00.000+05:30

“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The first man to step on the moon, lost his physical existence on earth. people considered him as one of the world`s best heroes for all time. On 25th august 2012, due to heart problem through which he was suffering from a long time has passed away.Neil Alden Armstrong was the first person to walk on the Moon, as well as an American astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor and United States Naval Aviator.

legends never dies.........

the story of columbia disaster

2012-08-23T16:12:00.001+05:30

It was on 1st feb 2003, World was waiting fro them. Just 16min more to reach the surface of earth. But suddenly they lost receiving signals one by one. Its the blast that took 7 lives. One of the biggets disaster in the history of space exploration.There are people who witnessed it with their modern instruments.This disaster placed many questions in front of NASA and US administration.

They started digging for clues and reasons. Each and every scientist involved in the mission re caped the complete story since from launch to the blast. They have indulged about 20,000 people to collect each and every part of the debris of the plane for 3 months. Surprisingly they have collected the debris of 80% of the total weight of plane.they have also found an audio recorder in a forest which was undamaged ,but still no clues were extracted from that recorder. They examined the vedios and pictures of the launch. In that course they got to know that a small peck of foam parted from the booster and had hit the wing of the plane during the initial seconds after the launch.

Now they started a model simulation of the peck hitting the wing and the result shocked every one who were watching it. that small peck had made a hole of about 25cm diameter to the wing. This hole had not affected the plane during the journey in space. But while returning into the atmosphere , it started making difference. The speed of vehicle during the journey and during the reentry was about 28,000km/hr. And that speed resulted in the increase in temperature of the plane to about 1400 degrees Celsius. The external surface of the wing is thermal resistive but the damage was caused due to the hole occurred during the launch . The hot gases entered through the hole and started affecting the internal structure of the plane. slowly the heat sensors damaged one by one. The surface started melting , resulting the blast, 7 scientists lost their lives with in fraction of seconds. World witnessed the biggest ever disaster in the history of space race.

family members of the astronauts and the other people who were watching eagerly for the return , became stunned , they can`t believe what was going on at that time, but its the destiny and one should accept it.

The details of the crew:

1) Michael P. Anderson
Lt. Colonel, U.S. Air Force
Payload Commander

Dec. 25, 1959–Feb. 1, 2003

Birthplace: Plattsburgh, New York
    Age: 43
2) David M. Brown
    Captain, U.S. Navy
    Mission Specialist
   April 16, 1956–Feb. 1, 2003

Birthplace: Arlington, Virginia
Age: 46

3) Kalpana Chawla
   Mission Specialist July 1,1961–Feb.1, 2003
    Birthplace: Karnal, India
    Age: 41

4) Laurel Blair Salton Clark
    Commander (Captain-Select), U.S. Navy
    Mission Specialist
    Oct. 3, 1961–Feb. 1, 2003
    Birthplace: Ames, Iowa
    Age: 41

5) Rick D. Husband
    Colonel, U.S. Air Force
    Shuttle Commander
    July 12, 1957–Feb. 1, 2003
    Birthplace: Amarillo, Texas.
    Age: 45

6) William "Willie" McCool
    Commander, U.S. Navy
    Shuttle Pilot
    Sept. 23, 1961–Feb. 1, 2003
    Birthplace: San Diego, California
    Age: 41

7) Ilan Ramon
    Colonel, Israeli Air Force
    Payload Specialist
    June 20, 1954–Feb. 1, 2003
    Born: Tel Aviv, Israel
    Age: 48

The story of V2

2012-08-21T17:25:00.001+05:30

World war 2 wouldn`t be that destructive without the invention of V2. History describes it as mile stone in the rocket technology yet the most deadliest weapon ever designed till the time. The most advanced space technology was completely derived from the most basic rocket used in the world war 2 by Germany.

Brain behind V2:

It was the situation where Germany was in complete crisis, almost at the edge of the defeat. But Hitler, the chancellor of Germany at that time, never accepted the defeat and called all the basic scientists and professors of Germany to help in the development of the already existing weapons but with increased capacity. In this situation Walter Dornberger, who was in charge of rocket research program run by Ballistic Council of the Army weapons department. He was highly interested in ballistics and was ready with a new design of a rocket that has a capacity to hit a target at a range of above 1000 km, with more accuracy and with greater destructive capability. But other scientists believed that this proposal very far from reality and also an ideal thing to design.

Hitler and other officials took interest in dornberger`s rocket, as they were completely concentrating In developing the conventional flying bombs, but Dornberger never gave up. He started his research on making his rocket into reality with few of his colleagues. In the course , he came across a young scientist named Warner Von Brown who has a different dimension towards rocket propulsion. Dornberger appointed him as his assistant scientist to undergo the research. Kummerdorf is the place where they started their work initially in huts, later developed to heavy machinery and highly sophisticated infrastructure extended their workers from hundreds to thousands. And finally the time comes to show the capacity of his rocket to Hitler, as Hitler visited the site, he was very much impressed and given financial and army support to the production of the new rocket in bulk numbers.

The new production unit was set up in Peenemunde and the work too rapid acceleration. The prisoners caught in the war were forced to do heavy work in the factory without giving prior security to them from the dangerous gases released in the production. Thousands of prisoners were died during the period without proper food and environmental conditions.

Poor Peenemunde:

In the other side london got information about the process going on in Germany from secret agencies and the fisher man near the coast. They got scared about the lack of defense against those gigantic rockets. They decided to attack on Peenemunde before Germany attacks on London and on a fine night Peenemunde was attacked by London air force. It was such a destructive mission , that Germany took about 8 months to recover from that loss , thousands of workers were died. Luckily the officials quarters and the main production unit was not damaged a lot .

A rapid recovery:

Though it was such drastic blow to the V2 production , dornberger and Von brown never gave up. They changed the production place started to produce the rockets as fast as possible. Hitler was eagerly waiting to attack London with that deadly weapon and he named that missile as VENGENCE shortly V2. He ordered the other neighboring countries to send the prisoners to the work. And this time it was massive , they produced about 450 rcokets per month initially and later the count went to 2000 per month. Now Germany was completely ready to the big war, the most exciting moment to Hitler and the scientists who worked to their lives on this mission.

Ignition… boost….hit :

Time comes for Germany to see the destruction of London. The First rocket took off and the destruction started. 10 to 30 people died for each hit some were as expensive as they took 100 and above lives for a hit. This turned London in a graveyard, people who were injured never find any hospitals empty as they were all already filled with the dead bodies. Germany enjoyed the drama going on in London.

related links : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peenem%C3%BCnde_Army_Research_Center

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Dornberger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2

books: Hitler`s Rocket,the story of V2

agni II - 3rd successfull test

2012-08-17T11:06:00.001+05:30

Agni 2 roars again into the space to hit target at a distance of 2000km in 700 sec from the wheeler island ,Odissa coast on 9th august , 2012. As we know that Agni 2 is the Indian prestigious Nuclear capable middle range ballistic missile, It was again tested successfully , the 3rd time. It was first tested on 11th april 1999 and then on 17th may 2010.

with a 2 staged solid fueled engine and a temporary payload which would not cause any great damage , was used to hit the prefixed target in Bay of Bengal , where 2 of our navy force ships were present at the near by position to the target . They declared that the missile had hit the target with in a range of few metres.

The Unknown Destiny

2012-08-13T21:45:00.000+05:30

It was just past midnight, they have got the signal from the space for which they were waiting for months. It was not from the god but from the thing ,they were really worshiping from past 3months. 4th October, 1957 was written with the golden words in the world`s history. Russia proved its supremacy by placing the first satellite into the space and the search started from that moment.

USA , within a couple of months, have sent their satellite , then the man into the space by Russia followed by USA and then this time USA crossed Russia making their man to step on the moon. Few countries followed this series and many others are trying a lot to do that. The search went to the mars, the other planets and their moons , their each and every movements were covered by satellite which were meant to do that. Satellites travel for years to reach the other planets and get information about it. Man learnt a lot about the sun , our solar system, our galaxy etc.. . Satellites not only helped for the space exploration but also has another dimension which helps a lot for the development of Mankind. People are using those satellites for almost every work they do, it became a part of our life. They help us to defend from the natural calamities and also they help us in the wars to destroy ourselves.

Are they really helping to develop the mankind? Are these designed to destroy ourselves? Whatever it may be , they really changed the way of living.

Recently they build a big apartment like structure in the space called the great International space station where the research is going to explore the universe. Now a days people are visiting very recently and few are going there to get the feel of being in space, to feel the freefall, to view the earth from there and so on , paying loads of money to respective authorities.

Man never satisfied with this achievement. They want something else that can fulfill their desires, they don`t know what makes them satisfy but they go on searching for that and they can even put their lives to reach that unknown destiny.

solid propellant rockets -1

2012-08-13T18:01:00.003+05:30

The most important conventional rockets uses solid propellants(fuel in solid fom) for their propulsion. As the density of solid is greater than that in any other form, we require quiet less volume of fuel tank as compared t o the liquid or gaseous fuelled tanks. There are many other advantages and of course disadvantages too, we will discuss them in this course.

Mechanism of burning in solid propellant rockets.

Doublebase propellants:

the propellant surface when heated, degrades exothermally in the solid phase. This zone of decomposition within the solid is known as the foam zone . gases like NO₂, NO and aldehydes are liberated during the decomposition . these gases mix near the surface of the propellant and chemically react to liberate heat. The major reaction is between NO₂and aldehydes, where CO and CO₂ are formed. The zone of gas phase reaction is known as the fizz zone.

Temperature increases in this zone and the zone is highly luminescent. An increase from surface temperature of the propellant T_s to T₁ takes place. The fizz zone is followed by a dark zone in which chemical reactions between ( NO and CO ) and (NO and NH₂) takes place. There is no significant raise in temperature here. This zone is followed by a 2^nd luminous flame zone where in chemical reactions proceed further with heat liberation . Temperature rises in this zone from T₁ to the final value t_f.

The extent of the 3 zones is very small( order of fraction of mm) and depends very much on pressure. The thickness of the foam zone is much smaller than the fizz zone and dark zone. The intermediate dark zone is at a lower temperature T₁ than the final temperature T_f. This causes the oveall temperature gradient in the gas phase near the propellant surface to be small and thereby limit the heat transfer from the flame at temperature T_f to the surface of the propellant .When the pressure exceeds about 10MPa, the primary fizz zone merges with the 2^nd luminous zone , giving rise to increased heating of the propellant from the hot gases.

Burn rate :

The most important parameter for the successful working and high efficiency of a rocket, is the burn rate of the propellant we used. Not only in the case of solid but also in liquid and even for hybrid propellant , the controlled burn rate is most necessary. In most cases the acceleration of rocket increases with the burn rate but there also exists few cases where the rocket is decelerated due to heavy loss of the propellant in a short time . It is very important to analyse the effects of the burn rate and also the control measures the maintain the velocity of the rocket.

The burn rate of a solid propellant rocket is given by the following equation:

r = a pⁿ

where r is the burn rate

a is a constant that takes values accordingly.

P is pressure

this relation is known as Vielle`s law and also as Saint Robert`s law.

staging and clustering of rockets

2012-08-05T16:06:00.000+05:30

The achievable values of specific impulse and structural mass fraction , encountered in practice are such that it is very difficult for a single rocket to provide the velocities required for orbiting the Earth and for escaping from it. An increase in propellant mass, if provided to give larger value of impulse , makes the rocket unwieldy and heavy and leads to smaller values of the thrust to mass ratio.

If a series of rockets were put one on top of the other and operated sequentially In stages one after the other , the total velocity would correspond to the sum of the ideal velocities provided by the operation of each stage of the rocket. The above fig. gives a schematic diagram of a two stage rocket with the first stage rocket taking off from the ground and followed by the operation of 2^nd stage. The 2^nd stage gets started when its velocity is equal to the velocity provided by the 1ststageV_1.i.e. the velocity at the end of the operation of the 1^st stage . If V₂is the velocity contributed by the 2^ndstage , the velocity at the end of operation of the 2^nd stage is V₁ + V₂.

In general, for a rocket having n stages , this stage continues with each successive stage provided an incremental velocity . Denoting the ideal velocity provided by each stage as V₁,V₂,…..V_n respectively , the total ideal velocity of a n stage rocket is:

V=V₁+V₂+….+V_n

The used rocket stages are discarded once their propellant is consumed in order to reduce the inert mass and hence improve the mass fraction of the upper stages . This procedure of operating a series of rockets sequentially is known as staging of rockets .

Most of the rockets used for putting space crafts into orbit have 2 to 4 rocket stages , and are referred to as satellite launch vehicles. The first stage rocket of a satellite launch vehicle , which takes off from ground , is the heaviest and it carries the upper rocket stages on it . It is known as the Booster stage . The payload of the initial rocket stage comprises the upper stage rockets in addition to the actual payload . If the mass ratio of the booster stage is R_m1 and the mass ratios of the upper stages are R_m2,R_m3,…..R_m_nfor a rocket with n stages in series, the net ideal velocity of the rocket is the sum of the individual velocity increment of each stage .

V =V_j1ln(1/R_m1)+ V_j2ln(1/R_m2) + ….+ V_jnln(R_mn)

We get V=V_jln(M_i,1/M_f,n)

Where V_j=V₁=V₂……..=V_n

V=V_jln (1/R_m)ⁿ =nV_jln (1/R_m)

Multiple rocket stages are therefore , used to obtain higher values of V. As the No.of stages goes up , the operational complexity and cost of the multi-stage rocket increases. The No.of stages cannot therefore , be arbitrarily increased. The main aim has been to enhance the values of V_j and decrease the structural mass fraction , keeping the No.of stage as small as possible . The present trend is to work towards a Two stage to orbit (TSTO) launch vehicle. A single stage to orbit(SSTO) vehicle would perhaps be possible if very advanced materials of construction are devised to reduce th structural and inert mass and have energetic propellants which provide larger values of V_j than obtainable at present.

The initial mass of a multi stage rocket is quiet large considering that the mass of all the rocket stages above booster stage have to be carried by it . The thrust of the booster rocket should be sufficient for the vehicle to accelerate and take off from ground . If the thrust of a single booster rocket is is insufficient a No.of rockets are clustered together and operated simultaneously to generate the large values of thrust required. Clustering is like parallel staging . Two booster rockets could be strapped on either side of the core rocket to get sufficient acceleration for take off. The strapped rockets are known as strap on rockets .

motion in space

2012-08-04T14:49:00.000+05:30

Requirements for orbit:

Orbital velocity and orbital period:

The requirements to orbit an object can be determined by considering the example of a body of mass m, circling the earth, at a constant angular velocity w, at a radiusR from the center of the earth. The body in the rotating frame of reference will see the force of attraction due to the earth and the pseudo centrifugal force mw²R. From the universal law of gravitational force, the force that the body experiences due to the earth is seen to towards the center of the earth.

We get

GmM/R²=mw²R

W= (GM/R³)^1/2

V = wR= (GM/R)^1/2

At a height of h the orbital velocity will be

V = {GM/(R+h)}^1/2

The orbital velocity about the earth is typically a few km/s. It decreases as the radius of the orbit increases. It is seen to decrease from 7.9 km/s at earth`s surface to about 2.66km/s at a height of 50,000km.

The time period of revolution for one orbit is:

T =2(3.14)R/V

T = 2(3.14)[R³/GM]^1/2

T=0.304*10^-6 R^3/2sec

Geosynchronous and Geostationary Orbits:

If a body is in circular orbit with an angular velocity equal to that of earth and also rotates in the same direction as that of earth from east to west, its movement is synchronous with the rotation of the earth and it is said to be in geosynchronous orbit. It will complete one rotation in a day.

(GM/R)^1/2 = W(7.273*10^-5) rad/s

The radius of the geosynchronous orbit Rfrom the above equation is:

R³ = GM/w²

By substituting the values of G,M and w the value of R =42,164km.

With the radius of the earth being 6378km, the geosynchronous altitude would therefore be 42164-6378= 35,786km above the earth.

If the plane of the geosynchronous orbit is in the equatorial plane of the earth and the body rotates in the same direction as the earth rotates , the orbiting body will always appear to be stationary to an observer standing on the earth`s surface . It is then said to be in geostationary orbit. The orbiting body will appear to be a fixed point in the sky for an observer on the ground. Arthur Clarke, author of several science fiction books, had put forward this concept of a geostationary orbit in 1945. The orbit is therefore also referred to as Clarke orbit.

The first satellite to be placed in the geostationary orbit was syncom-2 on July 26, 1963.

Eccentricity and Inclination of orbits:

Orbits are not always circular and in the equatorial plane. An orbit could be elliptic and the departure from a circular orbit is known as eccentricity of the orbit. It is defined as the ratio of the distance between the foci to the length of the major axis of the ellipse. This is shown below.

Here L_c is the distance between the foci and 2a is the length of the major axis giving the eccentricity e=L_c/2a. In the limit of circular orbit, L_c=0 and the eccentricity is zero. A body gets into an elliptic orbit when the orbital velocity provided to it is not equal to the orbital velocity required for a circular orbit.

Highly elliptic orbits with large inclinations are provided when the space craft has to remain over certain restricted zones over long durations.

Polar and Retrograde Orbits:

The inclination of an orbit is the angle between the orbital plane and the equatorial plane of the planet about which the body is orbiting. An inclination of zero denotes that the orbit is in the equatorial plane, i.e the orbital plane and the equatorial plane coincide. An inclination of 90⁰ represents the orbit from pole to pole and is known as polar orbit. An inclination of 180⁰represents the orbiting body to move in the equatorial plane. It is known as a retrograde equatorial orbit.

Molniya orbit:

A particular orbit known as Molniya orbit is highly elliptic with the half major and half minor axis being about 46000km and 6800km respectively. The inclination of the orbit is 63.4⁰. Space crafts in the Molniya orbit remain in the northern hemisphere for as much as 11hrs in an orbit having time period of 12hrs, I.e; it takes only 1hr to travel the southern hemisphere.

Transfer orbit :

Instead of directly taking a spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit, the spacecraft is initially placed in an elliptical orbit about the earth. The orbit is known is known as the geosynchronous transfer orbit about the earth and is schematically shown in below figure.

The farthest point of the spacecraft from the center of the earth Is called Apogee. The point of the spacecraft closest to the earth is called perigee. The apogee and perigee are shown in fig. the apogee of the elliptic orbit is so chosen that it is near to the radius of the geosynchronous orbit of 42164km. the perigee is small at about 6630km, the choice being governed such that the drag effects at this altitude will be negligible. The elliptic transfer orbit is circularized to give geosynchronous orbit.

Escape velocity:
If a body is provided with sufficient velocity to overcome the gravitational attraction, it would reach infinite radius and escape the attractive force of planet. This velocity is referred to as Escape velocity

V_e=(2GM/R)^1/2

Velocities: Means of Providing The Required

Velocities of several km/s are seen to be necessary for orbiting bodies about the earth. Velocities required by the bodies to escape from the earth are even higher. Large values of momentum or impulse are therefore essential. Jules Verne, the famous science fiction author, in his book from earth to the moon – de la terra a la Lune in 1874, suggested the use of a canon gun. If a velocity of 10km/s is considered to be provided impulsively to a body of say 1000kg over a period of 1ms, the energy 5*10⁷kJ and the power is 5*10¹⁰KW. This continues a large quantity of power. Even if the very high velocities could somehow be provided to the body, frictional heating in the atmosphere would destroy it . The high velocities are therefore achieved by gradually adding velocity to the body by the rocket as the body is being pushed up to the required orbit.

Rare pics of Indian Agni missiles

2012-07-30T18:53:00.000+05:30

AGNI SERIES

India possesses nuclear weapons and maintains intercontinental, continental, short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable aircraft, surface ships, and submarines.

>Agni V - intercontinental ballistic missile :

the most powerful missile of India till the date , making India to join the group of 5 countries having this immensely dangerous weapon.This was successfully tested on 19th April 2012..

> Agni VI- intermediate range ballistic missile:

it was tested on 15th nov, 2011 by DRDO from wheeler island off the coast in odissa. the was built by drdo and bdl together. with arange of 2500 km to 3000 km can take a payload of 1 tonne at a time.

> Agni III - intermediate range ballistic missile

was tested on 12th april 2007 , of course developed by drdo which is a 2stage ballistic that can carry nuclear weapons and has a circular error probable with in 40 meters of the target .

>Agni II - intermediate range ballistic missile

it was tested on 11th april 1999 by drdo and again on 17th may 2010 by ssc , with a capacity of carrying a pay load of 1000kg and a range of 2000 to 3000 km

>Agni I- medium range ballistic missile

tested on 25th jan 2002 by drdo in interim test range and again on 28th march 2010 by ssc with a capacity of carrying 1000kg pay load. The engine is of a single stage and can hit a target at a range of 700km to 900km.

space exploration versus mother earth

2012-07-23T01:56:00.000+05:30

Space exploration v/s mother earth

u think its really necessary to explore space and other planets....

u think its really necessary to search for life on moon or so called other heavenly bodies....

if so, then what do u think about neglecting the existence of life on earth which is the only life exsisting planet(till now).

Our planet mother earth , we say it proudly but that proudness doesnt had place in protecting the planet. Many species are going to extinct , few were already lost their presence and man is designing this extinct race with his comforts , with his selfishness, decorating his own death with items like pollution etc ohh there are many to list, i wont do that right now.

Whats the meaning in spending millions of money and even lots of time on discovering a small hope of presence of life on other planet and on the other hand criticising our own planet what we called mother planet where life is already present and ofcourse , is going to extinct , haaa sorry to say this but one should accept the fact. They declare proudly that our country discovered spares of water molecules on moon , others say that its their country that took the photos of water mixed with sand or something else , i dont care with what that water was combined , but what i always wants to ask is..... cant they dream to declare that they have provided cent percent pure water to their people or atleast an acceptable purity level of drinking water to one and all in their country.

I never understand why they are working 24*7 on estimating the life time of meteor that is approching pluto forgetting to estimate their own planets life time and even they dont care for their own life time, haha how crazy they are....

but still it attracts me dont know why? but i love space exploration , i go crazy when i saw the pics of galaxies or some thing related to that , i will be excited when i heard about indian advancements towards space travel,
Hoping for success of the upcoming rocket launch by INDIA.....

the first indian indeginous cryogenic engine rocket (GSLV)

.... waiting for that successfull launch

contradiction on missile power advancement

2012-05-31T16:46:00.000+05:30

CONTRADICTION ON MISSILE POWER

Is spending millions of money on missiles, necessary for a developing country like India ????

In any contradictory condition there will be mainly 2 groups, those who support the things going on and the others who oppose, ofcourse there will be a group who remain neutral, no one really cares this group. So now let us discuss the solution for the above question in both the views.

If I belong to the opposing group the first question raised by me will be .. what`s the necessary for wasting millions of public money on producing missiles which are seldom used without keeping in mind that India is a country where people die by starving, they don’t have enough clothes to wear, enough shelter, they also don’t have things which are meant for daily basic needs of every human.

Some thousands of families can get their shelter and employment if the money used for developing a single missile was used for the under poverty levels instead and such a devasting situation can be avoided. It is reasonable in developing something which are used in the real life but those missiles are never ever used for the reason if once used there will not be any life on the only life supporting planet in universe. Even scientists are really wasting their precious time by denoting their brains to develop these useless missiles, can`t they think about how we can bring peace n how to reduce poverty levels in the country. Even the government is highly supporting this, as if they were intending to show the power to the world which is practically useless.

But if am the member of the other group which support the missile technology development then I strongly believe that if a country needs military for its security then we should go ahead with the missile technology, even I say that we are very much lagging in the defence being one of the fastest developing countries.

Can we imagine India without Kashmir, without the north eastern parts, noooo. Then how can you judge a country without a proper defence system can protect their interior parts being occupied by the other countries. Missile technology gives a warning to the countries which are trying to attack on us as we can see that from past 65 years. A single missile development mission gives employment to some thousands of families, it’s the leading factor in maintaining the GDP higher, encourages many scientists, engineers to excel in their fields and this can place India in a leading position in the world.

Finally, a country is said to be developed if it is really developed in each and every field and defence is the one of the most important branches.

So it`s now your turn to decide whether the missile advancement is necessary for a country or not...

2012-04-18T17:55:00.002+05:30

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operation smiling buddha

2012-04-17T00:53:00.001+05:30

A BRIEF NOTE ON POKHRAN TEST

It was on 7^th September 1974, that happened in a place called Pokhran, a village near Jaisalmer of Rajasthan, which was described as the birth for Indian nuclear weapons. It was the first successful nuclear test by India which was happened on that day and started the real race for nuclear weapons in India.

OPERATION SMILING BUDDHA

A team with the best scientists of India including Abdul kalam, Raja ramana, p k Iyengar, headed by Raja Gopala Chidambaram worked hard from 1967. They named it as the `Operation smiling Buddha’ and with the help of Babha atomic energy research centre(BARC) , completed their project by 1974 and without any delay they proceeded with the test that came out as the first successful nuclear test by India.

Though the test was an underground operation which doesn`t release any harmful radiations into the atmosphere and even the statement given by India was that it was tested only for peaceful reasons, the enemy countries reacted in a completely negative way. USA and Canada objected the test while Russia remained silent in support of India.

POKHRAN TEST 2

Anyway India never stepped back in nuclear advancements though there were many internals political issues that tried to suppress the process but they failed in doing so, as India was ready with their next nuclear stage with 5 successive tests, 3 of hydrogen bombs and 2 of atomic bombs. The day was 11^th may 1998, after 24 years from the first test, the stage was ready for the play. Another milestone for Indian nuclear wing and on 13^th may they completed the remaining tests.

Though USA had set a galaxy of satellites that concentrates on India for 24 hrs and a vast number of secret informers , they failed to guess the tests that were going to be taken place in pokhran.

That proved Indian capacity of out breaking any technology that was concentrating on India including the USA`s most powerful satellites and their informers. And this wound not be happened without the support of Indian army which took the responsibility of construction and controlling of pokhran range.

That placed India in list of countries with their indigenous nuclear force…

different forms of rockets

2012-04-11T00:48:00.000+05:30

Types of rockets

From early invention of rockets to the present rockets there took a lot of changes in its construction, production and application and many different types of rockets took birth in this course.

Generally these rockets are distinguished according to the type of engine they include and the type of engine, depend on their propellant. The early rockets are of liquid propellants, slowly the solid, the hybrid came into existence. Electric and nuclear propellants are the modern ones. Anyhow liquid propellants are most commonly used for the reasons we discuss later.

Before getting into deep, let us know what is a propellant meant by? Ahh it`s like the fuel for any other vehicles. In the case of liquid and solid propulsion, the propellants are generally chemicals, Ions or charged particles in electric propulsion. Now I guess we can move with the types of propellants.

Liquid propellants

Propellants in liquid state that consists fuel and oxidizer for combustion. The most commonly used liquid propellants are liquid hydrogen as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. We select the propellants that on combustion release maximum energy. Ignition is required for some of the propellants which are called Non-Hypergolic and the combination of propellants that doesn`t need any ignition are the HYPERGOLIC ones. The engine contains a fuel tank and an oxidizer tank filled with respective contents. They both are combined in a chamber and then ignited, resulting the combustion and then the gases are ejected out through nozzle with very high exhaust velocities.

To increase the exhaust velocities, the propellants are either pumped out or maintained at very high pressures. The other alternate is to maintain the propellants at very low temperatures to increase their specific densities (such a low temp. where the gases turn to liquid forms which is our sole aim) and then pumped into combustion chamber. The temperatures where these gases turn to liquid form are called the cryogenic temperatures and the engine using this process is called CRYOGENIC engine. We discuss about these cryogenic engines in later steps.

Solid propellants

As the name states, propellants in solid state are solid propellants. These are generally used for booster rockets. The construction, arrangement and combustion process in it, differs completely with the liquid propellant rockets. Consists a single propellant, made in the form of small blocks called GRAINS and are arranged in highly mannered pattern in a chamber. The ignition starts from one end and slowly spreads to every grain. Higher the surface area, faster the combustion and faster the combustion, larger the thrust. Thus there are many patterns proposed for better results.

Nitrocellulose, Nitroglycerine and nitramine products are the most common solid propellants. The above chemicals with some additives combine to form the grains. Gas released after the combustion is no2 which is very helpful in increasing the exhaust velocities and the thrust.

Hybrid propellants

When fuel and oxidizer are in different phases then it is referred to as hybrid propellant. It generally comprises of liquid oxidizer and solid fuel. In most cases the fuel taken is a polymer. The liquid oxidizer could be liquid O2, liquid HNO3 or liquid N2O4. We avoid using liquid fluorine due to its high reactivity and unstability.

Electric propellants

In this, the propellants used are either ions or charged particles. Using high voltages and plasma content the rockets are propelled. Inert gases support a lot for this system and among them xenon works better and almost all the electric propulsion systems generally uses xenon as their propellant. Due to its low thrust production, these are not used for rocket launching into the orbit but they are used for satellite propulsion for adjusting their orbits.

Nuclear propellants

We generally use hydrogen as the propellant due to its low molecular mass. The gas is heated in a nuclear reactor to very high temperatures and then expanded in a nozzle to generate thrust. Alternatively nuclear rocket is used to generate electricity to power electric rockets.

It`s all about the past and the present, who knows what`s going to be in future?

rocket and its parts

2012-04-09T23:27:00.002+05:30

Rocket and it components

The list of components goes to the peak stage if we are dealing with the rocket. Though all the parts are almost equally important, there are few considerable parts without which we can`t imagine our rocket itself.

The engine

Like all the other vehicles rocket too has an engine that is responsible for the complete working of the rocket. While all the vehicles that move on earth has the wheeling system for their propulsion, the vehicles like rockets and aeroplanes doesn`t require this system for their actual propulsion. Thus the properties and aims of the engine differs a lot with normal ones. And the principles used in them also plays role in this difference.

Thrusters

Then comes, the Thrusters which helps to eject the masses out of the rocket with high velocities resulting a lift off. Internal combustion, temperature control at high pressures, maintaining the speed of the ejecting masses, Are the different tasks performed by thrusters.

Boosters

Booster itself is a thruster that helps for producing extra thrust required for initial lift of rocket. Generally these are used in the case of heavy rockets or the rockets that requires high initial thrust.

Nozzle

Nozzle plays one of the major role in the rocket launch. It really controls the direction, the speed, the initial thrust and many other tasks, which we discuss later. The pay load, which is not the part that helps for the propulsion but it’s the only part which is solely responsible for the design and construction of the rockets.

Enclosure

Above all, the best enclosure always plays a major role in this. It should be strong enough to defend the sheer forces, to defend the high temperatures and sometimes the lowest. To defend the extreme pressure and to maintain the pressure levels inside the rocket and many more……

Different rockets use different types of boosters, nozzles, engines and different enclosures.

Without them working successfully, the launch of a rocket is a dream and it remains a dream forever…

principles of rocket propulsion

2012-04-08T02:56:00.000+05:30

Rocket and its working principles

Newton`s law

When I was a child, it was always a big question for me that how these rockets lift off, I was very amazed when I saw them on the screens. I have thought that there would be extraordinary principles involved in them and only few can understand. Yes they are amazing, not only in childhood days but even in the present days and things about rockets always kept me interested towards them but the laws involved in them are really simple and most useful.

If we look at them, It`s the Newton`s third law of motion, which they use them for rocket lift off. The law says that

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Which means that if we apply some force on a body, then that body will apply an equal force on us but in opposite direction. Actually this law was derived from momentum conservation principle. The momentum of the system remains same until an external force is applied on it. If we are ok with this then how we are going to use this principle in lifting a rocket, what`s the big link in newton`s third law and rocket lift off.

If we ask a boy to sketch a rocket on a paper, he generally draws a rough outline of rocket and he never forgot to keep something (sort of fire) coming out from lower end of it, though he doesn`t know why that fire is coming out. It is that fire which is solely responsible for the rocket lift off.

A rocket, when releases a lot of mass in any form meant that, it is applying some force on that mass to come out, and from newton`s law, that mass also applies the same force on the rocket in the opposite direction and if that force can dominate the earth`s gravitational pull, then we are succeeded, our rocket lifts off from the earth.

I said am amazed, not only in the childhood days but also in the present days with the case of rockets where the force produced by small particles of gases can dominate the force produced by the gravitational pull of the heavenly body EARTH…

space race 3

2012-04-04T02:23:00.000+05:30

Space race 3

They were not satisfied with just the satellite. They want something more, something unbeatable. And in that course Russia was trying at their best levels. Like Russia, USA also was trying hard to create the history.

After Russia`s launch of its first satellite, within a month they sent a dog named laika on 3^rd November 1957. USA was successful in achieving that satellite feat with its EXPLORER on 31st January 1958.

Russia again in the front pages, it was successful in sending a living animal into the space and bringing it back safely to the earth. though it was the craziest moment for Russia, it was fearful news for USA as Russia was rewriting all the pages of world`s history on its name. While USA was busy in increasing its chances to lead in space race, Russia was completely ready for that step. Sergei korolov, the Russian scientific head, selected his best person and it was the year 1961 and the date was 12^th april.

There was a man standing at the entrance of the rocket. Yuri Gagarin, his name. The last words he left out before stepping into the rocket were…

“I will be back”

Countdown starts

Ignition…

Boost…

The first man into the space

And the Space Race never turn back

space race II

2012-04-03T23:07:00.000+05:30

Space race -2

Those days were only meant for wars. Countries used their scientific knowledge to develop their military powers and in the same days there were scientists who want to travel in space. Sergei Korolov a Russian top scientist and sir warner van brown, a German scientist settled in USA, belong to the same group who always dream about space exploration. They know that vehicles used in mass destruction can also be used for the space travel but the govt. wasn`t aware of this fact andwasn`t even willing to know about it.

In that critical situation, both the scientists tried very much separately to make the govt. accept for the space exploration and they did succeed in a very short period of time. Now all that they have to do is to design such a rocket which can pierce the earth`s atmosphere and reach the target SPACE and also to design a satellite.

Space war

It was not a war with weapons and not for the mass destruction, but it`s for the pride, it`s for the superiority in space exploration and it`s for the title ` the first country to put a satellite in space’. Russia, in its first test has failed due to over weight of the satellite. Within a short span of time they were ready to launch satellite with low weight.

The day was October 4^th, 1957, whole of Russia were waiting to see a wonder and that date, I swear, it would be written with golden words in the history of the world. It was a day on which a Rocket erupting the hot gases has pierced each and every layer of earth`s atmosphere and has set the first ever satellite into the earth`s orbit.

It was SPUTNIK, what they named it…

space war -1

2012-04-03T01:22:00.000+05:30

Cold war between Russia and USA (part-1)

Birth of modern rockets

It was the period of world war 2, Hitler wants to show his power to the world , want to take control over the world and this thought forced the most brilliant scientists of Germany to design the world`s first missile .Sir Warner Van Brown designed the most powerful rocket and Hitler named it as vengeance (v-2). In a time span of just one year Germany used about 2000 v-2s in the war. But as soon as the Germany defeated badly in the war, the production of v-2s was been shutdown.

After the 2^nd world war, the only major countries left, was USA and USSR. Time passed for a decade without any things happened that can be mentioned in the world`s history, as both the major countries are silent and off course busy in developing their own financial status. But that silence resulted in a cold war between them and that war was meant to develop the most powerful missiles ever used. Both USA and USSR used the technology of v-2 rocket for developing their own missiles.

After the humiliation of Germany, Van Brown moved on to USA to make his ideas come true. Sergei Korolov, a Russian top rocket scientist took the responsibility of developing a rocket that can hit any place in the world, which was the desire of Russian higher authorities. But this research made him think of space travel using these powerful rockets. Sergei Korolov from Russia and van brown from USA succeeded in producing the rockets that can clear off the earth`s atmosphere.

And the space race starts………..

History of rockets

2012-03-31T00:11:00.001+05:30

History of rockets

When was rocket born? Where was it invented and by whom???

Truly speaking there are no perfect answers for these as few say that they were used by the people in BC years, though they don’t know why and how those rockets are propelled, But they do somehow know that a body can be propelled by releasing some mass preferably gases and the real scientific knowledge of rocket propulsion has developed in 17 century.

Aeolipile

So, that was the foundation of rockets and its propulsion. In the early years of AD, a philosopher named HERON from ALEXANDRIA has invented a steam powered device AEOLIPILE famously known as HERO ENGINE. Heron mounted a sphere on top of a water kettle. A fire below the kettle turned the water into steam, and the gas traveled through pipes to the sphere. Two L-shaped tubes on opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas to escape, and in doing so gave a thrust to the sphere that caused it to rotate.

Later on chinese started using rockets for explosion in the wars without actually knowing the scientific principle beyond it. They named it as `the arrows of fire’. The journey went on like that for many centuries without any scientific laws and then came the legendry SIR ISAAC NEWTON who gave the action- reaction principle which was his third law of motion.

INITIATION OF MODERN ROCKETRY

Later the leading countries concentrated on developing rockets for their usage in wars. This gave birth to the modern rockets. In 1898, a Russian school teacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), proposed the idea of space exploration by rocket. He suggested the use of liquid propellants for rockets in order to achieve greater range. He has been called the father of modern astronautics. Early in the 20th century, an American, Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), conducted practical experiments in rocketry, solid propellant and liquid propellant rockets. Goddard, for his achievements, has been called the father of modern rocketry. A third great space pioneer, Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) published a book in 1923 about rocket travel into outer space.

Robbert H.Goddard

Birth of v-2 rocket

Then came the most important step in the rocket history, the invention of V-2 rocket by VAN BROWN, a German scientist, has really changed the features of modern rocketry. It is the first rocket used for transporting the pay loads, which were used in worldwar 2 for mass destruction. After that many scientists worked on it and now the rockets has become the vehicles to the space.

v-2 rocket

They were used to impress the people,

They were used for fireworks and small explosions.

They were used for wars,

And now they were used as space vehicles to conquer the universe and no one knows, where this journey is destined to……

diffrence between rocket and missile

2012-03-25T17:11:00.001+05:30

Rocket is just a vehicle that propels by releasing some type of masses generally hot gases produced by internal combustion. It works on newtons 3rd law which says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Missile itself is a rocket which also includes a payload for mass destruction.