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India Launches Indigenous Cryogenic Rocket
An anonymous reader writes "The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) today successfully launched its heavy-duty rocket — the Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch vehicle (GSLV). The communication satellite, GSAT-14 was launched from Isro's spaceport at Sriharikota, about 80 km from Chennai. ISRO had to develop the cryogenic technology from scratch after the United States prevented Russia from transferring the technology to the India in 1993. Today's successful launch marks the culmination of a 20 year effort to develop the engine."
The only reason we would care about it being cryogenic is that certain fuels and oxiders are not liquid at room temperature.
The insight and expert leadership http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Space_Research_Organisation#Goals_and_objectives really seems to have worked out very well long term.
From early testing to advancing skills within India seems to have been the key. So many other nations try to buy in, but end up with expensive, limited export grade tech transfers.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The United States prevented Russia from transferring cryogenic engine technology to India, so India had to develop this from scratch. And then there is the famous ISRO spy scandal which the CIA is believed to have orchestrated. The CIA is believed to have got top scientists working on the Indian cryogenic engine implicated in a scandal, thus slowing down the program. The supreme court of India recently exonerated the accused scientists of any wrongdoing.
Please read these:
http://www.rediff.com/news/column/who-killed-the-isros-cryogenic-engine/20131118.htm
http://indrus.in/blogs/2013/11/09/cryogenic_countdown_how_the_gslv_became_indias_missile_impossible_30711.html
That is really cool (no pun intended). Developing, or even re-developing, advanced technology will always help your nation. And this rocket is about a LH2/LOX engine, which does not help the military. So, this is about a civil process, which is of more use.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Why the US prevented the technology transfer:
India developed nuclear capability after the 1970 nuclear non-proliferation treaty which created the so-called "Nuclear Club". India is still not a signatory to this treaty, along with Israel, Pakistan, South Sudan, and (now that they've withdrawn from it) North Korea.
The intent was to prevent them from, or at least slow progress on, developing an ICBM delivery system for nuclear warheads, without them becoming signatory to the treaty. They could have had the technology for the asking, if the became a signatory.
For this same reason, it's unlikely that there would be a similar transfer to any non-signatory state, and probably not Taiwan, which claims they are abiding to the treaty, but have so far refused to become signatory to it.
It's pretty hypocritical to complain about the blocking of a technology transfer of this particular technology under the circumstances, given that India tested it's Agni V ICBM last September, and can hit targets in pretty much all of Europe, Asia, and Austrailia, and much of Africa.
Maybe now you can devote some effort to provide electricity, running water and toilets to the hundred of millions of Indians who lack such basic services.
" ...after the United States prevented Russia from transferring the technology to the India in 1993."
yeah, right.
how exactly does that work when the united states could even prevent one of its own citizens from transferring highly classified state spy secrets to a british newspaper?
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
104400, 104399, 104398, ...
If you make a mistake, do you need to start again?
comment valid. accepted.
we tried but failed few times. Our funds are limited. but 20 years is too long. This will shrink in future.
Most of our educated ppl took job in first world countries. Patriotism in elite ppl were little less. Future will be different.
The article reads like your average Infosys process document.
are you implying that this is based on stolen US design, or that US gripes too much about thefts?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Indian here. I was in India when the newspapers were brimming with the news of how USA denied the technology to India. Ironically the desire in India grew exponentially when the technology was denied. Suddenly everyone from politicians, scientists, engineers, and even the street food vendors and Bollywood actors were interested in India developing cryogenic engine technology. Many of them couldn't pronounce cryogenic correctly. 99.99% of them didn't have a clue what it really was or what would it mean to their life if India were to develop cryogenic engines.
This psychological effect is extremely powerful. An Iranian friend told me once "I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons in general. But if USA and Israel do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons, then I want Iran to have nuclear weapons." It's all about sticking it to the big bully, proving yourself. Suddenly it gives a point to the people to rally around.
And the resentment it causes when people realize that someone else is controlling them is so powerful and pervasive that I think it needs consideration in foreign policy design.
I am not saying go on handing over technologies to nations. But Americans vastly underestimate this type of resentment. The future potential cost of such resentment should be adequately considered while deciding what is in the best interest of USA. If you really have to do it, then at least launch adequate PR effort.
I would imagine that this rocket can now reach anywhere in the world with a fairly heavy payload. This far exceeds the range of their current missiles.
What do you mean "stealing"? The plans for cryogenic engines have been all over the internet for a long time now. The basic technology of the original F1 engine from the Apollo program was pretty common knowledge over 10 years ago. You really can't steal a design that has been pretty much open to the public at large. The innovations of the F1 engine were the cooling of the nozzle with the cryogenic fuel and the turbo-pumps, both of which have been pretty well understood for a long time.
Admittedly, scaling them might pose a technical challenge but I don't think it would that hard. The hard stuff was dealing with the shock wave problems that wanted to tear everything apart and even solutions to those problems have been in open scientific journals for a long long time.
Hey KID! Yeah you, get the fuck off my lawn!
It's frustrating that the article doesn't attempt even a brief explanation of what cryogenic rocket technology means. I'm more familiar with the term "cryogenics" as applied to freezing bodies after death, with the hopes of future revival. It's not immediately clear to me how extreme cold is useful in rocketry.
.....technology transfer from the Germans...von Braun........after WWII...
There was this concept of developing nations and developed nations that they teach in the third world s that they dont refer to themselves as 3rd world
Don't we now get specific by 'dot or feather'?
Why is it that when India has a space programme and a nuclear weapons programme they still have adverts begging for us to help them with their poor? To provide them with fresh water, food and an education?
Why do we still send their government hundreds of millions of dollars of aid?
It seems to me that the India government has its priorities completely fucked up; and we're the mugs who are continuing to subside them whilst shipping our jobs out to them.
India follows the "Sheep Herd" mentality. The whole country's economy is based on people getting into "Profitable" domains mostly following the success of a pioneer in the field. The most recent example of this ideology is the "Business Process Outsourcing" industry. New BPO units are propping up here and there at a dime a dozen leading to a quality deterioration in the final deliverable. This process will continue till a saturation level is reached and then they will wait till another "Killer" domain picks up momentum. Till then India will be in a so called "Calm Period" where nothing great and major takes place.
Casteism