ISRO To Launch SpaDeX Mission For Space Docking

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its PSLV-C60/SpaDeX Mission from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on December 30, 2024. The SpaDeX mission will launch on a PSLV-C60 rocket. mission is expected to be a game-changer for Indian space technology. It will demonstrate in-space docking using two small spacecraft.

ISRO To Launch SpaDeX Mission For Space Docking

Why In News

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its PSLV-C60/SpaDeX Mission from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on December 30, 2024. The SpaDeX mission will launch on a PSLV-C60 rocket. mission is expected to be a game-changer for Indian space technology. It will demonstrate in-space docking using two small spacecraft.

• “This groundbreaking technology is key to future lunar missions, building Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), and more,” ISRO said. With this mission, India aims to join the elite club of nations with space-docking capabilities. If successful, India will march towards becoming the fourth country in the world to have space-docking technology.

Space Docking

• Space docking involves precise connection of two spacecraft, whether manned or unmanned, allowing those to operate as a single unit for critical tasks such as refuelling, repair, and crew exchange.
• It enables the construction of cutting-edge facilities (like International Space Station) in orbit and advancing space exploration.
• Some spacecraft dock with the International Space Station and others berths with the station.

• In Docking, the spacecraft can maneuver and attach to the station by itself.
• In Berthing, an astronaut uses the station’s robotic arm to capture the spacecraft. Then Mission Control takes control from the ground and directs the arm to maneuver the spacecraft to the attachment site.

What Will Happen During Spadex Mission

• ISRO’s SPADEX is a technology demonstration experiment aimed at mastering autonomous docking, a critical capability that only a select few countries (the US, Russia, and China) have.                
• The two satellites named ‘Chaser’ and ‘Target’ will be launched into slightly different orbits by a single PSLV-class vehicle with an aim to dock at an altitude of about 700 km.

• They will align precisely at speeds of approximately 28,000 km/h to perform a ‘space handshake’ docking to become a single orbiting entity.
• SpaDeX mission consists of two small spacecraft (about 220 kg each) to be launched by PSLV-C60, independently and simultaneously, into a 470 km circular orbit at 55° inclination, with a local time cycle of about 66 days. The demonstrated precision of the PSLV vehicle will be utilized to give a small relative velocity between the Target and Chaser spacecraft at the time of separation from the launch vehicle.

• This incremental velocity will allow the Target spacecraft to build a 10-20 km inter-satellite separation with respect to the Chaser within a day. At this point, the relative velocity between the Target will be compensated using the propulsion system of the Target spacecraft.

• At the end of this drift arrest maneuver, the Target and Chaser will be in the same orbit with identical velocity but separated by about 20 km, known as Far Rendezvous. With a similar strategy of introducing and then compensating for a small relative velocity between the two spacecraft, the Chaser will approach the Target with progressively reduced inter-satellite distances of 5 km, 1.5 km, 500 m, 225 m, 15 m, and 3 m, ultimately leading to the docking of the two spacecraft.

• After successful docking and rigidization, electrical power transfer between the two satellites will be demonstrated before undocking and separation of the two satellites to start the operation of their respective payloads for the expected mission life of up to two years.