The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully tested the Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD) technology that could aid cost-effective recovery of spent rocket stages and safely land payloads on other planets.
Key points
- The Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD) was designed, developed and successfully test-flown by ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) on a Rohini-300 (RH300 Mk II) sounding rocket from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in Thiruvananthapuram on September 3.
- This demonstration will ensure cost-effective spent stage recovery and this technology can also be used in ISRO’s future missions to Venus and Mars.
- This was the first time that an IAD had been designed for spent-stage recovery.
- As its name suggests, the IAD serves to decelerate an object plunging down through the atmosphere. For this the IAD, made of Kevlar fabric coated with polychloroprene, was packed into the payload bay of the rocket.
- After the nose-cone of the rocket separated, the IAD inflated, balloon-like, at a height of 84 km using compressed nitrogen stored in a gas bottle.
- The IAD systematically reduced the velocity of the payload through aerodynamic drag. Once the IAD fell into the sea, it deflated by firing a deflation pyro valve.
- The pneumatic system used for inflating the IAD was developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Valiyamala.
- The IAD has huge potential in variety of space applications like recovery of spent stages of rocket, for landing payloads on to Mars or Venus and in making space habitat for human space flight missions.
