ISRO Chairman V Narayanan
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Bengaluru: A state-of-the-art Landing Gear Drop Test Facility was inaugurated by ISRO Chairman V Narayanan at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram.
The facility is geared towards the testing and qualification of the deployable Landing Gear system for ISRO’s winged body Reusable Launch Vehicle– Pushpak. ISRO is developing Pushpak with a deployable Landing Gear towards the RLV-Orbital Re-entry Experiment (RLV-OREX) mission. The Pushpak vehicle will be launched to orbit in an ascent vehicle and after a few orbits, Pushpak will re-enter the atmosphere and land on a runway using the deployable Landing Gear system.
The new test rig is capable of simulating landing velocities up to 360 km/hr (100 m/s) with adjustable wheel spin speeds up to 5000 rpm. It also allows simulation of various landing sink rates (up to 4.8 m/s). Different runway conditions such as asphalt, concrete, dry, wet and icy surfaces can also be simulated at the facility.
Various parameters experienced by the landing gear can be measured using a comprehensive sensor suite comprising accelerometers, high resolution displacement sensors such as LVDTs and LiDARs (Light Detection and Ranging) to sense the vertical motion, and tri-axial load cells and strain gauges to sense landing forces, strain and moments.
The facility also integrates multiple safety features, ensuring protection for both personnel and test articles.
VSSC Director Unikrishnan Nair, Director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre A Rajarajan, and Director of ISRO Inertial Systems Unit Padma Kumar ES were present at the inauguration event.