ISRO Demonstrates New Tech That Can Be Used for Mars, Venus Missions

Context

ISRO successfully demonstrated a new technology with Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD) with multiple applications for future missions including to Mars and Venus.

About Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD)

• An IAD, designed and developed by ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), was successfully test flown in a ‘Rohini’ sounding rocket from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS).
  • Rohini sounding rockets are routinely used for flight demonstration of new technologies being developed by ISRO as well as by scientists from India and abroad.

• The IAD was initially folded and kept inside the payload bay of the rocket.
• At around 84 km altitude, the IAD was inflated and it descended through the atmosphere with the payload part of a sounding rocket. 
• The pneumatic system for inflation was developed by ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC).
• The IAD has systematically reduced the velocity of the payload through aerodynamic drag and followed the predicted trajectory.
• This demonstration opens a gateway for cost-effective spent stage recovery using the Inflatable Aerodynamics Decelerator technology and this IAD technology can also be used in ISRO’s future missions to Venus and Mars.