Gaganyaan Low Altitude Escape Motor:
On 10 August 2022, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully fired the Low Altitude Escape Motor (LEM) of the Crew Escape System from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, marking another significant milestone in the Gaganyaan project.
Today, ISRO achieved an important milestone in the Gaganyaan project by successfully test-firing the Low Altitude Escape Motor of Crew Escape System (CES), from Sriharikota.
CES takes away the Crew module in case of eventuality & rescues the astronauts https://t.co/HiJ9MNISxu pic.twitter.com/5xfIax7ozg
— ISRO (@isro) August 10, 2022
The Crew Escape System is designed to remove the Crew module of the Gaganyaan mission in the event of an emergency and rescue the astronauts. In the event of a mission abort during the initial phase of flight, the LEM will provide the required thrust to the CES, to take the Crew Module away from the launch vehicle.
The LEM is a unique special-purpose solid rocket motor with four reverse flow nozzles that produce a maximum sea level thrust of 842 kN (nominal) and a burn time of 5.98 seconds (nominal).
To avoid exhaust plume impingement on the crew module, the nozzle end of the LEM is mounted at the fore end of the launch vehicle, as opposed to the aft end in conventional rocket motors. In this solid rocket motor, this necessitates the use of a reverse flow multiple nozzles. The reverse flow nozzle denotes a change in the direction of the exhaust gas flow in the nozzle region.
The space research organisation also listed the main objectives of the static test, which included evaluating motor ballistic parameters, validating motor subsystem performance and confirming design margins, and evaluating the thermal performance of nozzle liners, particularly the erosion / ablative characteristics.
The other main reasons included checking the integrity of all interfaces, assessing the performance of the ignition system based on the head-end mounted safe arm (HMSA), and assessing side thrust caused by misalignment, flow variation, and other functional parameters like flow reversal.
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 of the Crew Escape System from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.){kind=link}