SPACE TECHNOLOGY

AEROSPACE ENGINEERING, IIT MADRAS

PROBLEM SET-1
1. Consider a 100 ton sub-orbital vehicle with payload capability of 1 ton. It is desired to
double the payload carrying capability of the vehicle to 2 ton for the same mission.
Assuming that the vehicle is composed of only propellant and payload (i.e. structural
weight is negligible), compute:
a) Total weight of the upgraded vehicle.
b) If the new vehicle uses an improved propellant system with I sp 10% higher than
before, what would be the total weight of the new vehicle. Compare this result with
that of case a and comment.
2. A sounding rocket is to be launched vertically from earth's surface. It is to be
designed for a 350kg payload that must not suffer acceleration greater than 5g during
the burn period. The maximum propellant mass is 1000kg and the structural efficiency
factor is 0.1. The solid propellant rocket motor that will be designed for this vehicle
is expected to have specific impulse of 250s. Taking g=g e and neglecting
aerodynamic drag, determine:
a. The minimum allowable burning period.
b. The maximum height attainable.
c. The height allowable if the maximum payload acceleration were limited to 4g.
3. Consider a 3 stage rocket with the same engine specific impulse (I sp =400s) for all the
three stages. Neglect drag and gravity effects. The mass distribution for the stages is
as follows:
INDIVIDUAL STAGE DETAIL
1
2
3
Total initial stage mass, kg 100,000
18,000
4,000
Propellant, kg
75,000
12,000
2,000
Payload, kg
1,025
a. For each stage, determine i and i and estimate the total velocity increment for
the three stages.
b. Now, consider optimized stages with the same overall specifications. What velocity
increment could be obtained in this case?
c. What is the terminal velocity attained if a single stage rocket with the same over all
specifications are used.

4. The first stage of the 4-stage, 294 ton Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has a
solid core motor (PS-1). Six strap-on solid rocket motors are attached to PS-1. The
details of PS-1 and an individual strap-on are given in the table below.

SCM ( PS 1)
Strap on
total 6 nos.

M L ( prop.)

M (total )

tons
138
9

tb (burn time)

tons

I sp ( vac.) Thrust
kN
s

168
11

269
253

107
45

4628
662

Assuming both PS-1 and strap-on motors are ignited simultaneously and that the
strap-on motors are separated from the vehicle once they burn out completely,
compute the following:
a) Vehicle acceleration at ignition, just before strap-on motors are separated, just
after strap-on motors separate and at tb =107s before PS-1 separates from the
vehicle.
b) The total V achieved by the vehicle when PS-1 separates.
c) If the vehicle rises vertically what is V loss due to gravity for this stage.
d) What would the weight of stage-1 be if an optimized vehicle is considered with
identical stages and no strap-on motors ( i = , i = , I sp ,i = I sp ). Take the
payload to be delivered as 1.5 ton.
5. A two stage sounding rocket has gross lift-off mass of 7500kg. The vehicle is to carry
a payload of 500kg. The structural coefficient of the stages are s1 = 0.143 and

s 2 = 0.12 respectively. The exhaust velocity of both the stages is 3000m/s.

a) Calculate for each stage, the total mass, the propellant mass and the structural
mass if the vehicle is optimal with above specifications.
b) What is the maximum V this vehicle can achieve if the effect of gravity and drag
are neglected?
c) If the effect of gravity is included, drag effect neglected and the vehicle has a
maximum acceleration limit of 4 g e , what is the total burn time.
d) What is the maximum V for case (c) when gravity effect is included?

Take g e = 9.8m / s 2 , a constant and also assume constant thrust

6. Indias first launch vehicle, SLV3, was an all solid propellant vehicle with 4 stages and
weighed 17610kg. The details of each stage is given in the table below.

SLV3-1
Gross mass
Fuel mass (M P )
Empty mass
Thrust @ vacuum

SLV3-4

Payload

10,800 Kg 4,900 Kg 1,500 Kg

360 Kg

50 Kg

8,660 Kg

1,060 Kg

260Kg

N.A.

440 Kg

100 Kg

N.A.

3,150Kg

2,140 Kg 1,750 Kg
-

Thrust @ sea level 46,390 Kgf

Burn time (t b )

SLV3-2

49 sec

SLV3-3

27,227 Kgf 9,249 Kgf 2,736 Kgf

N.A.

N.A.

40 sec

45 sec

33 sec

N.A.

a) Calculate for each stage the structural coefficient and the payload ratio
b) Calculate velocity increment for each stage and maximum total delta-V attained
by the vehicle.
c) Compute exhaust velocities and acceleration of vehicle at the beginning of firing
of each stage. Does the vehicle develop sufficient delta-V to launch the payload
to circular orbit at 400km altitude (take radius of Earth to be 6400km)
Estimate the gravity loss (upper limit) and excess delta-V that has been
accounted for in design to compensate for drag losses, thrust losses, steering
losses and other losses.
7.

India plans to develop a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) with two stages
(a TSTO). The vehicle would be capable of delivering payloads of up to
10tons to LEO at 200km. Assuming V losses in accomplishing the
mission to be about 3km/s, taking for both stages a reasonable structural
coefficient of 0.1 and average exhaust velocity of 3500m/s, estimate the
following details of a optimized launch vehicle:
i. Liftoff weight (LOW) of the vehicle
and weights of individual stages
ii. Total propellant and structural
weight of the vehicle and weights of
propellant
and
structure
for
individual stages.

8.

An ideal (optimal) launch vehicle with lift off weight of 200ton is to be designed to
deliver a 1ton spacecraft to LEO circular orbit where the circular orbital velocity is
8km/s. The sum total of various losses during the launch is estimated to be about
1.5km/s. The structural mass is estimated to be 25tons. The average specific
impulse, I sp of propulsion system available is 300s.
a) Compute the V attained if a single stage rocket configuration is considered.
b) Determine minimum number of stages required to successfully achieve the
mission?
Quiz-II, 2011

9.

On 26th April 2012, the 4-stage, 320 ton Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV(XL)C19) was used to inject 1.86ton mass spacecraft RISAT-1 in an elliptical initial orbit
(IO) with perigee at an altitude of 250km, apogee of 540km above Earths surface.
The orbit plane inclination with respect to Equator was 97.5.
Stage

PS 1

Propellant

Solid-HTPB
based
Solid-HTPB
Strap on
total 6 nos. Based

PS-2

PS-3

PS-4
Payload faring
Payload

M L ( prop.) M (total ) Thrust

t b ( s)

tons

tons

kN

burn time

140

170

4819

101.5

6x12 ton

6x14.5

6x716

49.5

47

804

149

9.5

240

112.1

3.5

2x7.3

523

Liquid42
UH25+N2
O4
Solid- HTPB 8
based
Liquid2.5
MMH+M
ON3

1.14
1.86

a) Assuming that the space-craft was injected into IO at perigee, calculate the ideal
total V (i.e. neglecting gravity and drag losses) that vehicle can achieve by the
end of fourth stage firing and combined losses due to gravity, drag etc.
b) Find the injection velocity if the location (distance from center of Earth and angle
with respect to perigee) at which the space craft was injected 45 from the
perigee.

10. A two stage 250 ton launch vehicle is designed to deliver 5 ton payload to a LEO
destination. The two stages use the same propellant combination, therefore, the
specific impulse and the structural coefficient for the two stages may be assumed to
be nearly identical at 400 s and 0.15 respectively.
a) Assuming an ideal two-stage rocket and ignoring the losses, calculate the
maximum V developed by the rocket.
b) It is desired to increase the payload capacity of the launch vehicle by adding two
boosters (or strapons) along with the first stage of the rocket. Each booster is
identical to the first stage with identical burnout time. Calculate the payload that
can be delivered by the modified vehicle to the same LEO destination and the
gross lift-off weight of the modified vehicle. The thrust and burn time for the
individual stages remain the same as for the parent launch vehicle (i.e. without
the booster).