Avatar (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

: ,

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

: ; from "Aerobic Vehicle for Transatmospheric Hypersonic Aerospace TrAnspoRtation") is a concept study for a robotic single-stage reusable

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can flight, fly and gliding flight, glide as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and function as a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbit ...

capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, by India's

Defence Research and Development Organisation The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, head ...

. The mission concept is for low cost military and commercial

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

launches. This spaceplane concept is unrelated to the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...

's (ISRO) RLV Technology Demonstration Programme (RLV-TD).

Concept

The idea is to develop a

vehicle that can take off from conventional airfields. Its

liquid air cycle engine A liquid air cycle engine (LACE) is a type of spacecraft propulsion engine that attempts to increase its efficiency by gathering part of its oxidizer from the atmosphere. A liquid air cycle engine uses liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel to liquefy the ai ...

would collect air in the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

on the way up, liquefy it, separate

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

and store it on board for subsequent flight beyond the atmosphere. The Avatar, a

reusable launch vehicle A reusable launch vehicle has parts that can be recovered and reflown, while carrying payloads from the surface to outer space. Rocket stages are the most common launch vehicle parts aimed for reuse. Smaller parts such as fairings, booster ...

, was first announced in May 1998 at the

Aero India Aero India is a biennial air show and aviation exhibition held in Bengaluru, India, at the Yelahanka Air Force Station. It is organised by the Defence Exhibition Organisation, Ministry of Defence. Organisers The Ministry of Defence, Indian A ...

98 exhibition held at Bangalore. Avatar is projected to weigh 25 tons, of which 60% of that mass would be

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen () is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule, molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point (thermodynamics), critical point of 33 Kelvins, ...

fuel. The oxygen required by the vehicle for combustion in outer space would be collected from the atmosphere during takeoff, thus reducing the need to carry oxygen during launch. The notional specification is for a payload weighing up to to

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

and to withstand up to 100 launches and reentries. If built, Avatar would take off horizontally like a conventional airplane from a conventional airstrip using turbo-ramjet engines that burn hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen. During this cruising phase, an on-board system would collect air from the atmosphere, from which liquid oxygen would be separated and stored and used to burn the stored hydrogen in the final flight phase to attain orbit. The vehicle would be designed to permit at least one hundred launches and atmospheric reentries.

Feasibility study

The Avatar concept study was commissioned by India's

in 2001. India's space agency,

(ISRO), has no connection with the project. Air Commodore Raghavan Gopalaswami, who headed the study, made a presentation on the

at the global conference on propulsion at

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, United States on July 10, 2001.

References

External links

Concept of AVATAR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avatar (Spacecraft) Hydrogen-powered aircraft Hypersonic aircraft Space launch vehicles of India Space programme of India Ramjet-powered aircraft Former proposed space launch system concepts Spacecraft propulsion Spaceplanes Proposed aircraft of India V-tail aircraft Satish Dhawan Space Centre

Concept

Feasibility study

See also

References

External links