ISRO Set-up Nozzle Testing Labs in Kerala
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has established nozzle testing laboratories at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram on May 10, 2016.
- Improving performance of existing nozzles and developing new nozzle concepts, which can operate at both low and high altitude regimes, it is possible to obtain significant gains in the delivered specific impulse of rockets.
- The NTL consists of a Nitrogen gas generation and storage system, a graphite cored induction heater (for heating nitrogen), a test chamber, a diffuser system and heat exchanger, coolant system and power supply systems.
- The NTL has the capability to cater to a wide range of studies related to nozzles such as contour optimisation for large Area Ratio (AR) nozzles, flow separation, techniques for flow separation control, nozzle wall heat transfer, among others.
First Global Topographic Model of Mercury Unveiled
- The first global digital elevation model of Mercury, showing in detail the topography across the entire innermost planet of our solar system, unveiled by NASA’s MESSENGER mission on May 7, 2016.
- The model shows a variety of topographic features including the highest and lowest points on the planet. The highest elevation on Mercury is at 4.48 km above Mercury’s average elevation, located just South of the equator in some of planet’s oldest terrain. The lowest elevation, at 5.38 km below Mercury’s average, is found on the floor of Rachmaninoff basin, an intriguing double-ring impact basin suspected to host some of the most recent volcanic deposits on the planet.
