ISRO tests Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator

September 6, 2022

Recently, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully tested the Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD) technology that can aid in cost-effective recovery of spent rocket stages and land payloads safely on other planets.

Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD)

The Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator has been designed and developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC).
The IAD technology has been tested from the sounding rocket Rohini-300 (RH300 Mk II). Rohini sounding rockets are regularly used by scientists from India and abroad for flight demonstrations.
At launch, the IAD was folded inside the ‘payload bay’ and as it reached an altitude of about 84 km, the IAD was opened and inflated into the payload portion of the rocket. Due to which the velocity of the payload was affected and the speed of the rocket decreased.
The IAD has huge potential in variety of space applications like recovery of spent stages of rocket, for landing payloads on to Mars or Venus and in making space habitat for human space flight missions.
IAD can prove to be a game changer for many future space missions. With this technique, the speed of the rocket can also be slowed down, so that scientists will be able to control the speed of the rocket.

ISRO

ISRO is the space agency under the Department of Space of Government of India. It was formed in 1969. ISRO replaced its predecessor, INCOSPAR (Indian National Committee for Space Research) which was established in 1962. Current Chairman of ISRO is S. Somnath.

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