Private rockets and 3D-printed engines: What to know as another pvt firm prepares for space launch

After the space sector was opened to private companies in 2020, Skyroot signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Several dozens of space-tech startups have since entered the fray. Skyroot and Agnikul are among the companies that are already working on launch vehicles, satellites, and their applications.

Humbled to have had the opportunity to bring our Agnibaan SOrTeD vehicle to our Launchpad at SDSC-SHAR on Independence Day to commence integration checks. We thank @isro and @INSPACeIND for their continuous encouragement and support in getting us this far. (1/n) pic.twitter.com/LvcTgxP5XT

— AgniKul Cosmos (@AgnikulCosmos) August 17, 2023

What is Agnikul’s space vehicle?

Agnikul said its Suborbital Tech Demonstrator (SorTeD) single-stage launch vehicle, called Agnibaan, is driven by the company’s patented Agnilet engine. “Agnibaan SOrTeD will lift off vertically & follow a predetermined trajectory,” the company said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to Agnikul’s website, Agnibaan can carry payloads up to 100 kg to a low Earth orbit (LEO) up to 700 km. The vehicle is 18 m in height, 1.3 m in diameter, and has a liftoff mass of 14,000 kg. The payload envelope measures 2m x 1.5m and can carry one or more satellites.

What sort of engine does Agnikul have?

The Agnilet engine is an entirely 3D-printed, single-piece, 6 kN semi-cryogenic engine, the company said in its X post. The engine, which uses a mixture of liquid kerosene at room temperature and supercold liquid oxygen as propellant, was tested last year at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

Srinath Ravichandran, co-founder and CEO of Agnikul, had told The Indian Express in an interview earlier that “3D printing is a sweet spot for launch vehicles”, and emphasised it can be used to manufacture multiple iterations of complex and customised designs, speeding up the research and development process.

“When you use older manufacturing techniques, there is a lot more complex hardware and manpower involved. With 3D printing, you can make hardware nearly as fast as you can make software. This is why we were able to make hundreds of iterations of the design so that we could finally reach a stage where we can 3D print an entire engine in one shot,” Ravichandran had said during a video interaction.

In 2021, Skyroot had successfully demonstrated the country’s first privately developed cryogenic engine, Dhawan-1, which too was completely 3D printed, using a superalloy, by a process that cut the manufacturing time by 95 per cent.

Are there any concerns about 3D printing?

3D printing has some disadvantages. While it does allow engineers to reiterate designs faster than with conventional manufacturing techniques, it is not as scalable. With conventional techniques, once a design has been set, multiple copies can be made much faster.

“3D printing is still slow if you compare it to injection moulding or planar-based manufacturing where you can manufacture millions of pieces every month. So it is not meant for manufacturing in large volumes. But rocket engines and a lot of the components of launch vehicles can be manufactured using this method,” Ravichandran had told The Indian Express in last year’s interview.

That said, “The engine is very complex and it functions at very high temperatures,” Ravichandran had said. “So if we can 3D print an engine successfully, that makes us very confident about manufacturing simpler, static parts for the rest of the launch vehicle.”

What is the role of the private sector in space?

In June 2020, the government approved the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to ensure greater private participation in India’s space activities. Then chairman of ISRO K Sivan had said the initiative was part of an important set of reforms to open up the space sector and make space-based applications and services more widely accessible to everyone.

Sivan had told The Indian Express at the time that Indian industry had a barely 3% share in the rapidly growing global space economy, which was already worth at least $360 billion. Only 2% of this market was for rocket and satellite launch services; 95% related to satellite-based services and ground-based systems.

Indian industry was, however, unable to compete, because its role has traditionally been to supply components and sub-systems, Sivan had said. Indian industries did not have the resources or the technology to undertake independent space projects of the kind that companies such as SpaceX have been doing in the United States.

At the same time, Sivan had said, ISRO was unable to keep up with the growing demand for space-based applications and services even within India. The space agency would provide all its facilities to private players whose projects had been approved by IN-SPACe. Private companies, if they wanted, could even build their own launchpad within the Sriharikota launch station, and ISRO would provide the necessary land, Sivan had said. Agnikul said in its X post that it was “excited to be attempting this flight from our own Launchpad at Sriharikota”.

But how does ISRO benefit from this?

As The Indian Express had reported in 2020, there are two main reasons why enhanced private involvement in the space sector is important: one is commercial, and the other strategic.

Private participation will free up ISRO to concentrate on science, research and development, interplanetary exploration, and strategic launches. Right now, too much of ISRO’s resources are consumed by routine activities that delay its more strategic objectives.

There is no reason why ISRO alone should be launching weather or communication satellites. The world over, an increasing number of private players are taking over this activity for commercial benefits. And ISRO, like NASA, is essentially a scientific organisation whose main objective is exploration of space and carrying out scientific missions.

Also, it is not that private players will wean away the revenues that ISRO gets through commercial launches. As Sivan had told The Indian Express, the space-based economy is expected to “explode” in the next few years, even in India, and there would be more than enough for all. In addition, ISRO can earn some money by making its facilities and data available to private players.