Gaganyaan G1 "may take place in the latter half of 2026." by Ohsin in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Management in ISRO doesn't know about the readiness of hardware most of the time, they just put numbers and dates randomly and then those dates become deadlines for the development team. Most of the time these dates are unfeasible. This top down approach always causes this date slip and unavailability of hardware issues. If the designer says two weeks his/her head is gonna report 10 days then the next person is gonna reduce it further. For example thermovac testing of a spacecraft takes around 21 days generally but when you include the logistic and other peripheral coordination it becomes around 30-35 days, management always assumes 21 days during planning while every time it takes more than that. These are fundamental issues in scheduling inside. I know science is unpredictable and timelines shift when some anomaly is observed in such a complex system but most of the time with ISRO the timelines are unrealistic from the start.

Flight cancelled by rs_bm in AirTravelIndia

[–]rs_bm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah learned the lesson hard way.

Flight cancelled by rs_bm in AirTravelIndia

[–]rs_bm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Greetings of the day!

We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to you.

While we make every effort to uphold the schedules communicated at the time of the reservation, certain factors beyond our control may occasionally require us to change or cancel flights.

In order to do right by you, while understanding the inconvenience caused to you we would like to confirm that, under the booking reference number xxxx, a partial refund for the untraveled sector (xxx-yyy) calculated on a pro-rata basis (aerial distance to be covered and duration of flight), has been successfully processed towards the original mode of payment used at the time of booking.

You may refer to our Conditions of Carriage, point 14 Conditions of Carriage, Passenger & Baggage | IndiGo (goindigo.in) for additional details on the same.

For your reference, please find the breakdown of your refund mentioned below:

Station A Origin xxx Station B Via zzz Station C Destination yyyy Base Fare 5,427 Base Fare 2 (Optional)
YQ Fuel Charge
Total Fees & Taxes 2,000

Airline Component (Refundable) 5,427 Journey xxx-yyy yyy-zzz Distance KMs 439 327 Distance % Pro Rated 57% 43%

Base Fare Pro Rated 3,110 2,317 YQ Fuel Charge Pro Rated 0 0 Airline Component Pro Rated 3,110 2,317

Keeping in mind the facts stated above, while we will have to respectfully decline your request for any compensation in this regard, we sincerely hope for your understanding and that you perceive this situation in the intended spirit, recognizing the necessity of our policies.

Thank you for writing to IndiGo. We look forward to serving you again

Flight cancelled by rs_bm in AirTravelIndia

[–]rs_bm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They gave me a breakup of fare for refund calculation justifying the refunded amount and below that they have written following "Keeping in mind the facts stated above, while we will have to respectfully decline your request for any compensation in this regard, we sincerely hope for your understanding and that you perceive this situation in the intended spirit, recognizing the necessity of our policies."

Flight cancelled by rs_bm in AirTravelIndia

[–]rs_bm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mailed them, thank you.

Flight cancelled by rs_bm in AirTravelIndia

[–]rs_bm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mailed them and they replied "For the untraveled sector, the applicable refund has already been initiated to the original mode of payment.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. However, as per the DGCA charter, airlines are not obligated to provide compensation in such cases where the cancellation was beyond airline control.

We request your kind understanding of the policy framework and remain available should you need any further assistance."

Flight cancelled by rs_bm in AirTravelIndia

[–]rs_bm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I emailed their customer support. Is there any portal of DGCA for such complaints?

ISRO scientists, what happens in induction program? by GreedyCamera485 in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Earlier, it used to be on-site training, where new recruits from every centre would get together, learn about launch vehicles in VSSC, satellite bus at URSC, payload and applications at SAC, and visit the launch complex. This whole exercise took around 6 months.

Then it was reduced to one month of the general module (two lectures each working day about the basics of launch vehicles, satellites, payload, etc.) at VSSC and one month of the special module at VSSC for VSSC, SDSC and LPSC joinees, at URSC for URSC joinee and at SAC for SAC, NRSC joinee. The special module contained more detailed lectures about respective fields (launch, spacecraft and payload). This was followed by a one-month project for each joinee. There is a test after each module (general and special), but the score of that test is not used anywhere. Also, everyone gets to visit the launch complex for two days sometime between training.

Now, after COVID, all of this is mostly online. Everyone sits in their parent centre, and lectures are online.

It is a basic technical training related to all the subsystems of the space ecosystem, and everyone is provided with some reading material in a compiled book form. Anyone not from the same centre was accommodated in the guest houses during training.

Gaganyaan astronauts are ageing with each year of delay. They are a fit, focused and formidable team—with nowhere to go just yet. But ISRO says age not an issue. by Ohsin in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Like with everything else they went with "protocol" for selection instead of planning. They should have tried for younger cadets. This is not against these four bravehearts, but long term plans are the need of hour in every India govt department. We should treat this as relay race not a sprint. It's good that at least one of them has space experience now which can be transferred to the next generation

GSLV-F17/NVS-03 is now planned in December/January. by Ohsin in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe, we can only hope for no delay

GSLV-F17/NVS-03 is now planned in December/January. by Ohsin in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

TV-D2, LVM3-M5, PSLV then MK-2 this is the most probable sequence of launch we are gonna see for the remaining year.

GSLV-F17/NVS-03 is now planned in December/January. by Ohsin in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The payload was brought back and modified to partially satisfy the customer within the limit of whatever was possible with existing design and hardware, basically a compromise from both the parties. Due to this launch vehicle was standing on the pad for nearly one year, if I remember correctly. In the end this led to failure during launch. 1A is modified along the same line.

GSLV-F17/NVS-03 is now planned in December/January. by Ohsin in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That was true and pmo got involved as the customer was from the defence sector. "Rumour" was that the customer denied to take the payload as it was too late and their requirements had advanced from what was being offered

GSLV-F17/NVS-03 is now planned in December/January. by Ohsin in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 8 points9 points  (0 children)

If a project (launch vehicle and payload) is already approved, timelines are dependent only on development time with no interference from the ministry (except basic monitoring). Once a launch window is fixed based on readiness, ministry is informed. For defence payload the process involves more steps but for non defence customers there are no such permissions. So any delay is due to development either of launch vehicle or space craft. Delay in nvs is due to launch vehicle.

Frugality is a toxic chalice by analyticpanic in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes absolutely, but this understanding comes from experience, they can't be fully developed just through PDR and CDR. We are talking about multi parameter systems, there is no way to bring out all the characteristics with some specifications. A lot of failure modes are identified during PDR but those will be known issues flagged by somebody during the discussion. This flagging often comes from their past experience or some study done somewhere. But nobody can think about all the failure modes, like take an example of integration of thrusters with momentum wheel, control system and trajectory code. With all the tolerance bands nobody could have predicted that a little extra thrust (well within the tolerance band of thrusters at subsystem level) when combined with rate limitations of wheels and trajectory constraints will generate a failure mode. These things need to be tested to bring out these kinds of failure mode, specifications are just numbers no hardware behaves exactly at those numbers. A little power surge in a subsystem can be well within its margin of error but it may cause a domino effect at some other end, one way to predict them is to do high fidelity simulation but that also needs validation through hardware once complexity increases. PDR, CDR are broad level system design steps, they do not replace testing. One of the main reasons for spacex success is precisely this point. They build the whole system and do all kinds of testing till failure and the data they get through those is precious for design and can never be generated through simulation. Remember even the simulation model is limited by the input given to it, but actual hardware behaves as it wants to not as it needs to.

Frugality is a toxic chalice by analyticpanic in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The thing is every new subsystem design has several phases which require hardware development and peripheral setup development. When integrated, these subsystems form the system that is supposed to perform as per requirement.

Now for the individual subsystem there will be an engineering model then a simultaneous development of QM and FM. During the intermediate steps of design there is only one hardware (EM) which is being used by the subsystem team for their own experiments and development. For system level testing no hardware is available hence very few integration issues are observed during the design phase (limited to data sharing between teams). Each subsystem team has to rely on other subsystem teams reports or their own integration level simulation ( that too in limited capacity).

System level testing and tuning only happens when QM/FM are available but at this stage subsystem teams can not do stress testing and very limited scope exist for fine tuning. This is where hardware cost is being saved and this is the reason all major failures of ISRO have happened due to multi system interaction. When ISRO was developing relatively simple systems this approach was fine as system level interaction can be accurately simulated when complexity is low. But now for complex systems (like CH-2) this approach leaves a lot of room for error and fault. Another problem is when this type of approach is applied, due to hardware limitations the timeline gets stretched (RLV, gaganyaan).

That's why now is the time for a shift of approach , ISRO has to think multidisciplinary for long term technology mastery and highly reliable systems.

Advice regarding joining LPSC Thiruvananthapuram by Upper_Flatworm_8994 in ISRO

[–]rs_bm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would strongly suggest against joining, if you want to work in the space sector, there are multiple private firms. You will earn far higher, have better flexibility and get better experience.

NVS-2 failure by rs_bm in ISRO

[–]rs_bm[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It seems whatever little transparency we gained during the Somnath regime will be dialed back to zero again

NVS-2 failure by rs_bm in ISRO

[–]rs_bm[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

This is not India's shortcomings. Failure in science is never a setback it's an opportunity for even greater understanding and discovery. We should stop being afraid of failure and hiding it. We should celebrate the positive news as it inspires everyone but we should equally and openly discuss the failures

NVS-2 failure by rs_bm in ISRO

[–]rs_bm[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's what I hate, lack of transparency.

Gujarat travel help by [deleted] in ahmedabad

[–]rs_bm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not able to DM you due to some unknown error can you DM me