Trisonic wind tunnel to be established at VSSC

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A state-of-the-art trisonic wind tunnel will be established at Thumba VSSC to speed up rocket construction. It will be operational by next February. The goal is to complete as soon as possible the launches that were supposed to take place in the two years lost due to Covid. The equipment for making it was brought by road from Kollam in a big vehicle
yesterday. It was brought to Thumba in a few days after it was shipped to Kollam from Tata Project Ltd. in Pune.

PSLV and GSLV rockets are constructed at Thumba VSSC, ISRO's largest center in the country. In order for the rockets to carry out the mission accurately, several tests must be performed during their construction phase. These tests take place in Bengaluru and Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. For that, rocket parts have to be delivered from Thiruvananthapuram to these places.

If there is any small defect, it will be fixed from there itself. If the defect is big, then it will have to be brought to Thiruvananthapuram to fix it. It will then be taken back to Bangalore to complete the test and then to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh for launch. This will take a long time. The state-of-the-art equipment is being installed at Thumba in order to resolve this issue. Through this, the maximum number of tests can be done in Thiruvananthapuram itself.

Use of wind tunnel

Wind tunnels are used to accurately analyze the problems caused by atmospheric pressure when a rocket is launched. The analysis is done by passing rocket parts through the tunnel and blowing strong winds. Necessary changes will be made in the construction of the rocket accordingly. Currently, such experiments are being carried out in the wind tunnel in the Bangalore National Aeronautical Laboratory (NAL). This tunnel is over fifty years old.