Mission to Mars Launched

A day after the last of Diwali rockets was fired in this part of the country, "the big one" blasted off from the first launch pad in Sriharikota on Tuesday afternoon, firing the ambition of a nation, and the imagination of many others. About 45 minutes later, whenPSLV-C25 had injected the Mars orbiter spacecraft into an Earth orbit, the first phase of India's first Mars mission was pronounced a success. 

"I am happy to announce that the Mars orbiter mission first phase is a success," said Indian Space Research Organization chairman K Radhakrishnan. About 90 minutes after a drizzle raised minor concerns about weather among lay people, the 44.4m PSLV-C25 carrying in its head India's first Mars orbiter, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 2.38pm. 

Drowning the cheers at the mission control, about 7km away, and the nearby media centre, the rocket rose to the sky with a roar, spewing fire and smoke. Soon it disappeared into the clouds, only to re-emerge after a few second to another round of applause.

The nail-biting — albiet expected — phase came soon after the third stage of the rocket burned out, and the blip on the tracking screens disappeared. As Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan had explained earlier, the rocket would be on a coasting phase for almost 25 minutes, 10 minutes of which was a "total blind phase." The mission control witnessed some silent moments during this period. And, when mission director P Kunhikrishnan reported that the first of the two ships in the south Pacific Ocean had tracked the rocket, the scientists' faces lit up.

 

'Bigger challenges ahead' 

About 35 minutes into the flight, the rocket was cruising at an altitude "slightly higher than the expected trajectory," as a scientist put it. "But it will self-correct its course," he assured. And correct it did, after the fourth-stage engine fired on its own, bringing the rocket back to life. Soon, the orbiter was injected into an elliptical Earth orbit in what Kunhikrishnan called a "precision exercise." What follows in the next 10 days would be six crucial "orbit raising operations," in the wee hours of November 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 16. 

And then, at 12.42am on December 1, the orbiter will leave the earth's orbit for a 300-day journeyto the red planet. "It's only the beginning; bigger challenges are ahead," said the Isro chairman. "We expect the orbiter to be in Mar's orbit on September 24, 2014."

 Before India, five nations have launched Mars missions. So, is India trying to be an also-ran? Why is India trying to boldly go where many have gone before? The answers lie in India's rightful ambitions to remain in the select league of space-faring nations, mankind's unending quest for the unknown, and a bit of business.

When uncertainty fuels curiosity

Just because the previous Mars missions did not find anything conclusive about methane or water or other indicators of life doesn't mean that the Indian mission may not find any. Critics had put forth a similar argument when India was preparing for Chandrayaan-1, but the moon mission found something even men who walked on moon could not: moisture in the polar region of moon.

The same logic works here. If the Indian mission finds methane or new patterns of deuterium that suggest early presence of water, it would change the way earthlings see Mars and other planets. "Some say why spend Rs 460 crore on this mission. Such simple economics don't work here. You never know if we may find something that's worth much more than that figure," says Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan.

Uncertainty, as much as curiosity, has been at the core of every scientific exploration. Isro satellites programme director Mylswamy Annadurai calls the Mars orbiter mission a logical progression of the moon mission. "We are relaxed and confident, but then anxiety is a human trait. People who ask what we are going to fi nd would understand that not finding something is also a fi nding, a discovery that something is not there," he said.

Previous missions and groundbased calculations have found methane in Martian atmosphere, but none have been able to conclude if they definitely indicated early life. This is because methane could be of geological as well as biological origin. Whatever the source, finding methane — which one of the five scientific instruments on board the Mars orbiter would try — would add considerably to research on the red planet. The Lyman alpha photometer, meanwhile, would be looking for abundance of deuterium and hydrogen in the Martian upper atmosphere, which are indicators of early possible existence of water.

A point to prove

Will the Mars mission do all this? Nobody knows for sure. The Isro chairman is not apologetic when he says this mission is 85% a technology demonstration and the rest scientific quest. This means that India has to demonstrate — however late it is — its interplanetary mission capabilities to retain its place in the spacefarers' club.

"This is our first step in the field," says Radhakrishnan. "We have to take this step before bigger steps." He adds that only 21 of the 51 missions by the US and Russia/USSR have been successful. "That speaks of how complex the mission is. Getting the orbiter to go around the Mars itself would be a mark of success." Isro is confident of remaining in Mars orbit for about five months.

Money matters

Such missions boost Isro's capabilities and credibility so much so that more nations turn to India for their space missions and collaborations. A successful — or even attempted — Mars mission will boost Isro's image, and Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Isro, can well be a money-spinner.

India's Mars mission is a major step forward in exploring the solar system that was completed by Indian scientists in just 15 months, said the euphoric scientific community Tuesday.

India is the first Asian country and the fourth entity after Russia, the US and the European Space Agency (ESA) to leap into interplanetary space with an exploratory mission to Mars, about 400 million km from planet Earth.

Amitabha Ghosh, chairman, Science Operations Working Group - Mission Operations at the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Mission, said it's a significant milestone for India.

"It is important to develop capability and also try to do something unique and not something done before. The real moment for India will come when it enters into Mars gravitation," Ghosh said.

Renowned space scientist K. Kasturirangan commended the way Indian scientists were able to complete the mission within 15 months of the announcement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"I think first of all given the 15 months' time to take the mission to first level is something unbelievable for space programme of this level... something we all should be proud of," Kasturirangan said.

"It will become an important milestone for India when it completes 300 days and enters Mars orbit," Kasturirangan said.

Mission director P. Kunhikrishnan said: "With the precise injection of the spacecraft in the desired initial orbit, the crucial part of the mission for its long journey to Mars has been achieved. It is the 25th mission of the PSLV rocket."

Professor Yashpal, founding father of ISRO, lauded India's effort to chart its own path by launching the mission and not following others.

"There are a whole lot of programmes going on in the ISRO and the best part is that you are making your own path and not following anyone else's," he said.

Professor U.R. Rao, who had conducted the feasibility study of the Mars mission, said: "It is indeed a great day for India as something that has gone out of our own cradle. I can proudly say India has become mature. I hope we get very good results."

"I was talking to some scientist friends in the US and they told me why Indians are shouting about Rs.500 crore spent on the mission, it is the biggest day for the whole of India."

"Indians can be proud after spending Rs.5,000 crore on Diwali firecrackers, which don't go beyond 10 metres and with Rs.500 crore, we are going to Mars," said Rao, former ISRO chairman.

The spacecraft will enter the Martian orbit in September 2014.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre director S. Ramakrishnan said: "It is a historic mission. The PSLV has again proved to be a reliable rocket with a text-book launch, which is the first step."

Mission's authorisation board member M. Chandradatan said: "It is an excellent mission, with the team work of all ISRO centres as it had a very complicated design. We have achieved the first important step in the long mission and getting into the Earth's orbit."

Former Space Commission member Roddam Narasimha from Sriharikota told IANS: "It is a distinct forward step and India is working towards a new horizon in exploring the solar system. We have only seen the first phase of the project and have to wait for over nine months to watch from Earth before the spacecraft reaches the Martian orbit."

In the press conference that followed soon after the Mars orbiter launch, a foreign journalist asked what has now become a routine question: why should India send a mission to Mars when millions are in poverty? Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan told him about the benefits of the space programme, but the journalist persevered. Benefits of the space programme are evident, but not so much the benefits of going to Mars, especially for the poor.

Radhakrishnan then talked about how not going to Mars will make Isro rapidly out-of-date with technology. It is not clear whether all the hundreds of journalists assembled at Sriharikota were entirely satisfied.

The Mars mission is not an isolated mission for the organisation. Isro, or any organisation worth its salt, never plans isolated missions. Every programme feeds into another programme, and technology developed for one mission is used for another. This happens so frequently that it rarely makes sense to focus on individual missions and question their validity. Space technology is as inclusive as any other. The Mars mission will feed into subsequent missions of Isro. For engineers, this fact is as obvious as daylight. However, there are subtleties that are not so obvious to the public, and they need to be stressed.

With the launch of the Mars orbiter, Isro has taken a few step-ups on the complexity ladder of space technology. Learning to handle a complex mission has its spin-offs in every area of life and business.

Isro has yet to master the geostationary launch vehicle and its difficulties, a task that could take several years or even a decade, but it has also to look ahead after the GSLV. Going to the moon or planets bring on a new set of challenges, and the development of a new set of technologies. An organisation that does not develop them will soon fall behind in space technology, no matter how good it becomes on sending satellites into earth orbit.

Even without a geostationary launcher, a class of vehicles all other countries use to send satellites to Mars, this mission was no less complex for Isro than it was for other countries. It is not a trivial fact that two-thirds of all Mars missions have failed. Using a smaller rocket, even when as well-tested like the PSLV, does not make the mission any less sophisticated.

In fact, it has probably made it more complex, as Isro also made it in quick time with very little money. The low energy budget introduced new complexities. The changing weather gave it another dimension.

Alarge vehicle and its satellite together use every kind of technology imaginable. It needs the right configuration of the vehicle. The PSLV is now a mature design, but consistent manufacturing is always a challenge. So is testing. More than anything else, integration is different and difficult for each mission. A small error, only a millimetre's difference in the size of a device, will lead to failure. There is some learning with each new project.

Finally, there is science to reckon with. Isro's mission is primarily a scientific mission. Mars is one of the hottest topics, if not the hottest, in astronomy today. Understanding Mars is key to understanding the Earth, its past and future. Mars may once have had life. Its conditions four billion years ago were good for life. In fact, it may even have seeded the Earth with life. Understanding all this is necessary to design the future Earth. We may one day need to even leave the Earth and live on Mars.

Science does not belong to the rich countries alone. When investing in science, it is hard to pick and choose topics according to utility. No one knows what will be useful.

India, being a large country with a large scientific infrastructure, has an obligation to invest in space science. This is particularly so because Isro's budget is frugal. The entire world can learn from India when it comes to low-cost space engineering. The Mars mission is a drop in the ocean when the total budget of the country is considered. Space has to move on.

Likening India's Mars probe to putting 'a golf ball from Tokyo in a hole in Paris', Chinese experts have termed Manglaayan's launch as "a great achievement" which if successful could make India the first Asian country to achieve this fete.

Indian launch should be interpreted rationally as "a great achievement" of India that also deserves applause from the rest of the world,Ye Hailin, an expert on South Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciencessaid.

"Like the Chinese, Indian people have their space dreams as well. The Mars orbiter, if successful, will increase the human race's store of knowledge and change our life," Ye told state-run China Daily.

Official dailies here front-paged the successful launch of the India's Mars mission, focussing on India taking the lead inMars exploration over China.

Ye also said China and India may work together to explore space instead of being engaged in what was called "aerospace competition".

In his reaction yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said thee outer space is "the common heritage of mankind" and the international community should cooperate to maintain the permanent peace and sustainable development of outer space.

Pang Zhihao, a researcher with the China Academy of Space Technology, said ultimate outcome of the current Indian venture remains to be seen, as the successful launch was only the start of a year-long mission.

"The difficulty of getting the orbiter into orbit around Mars is equal to hitting a golf ball from Tokyo into a hole in Paris," Pang said adding that China is ready to conduct its own exploration of Mars in the near future.

"The carrier rocket Long March 5, with its 25 metric tons of low-Earth orbit carrying capacity and 14 tonnes of geostationary transfer orbit carrying capacity, can fully sustain our own Mars exploration projects," he said.

Jiao Weixin, a professor at the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking Universitytold the daily that "with the mission launched within a very short period, India eyes the political influence hereby brought and intends to be the first one in Asia that orbits Mars."

The Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) on Saturday performed the last of the five orbit-raising manoeuvre on its Mars Orbiter in the early hours, raising the apogee (farthest point from Earth) of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.

"The fifth orbit-raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27am (IST).. with a burn time of 243.5 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in apogee is from 1,18,642 km to 1,92,874 km," Isrosaid.

In the series of five orbit-raising manoeuvre with a supplementary operation after the fourth one, the space agency had raised the apogee of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.

After the successful completion of these operations, the Mars Orbiter Mission is expected to take on the "crucial event" of the trans-Mars injection around 12.42am on December 1. It will reach the orbit of the red planet by September 24, 2014 after taking on a voyage of over 10 months.

Isro's PSLV-C25 successfully injected the 1,350-kg 'Mangalyaan' Orbiter (Mars craft) into the orbit around the earth some 44 minutes after a text book launch at 2.38pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on November 5, marking the successful completion of the first stage of the Rs 450 crore mission.

India's Mars Mission is a big leap

If the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifts off on November 5 from Sriharikota as planned, it will be watched by more than a normal share of anxious eyes. It is a difficult mission, and fickle weather adds to the complexity.

But ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan is not prone to fits of worry. "The PSLV is the best vehicle in its class," he says, "which is why many countries are using it now to launch their satellites." A mission to Mars will require taking into account the influence of earth, the moon, the sun and, of course, the destination planet, all of which keep changing positions with the day of the launch.

A small error in calculation will miss the target by tens of thousands of miles. "The spacecraft's arrival point on Mars has to be calculated to an accuracy of 60 miles about 280 days in advance," says Radhakrishnan. "It takes beyond textbook mechanics to achieve this precision." An excursion to the red planet does not come easy to even to the most experienced.

The Russians have a long history of failures in Mars missions. The Chinese have not yet attempted its own mission, and so Mangalyaan is extra special for India. "It will be a big leap for the country," says Goverdhan Mehta, space commission member. The Americans, Russians and Europeans have used larger rockets for their Mars missions. India is using the smaller PSLV, usually used to put small satellites into a low-earth orbit over the poles. The launch window to Mars is very small, the next one being available only in 2018. ISRO has already postponed the launch once due to bad weather.

If the PSLV does not go up before November 19, ISRO has to wait for another five years to get similar conditions. The PSLV is India's most mature rocket. ISRO has launched 35 satellites so far using PSLV and 10 are in waiting list for launch. The Mars mission will use PSLV in new ways, thereby adding new complexities. The trajectory of the spacecraft is very different to begin with.




This new trajectory, the calculations for which are different for each launch date, requires a long coasting of the rocket between third and fourth stage. "The management of the long coast between third and fourth stage is a complex issue," says V Adimurthy, Satish Dhawanprofessor and senior advisor (interplanetary missions) of ISRO. There is only one time slot for lift-off- with five minutes leeway - available for launch during a specific day.

"The time of lift-off and required coasting duration is different for each day of launch; and one has to work out a series of different trajectory management strategies corresponding to each possible launch date," says Adimurthy. The satellite is first launched into an elliptical orbit at a velocity far less than what is required - over 11 km per second - for it to escape from the earth.

To make it come up to this velocity would require three to five manouevres using rockets in the spacecraft, depending on the velocity and position of the spacecraft when first injected. When it finally reaches Mars, not more than 60 km away from the intended spot, the spacecraft has to slow down for it to be captured into the Mars orbit. If this is not done with precision, the spacecraft will either fly by or crash into the Martian surface.

Some of the difficulty is in the constraints imposed by the need to lower energy use. "We have devised an orbit that reaches Mars with minimum use of energy," says Radhakrishnan. The more the energy required for the travel, the more the fuel the spacecraft has to carry, and hence the more the weight and more the cost. Other constraints were imposed by the harsh interplanetary environment like intense cold and high radiation.

Delay in communication is another problem as the spacecraft moves further and further away from the earth. The spacecraft has considerable autonomy to take decisions during critical periods.

When the Mangalyaan project was conceived, ISRO got 30 ideas for experiments. Out of these, nine instruments were possible to build and five were flyable. "So all the experiments possible were accommodated," says Radhakrishnan. One of this is a methane sensor. Finding methane conclusively on Mars would be a major achievement for Mangalyaan.

The Indian Space Research Organization completed integration of itsMars mission satellite on Sunday with therocket while the heat shield is expected to be closed in couple of days, an official said. 

"The 1,340 kg satellite was mated with the rocket today (Sunday). The heat shield will be closed in two or three days after tests. Everything is progressing normally on the rocket and the satellite side," an Isro official, who did not want to be identified, told IANS. 

On Saturday Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan told IANS that the Rs 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will be delayed by a week as out of of the two ships — Nalanda and Yamuna — carrying rocket tracking systems, only the latter has reached Fiji. 

The Nalanda is expected to reach there October 21. From there, both the ships have to travel to their respective locations to track the rocket, Isro officials told IANS. 

The ships have terminals to track the rocket, which has a coasting period of around 20 minutes beyond the visibility of existing ground stations. 

The Malgalyaan mission was originally slated for October 28 from Isro's rocket launch centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 80km from here. 

According to Isro officials, there is no problem as far as the mission is concerned. 

Radhakrishnan said as the launch window is between October 28 to November 19, the revised launch date will be decided October 22 after the ship reaches Fiji. 

Incidentally October 22 is seems to be a special date for Isro. It is a Tuesday and in Tamil, Mars planet is called Sevvai Graham and Tuesday is also called Sevvai. In Hindi, Mars is called Mangal and Tuesday is Mangalwar. 

India's first inter-planetary mission was to the Moon October 22, 2008 at an outlay of around Rs 390 crore.

Mars missions race. India takes lead

India aims at sending an orbiter to Mars in 2013. The race for the Red planet unwinds with NASA planning a launch for the same 2013 fiscal year and China somewhat lagging behind. Earlier this month Europe gave a go ahead for a Mars mission with Russia in 2016. Russia and India have also a plan for a joint lunar mission scheduled for 2014.

India is pushing ahead with its ambitious Mars Mission in which an Indian spacecraft will orbit Mars in November 2013.
Senior officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) have deliberately set the date of the Mars Mission for November 27, 2013 when the red planet will be closer to earth.
By doing so, India will join the US, Russia, Europe, Japan and China who have all sent missions to Mars.
A 320-tonne Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket will be used to carry the orbiter spaceship which will blast off from the Isro launch site at Sriharikota.
The government has cleared this unmanned mission which is expected to cost over `5 billion. The objective of this exercise will be to focus on the life, climate, geology, origin and evolution of the red planet and also to find out if the planet sustains any life forms.
This project will be a major leg up for India’s space programme which had sent Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe to the moon. The spacecraft probe had discovered water on the moon and this discovery had proved a major credibility boost amongst the established space-faring nations.
The spacecraft is expected to take 300 days to reach the Martian orbit with the spacecraft expected to be placed in an orbit of 500 x 80,000 km around Mars.
Scientific payloads have been shortlisted by Isro’s advisory committee for space sciences and the baseline, solar array and reflector configuration of the satellite have already been finalised.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has finally announced the Mars Orbiter Mission which he believes will be a huge boost to India’s science and technology.
Already, US robot Curiosity is currently on the surface of the red planet after landing on Mars more than a month ago. Nasa scientists believe Curiosity has found clear evidence that its landing site was once awash with water, a key ingredient for life.
Curiosity, a nuclear-powered vehicle, has been designed for a minimum two-year mission.

Risat-1 'Spy Satellite' Launched

In 2009, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had launched the RISAT-2, a spy satellite acquired from Israel for $110 million. In the last week of April this year, ISRO successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, its first indigenously produced “spy satellite” RISAT-1, aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C19. It inserted the 1,858-kg radar imaging satellite into a polar circular orbit at an altitude of 480 kilometres and an orbital inclination of 97.552 degrees. The mission was proclaimed to be a grand success. RISAT-1 has day and night capability and can see through cloud cover or any other atmospheric obscurity. Orbiting the Earth 14 times a day, it will give India continuous surveillance capability. Meant primarily for a number of civilian applications, the all-weather surveillance tool can also function as a “spy satellite”. RISAT-1 carries a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar operating in a multi-polarisation and multi-resolution mode and can provide images with coarse, fine and high spatial resolutions of about one metre. It has a mission life of five years.

Here are the top 10 facts on RISAT-1:

1. Weighing at 1858 Kg, RISAT-1 is the heaviest satellite ever launched by India.
 
2. It was powered by a 321 tonne rocket, the most powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). 

3. This is the third time that ISRO used a PSLV-XL (Extra Large) rocket. It was first used in October 2008 to put Chandrayaan-1 in orbit and again in July 2011 during the communication satellite GSAT-12 launch.

4. The indigenously made satellite has day and night viewing capacity and will not be blinded by cloud cover. 
 
5. RISAT-1 will help in crop monitoring and flood forecasting. It will give India the ability for continuous surveillance.

6. The satellite carries a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, operating in a multi-polarisation and multi-resolution mode to provide images with coarse, fine and high spatial resolutions. It has a best resolution of up to 1 m

7. It has taken ISRO 10 years to make this sophisticated satellite. So far PSLV has consecutive 19 successful launches. 
 
8. The total cost of mission is about Rs. 500 crores. While the cost of the rocket is about Rs. 120 crores, the satellite costs around Rs. 380 crores. However, none of them are insured.
 
9. The project Director N Valarmathi, is the first woman to head a remote sensing satellite project, and the second to be the satellite project director at ISRO.
 
10. Apart from RISAT-1, India already has another spy satellite RISAT-2 acquired from Israel which was launched in 2009.

The indigenously built RISAT-1, with a life span of five years, will be used for disaster prediction and agriculture forestry. The high resolution pictures and microwave imaging from RISAT-1 could also be used for defence purposes as it can look through the clouds and fog.

At 5.47 a.m., the rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C19 (PSLV-C19) - standing 44.5 metres tall and weighing 321 tonnes and with a one-way ticket, hurtled towards the skies ferrying the 1,858 kg RISAT-1 after unshackling itself from launch pad No.1.

The ISRO-made RISAT-1 is the heaviest luggage so far ferried by a PSLV since 1993.

At around 17 minutes into the flight, PSLV-C19 delivered RISAT-1 into a polar circular orbit at an altitude of 480 km and an orbital inclination of 97.552 degrees.

ISRO, with its network of ground stations, monitored its health.

"PSLV-C19 mission is a grand success. This is the 20th successive successful flight of PSLV. India's first radar imaging satellite was injected precisely into orbit," ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan said after the launch. "With this launch India joins a select group of nations like the US, Canada, Europe and others to have such an advanced technology. It is a 30 year effort," he added.

"With RISAT-1 we can now forecast Kharif season," Dr Radhakrishnan said.

According to satellite director N. Valarmathi, RISAT-1 can take images in all weather conditions and during day and night. "The satellite has high storage device and other several unique features," she added.

For ISRO, this is the first launch this fiscal as well as in the calendar year.

According to Dr Radhakrishnan, the Indian space agency is planning couple of more satellite launches - communication and remote sensing satellites - this year. He said the space agency would launch a communication satellite weighing 3.5 tonne through the Ariane rocket from French Guiana and two PSLV missions were scheduled for later this year. ISRO will also send SARAL satellite - an Indo-French initiative - using its PSLV rocket from Sriharikota. There will also be the launch of first Indian regional navigational satellite this fiscal.

Speaking about the status of the space agency's heavy rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - that can carry communication satellites, Dr Radhakrishnan said the advanced rocket GSLV Mark III has crossed several milestones and an experimental flight will be made in a year from now.

He said the experimental flight will be to test the rocket systems in the atmospheric flight phase.

The Indian made cryogenic engine is also undergoing several tests.

Meanwhile, the solar panes of RISAT-1 were deployed successfully soon after it was injected into the orbit.

According to Dr Radhakrishan, in three days time the satellite will be taken up to its intended orbit at an altitude of 536 km by firing the on-board motors.

Remote sensing satellites send back pictures and other data for use. India has the largest constellation of remote sensing satellites in the world providing imagery in a variety of spatial resolutions, from more than a metre ranging up to 500 metres, and is a major player in vending such data in the global market.

With 11 remote sensing/earth observation satellites orbiting in the space, India is a world leader in the remote sensing data market. The 11 satellites are TES, Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-1, 2, 2A and 2B, IMS-1, Risat-2, Oceansat-2, Resourcesat-2 and Megha-Tropiques.

RISAT-1's synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can acquire data in C-band and would orbit the earth 14 times a day.

In 2009, ISRO had launched 300 kilogram Risat-2 with an Israeli-built radar enabling earth observation in all weather, day and night conditions.

With Thursday's launch the PSLV rocket has launched successfully 53 satellites out of 54 it carried - majorly remote sensing/earth observation satellites both Indian and foreign - and has been a major revenue earner for ISRO.

The one failure happened in 1993 when the satellite was not able reach the orbit.

The rocket that delivered RISAT-1 in the space is ISRO's four stage PSLV's upgraded variant called PSLV-XL.

The letters XL stand for extra-large as the six strap-on motors hugging the rocket at the bottom can carry 12 tonnes of solid fuel as against the base version that has a fuel capacity of nine tonnes.

The PSLV's four stages are fuelled with solid and liquid propellants. The first and third stages are fuelled by solid fuel, while the second and fourth stages are powered by liquid fuel.

ISRO had used the PSLV-XL variant for its Chandrayaan-1 moon mission in 2008 and for launching the GSAT-12 communications satellite in 2011.

GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) Launched

GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN)

GAGAN is the name of Indian version of US's WAAS ( Wide-Area Augmentation system ). Once GAGAN is available, users who have WASS-compatible receivers will be able to get GPS position with accuracy of roughly 1 meter or better. GAGAN is not a replacement for the GPS system but an extension that will make US's GPS more accurate over India and thus can be used for many high-precision applications.

A S Ganeshan Project Director, Navigation Systems, ISRO Satellite Centre

What is the origin of the name ‘GAGAN’?

As you are aware GPS meets most of the navigation requirements of users. However, to improve the performance and integrity of the GPS system and to meet civil aviation requirements, the basic GPS system is to be augmented by GEO satellite with corrections and confi dences. Hence, the name GAGAN which is an acronym for GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation System was chosen. Gagan is a Hindi word of Sanskrit origin for the sky and aptly suits the project.

We are expected to have a certified GAGAN by 2013. How close are we to this?

With the completion of installation, integration and testing of all ground elements, the major requirements of facility certifi cation has been completed. The integration of GEO satellites with the ground elements and other aspects related to certifi cations have been taken up. The system is expected to be certified by the 3rd quarter of 2013. The GAGAN will be certifi ed by DGCA to provide NPA (Non Precision Approach) services of RNP-0.1over Indian FIR (Flight Information Region) and PA (Precision Approach) service of APV- 1.0/APV-1.5 over Indian landmass.

What are the user segments going to be benefitted by GAGAN?

Even though GAGAN is being developed primarily for civil aviation applications over Indian region, it is expected to provide enhanced service level to the user segments like, Agriculture, Emergency response, Business solutions, Geographical data collection, Natural resources, Land management, Scientifi c research, Geodynamics ,Urban Mapping, Unmanned vehicles, Vehicle tracking, Air navigation, Car navigation, Maritime applications, Search And Rescue Operations, GIS, Timing applications, Canal Transit Management, etc In short, it is expected to replace the GPS receivers and provide data integrity. Also, GAGAN will aid the DGPS users with minimum change, risk and cost.

What is the reach of GAGAN going to be and how other countries will be able to utilize its services?

The GAGAN system intends to deploy and certify an operational Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) for the Indian Flight Information Region (FIR), with expansion capability to neighboring FIRs. When commissioned for service, GAGAN will provide a civil aeronautical navigation signal consistent with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARP) as established by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Panel. The neighboring countries can utilize GAGAN system by having reference stations within their country. As the GAGAN GEO foot print extends from Middle East Asia to Australia, the augmentation can be provided over this region using GAGAN system. GAGAN will bridge the gap between Europe (served by EGNOS) and Japan (served by MSAS).

What is the role of private sector in the development of GAGAN?

Navigation projects have created awareness among the Public Sector Undertaking and Indian industries and they have been contributing to GAGAN projects. To name a few, ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Limited) was responsible for designing and development of 11 meter antennae installed at INLUS (Indian Land Uplink Station). Accord Software is developing GAGAN and IRNSS receivers. Software development of INLUS RFU (Radio Frequency Unit) systems will require the participation of software companies capable of developing DO-178B compliant software. Many other industries are involved in various subsystems of Navigation projects. Even though the Indian private sector participation is limited in the development of GAGAN, there is tremendous scope for the industry to develop user segment equipments for the GAGAN system. The industries need to come up innovative solution to meet diverse user positioning and timing requirements. Also, hand in hand there is a need to develop applications suiting Indian conditions and requirements using GAGAN signals especially in the areas of survey, intelligent transportation systems, location based systems, disaster management, maritime etc.

What are your plans to create awareness among prospective users of GAGAN?

GNSS user meet is planned to be jointly organized by ISRO and AAI on February 23rd 2012 at ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. This will be a platform where all the parties involved in Navigation will interact and prospective users will greatly benefit. The plan is to conduct such meets at regular intervals to ensure that the benefit of GAGAN utilization is maximized.

How interoperable is GAGAN going to be with other SBAS systems?

The functional performance of GAGAN will meet the accuracy, integrity, continuity and availability requirements specified for aviation by ICAO. The system will be inter-operable with other international SBAS systems like US-WAAS, European EGNOS, and Japanese MSAS etc and provide seamless air navigation across regional boundaries utilizing same signal frequency.

Interference and jamming with satellite signals are becoming major threats. How serious such threats are in the context of GAGAN?

The threat to GAGAN signals is similar in nature to any other GNSS system

India Building World's Biggest Solar Telescope

 India is inching closer towards building the world’s largest solar telescope in Ladakh on the foothills of the Himalayas that aims to study the sun’s microscopic structure.

The National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) project has gathered momentum with a global tender floated for technical and financial bidding by the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA).

The tender that was floated last week calls for expression of interest (EoI) to design, manufacture andinstall the two-metre class solar telescope at a cost of Rs 150 crore (around $31 million).

“The solar telescope will help study the microscopic structure of the sun and derive specific observations that are speculative in nature,” IIA director, Mr Siraj Hasan, told IANS here.

Solar telescopes are special-purpose scientific instruments used to study the sun. They are among the biggest fixed telescopes and are equipped with an optical flat mirror system to track the sun rays and direct them on to the telescope.

The sun is the star at the centre of the solar system. Three quarters of the sun’s mass consists of hydrogen and the rest is helium. Less than two percent consists of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon and iron.

The unique project involves other scientific organisations such as the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational-Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Inter-University Centre. The IIA will be the nodal agency.

“The pre-technical discussion meeting will be held in October,” Mr Hasan said.

Though the 10-metre optical telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the largest, the Indian instrument will be the largest among solar telescopes.

Currently, the world’s largest solar telescope is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, with a diameter of 1.6 metres in Kitt Peak National Observatory at Arizona in the US.

“The larger the diameter and larger the surface available to absorb sunlight, the more rays can be collected per second, enabling researchers to collect data with greater clarity and obtain accurate results,” Hasan noted.

The solar telescope can study particles, which are spread across 50 km on the sun.

“A suitable site has been identified at Merak village near Pangong Lake,” Hasan pointed out. The village is situated in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Initially, three sites – at Hanle and Leh in the Ladakh region and Devasthal near Nainital, Uttarakhand – were explored to set up the telescope.

The proposed telescope, which will be used to observe the sun during the day, will need a location with long hours of clear sunshine and clean visible conditions.