Cartosat-2 launch tomorrow: Countdown for Isro's 'eye in the sky' begins

[B@tt!eDoom]

The 28-hour countdown operation of the PSLV-C38/Cartosat-2 series satellite mission started on Thursday at 05:29 hours IST.

This comes after the Mission Readiness Review Committee and Launch Authorisation Board cleared the countdown on Wednesday.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is gearing up to launch its Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation along with 30 co-passenger satellites.

Isro's workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), will carry these satellites into orbit. The rocket is scheduled to take off from the Sriharikota space port near Chennai at 9.29 am on Friday.

The rocket will carry the 712 Kg Cartosat-2 series satellite and 30 co-passenger satellites, together weighing about 243 Kg at lift-off, into a 505 Km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit.

The PSLV-C38 will be launched from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. This will be the seventeenth flight of the PSLV in its 'XL' configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).

The primary Cartosat-2 series satellite is a remote sensing satellite. The imagery sent by the satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and man-made features, and various other land information systems, as well as for geographical information system (GIS) applications.

The co-passenger satellites comprise 30 nano satellites from India and 14 other countries — Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The total weight of all the satellites carried onboard PSLV-C38 is about 955 Kg.

The 30 international customer nano satellites are being launched as part of commercial arrangements with Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), Isro's commercial arm.

What does the Cartosat satellite do?

When Indian Army soldiers crossed the Line of Control last year to conduct surgical strikes against terrorists, they had help from an "eye in the sky". Now, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is strengthening this capability by launching an earth observation satellite belonging to the Cartosat-2 series tomorrow.

The mission's primary objective is to provide high-resolution, scene-specific spot imagery. This is similar in configuration to earlier satellites in the series.

The satellite, the seventh in the Cartosat series, is capable of along-track and across-track steering, up to 26 degree nominally. This will allow it to provide images in continuous imaging mode.

Weighing 700 Kg, the satellite will be hurled into a sun-synchronous orbit at a nominal altitude of 500 km. The project has been allocated Rs 160 crore and the satellite is expected to help in the preparation of high-resolution maps using pictures from the panchromatic camera loaded on it. It will also have a high-resolution, multi-spectral instrument, which will help in high-resolution land observation and cartography, working in tandem with the Panchromatic camera.

Apart from taking pictures, it can also record videos from the sky. The pictures and videos would be helpful in a wide range of activities, including military and civil planning.

The images from the satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban & rural applications, coastal land use & regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and man-made features, and various other land information system and geographical information system applications.

The future earth observation programme envisages the continuity of the thematic series of satellites — the Resourcesat, Cartosat, Oceansat, RISAT, and INSAT series for land, water, ocean, and meteorological satellites. It also envisages placing a geo-imaging satellite in geostationary orbit to enable near real-time imaging.

The overall aim is to maintain the continuity of services and carry out enhancements in technological capabilities with respect to sensors and payloads to meet operational applications. In this regard, Isro plans to design, develop and launch Cartosat-3 and Oceansat-3. In the future, Isro will also launch more satellites from the INSAT series for meteorological applications.

Cartosat-1, the first in the series of earth observation satellites, was launched on May 5, 2005, using the PSLV-C6 launch vehicle, followed by Cartosat-2 on January 10, 2007. The launch of more satellites will help the country to become self-reliant and reduce the cost of getting such images from external sources.

http://www.business-standard.com/ar...o-s-eye-in-the-sky-begins-117062200280_1.html

 

[Chanakyaa]

India on Friday will launch its earth observation satellite Cartosat-2 series weighing 712 kg and 30 co-passenger satellites (29 foreign, one Indian) with its rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the Indian space agency said on Tuesday.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the PSLV rocket’s XL variant is expected to lift off on Friday morning at 9.29 a.m. from the Sriharikota rocket port.

The 30 satellites will together weigh 243 kg and the total weight of all the 31 satellites, including Cartosat, is about 955 kg, ISRO said.

The rocket will sling the satellites into a 505 km polar sun sunchronous orbit (SSO).

The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 nano satellites from 14 countries – Austria, Belgium, Britain, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the US as well as one Indian nano satellite.

The 29 international customer nano satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between ISRO’s commericial arm, the Antrix Corporation Ltd and the international customers.

https://www.asiadefence.com/india-to-launch-31-satellites-from-sriharikota-on-friday/

 

[Sloth 22]

CHENNAI: ISRO's PSLV-C38 mission will be special for Tamil Nadu as it carries a satellite indigenously developed by students of a university in Kanyakumari district.

NIUSAT satellite, developed by Noorul Islam University in Kanyakumari district, will ride piggyback with 29 other satellites of various countries in the 40th mission of PSLV, scheduled to lift off at 9.29 AM from Sriharikota tomorrow.

The satellite is built to provide multi-spectral imagery for agricultural crop monitoring and disaster management support applications, the ISRO said in a release.

Following the launch, a dedicated mission control centre with UHF/VHF antenna for Telemetry/Telecommand operations and S-Band antenna for Payload data reception has been set up at the university.

Noorul Islam University's Director (Academic Affairs) A Shajin Nargunam told PTI that the concept was developed following the December 2004 tsunami which struck Tamil Nadu, wrecking havoc mostly in the coastal areas.


"We were thinking of how can we monitor the coastal region after the tsunami struck in 2004. You know it caused a lot of devastation. After several rounds of discussions, we concluded that we must continuously monitor the coastal mechanism," the official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

The project formally kicked off in February 2012, he said adding it took the University five years to complete it.

"The total cost, I believe, is around Rs 20 crore. We have all the necessary infrastructure and the investment includes the master control facility which we have set up in the University itself. After the satellite reaches the intended orbit, we will take control from the facility," he said.

To a query, he said as many as 102 students and faculty were involved in developing the satellite.

http://m.economictimes.com/news/sci...-tamil-nadu-students/articleshow/59278821.cms