Indian Space Capabilities

[Firemaster]

 

[sudhir007]

Press Information Bureau English Releases

Foreign Satellites on Rent
A ‘Request for Proposal’ (RFP) has been initiated to obtain the responses from interested foreign satellite operators for leasing setallites with transponders working in Ku and C-band frequencies.

At present Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has 187 transponders from 9 Indian communication satellites including transponders of G-SAT-12. It has taken 86.5 transponders on lease basis, from foreign operators through Antrix Corporation Limited.

It has been planned to increase the transponder capacity by building and launching communication satellite GSAT-9, GSAT-10 and GSAT-11.

The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office Sh V Narayanasamy gave this information in a written reply to a question by Sh A Elavarasan in Rajya Sabha today.

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Foreign Satellites Launched from India
Indian Space Research Organisation has successfully launched 22 foreign satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Shriharikota using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).These satellites belonged to Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and Turkey. About Rs 125 crore has been paid for these services.

The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office Sh V Narayanasamy gave this information in a written reply to a question by Sh P Rajeeve in Rajya Sabha today.



---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:10 PM ----------



Designing of New Genre of Rockets
Indian Space scientists are designing a new genre of rockets and their variants to host heavy satellites into space. The rocket is named Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle-Mark-III with capability to launch 4 tonnes class communication satellites into geo-stationary transfer orbit. In the area of Air-Breathing technology, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully conducted the flight-testing of its advanced high performance sounding rocket, fitted with passive scramjet engine combustor module.It is planned to carry out the flight testing of the active scramjet engine combustor module, fitted to the sounding rocket during 2012-13.

The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office Sh V Narayanasamy gave this information in a written reply to a question by ShJai Prakash Narayan Singh in Rajya Sabha today.

 

[Vibs]

Isro initiates RFP for foreign satellite leasing
Indiantelevision.com's > Digital Edge> Isro initiates RFP for foreign satellite leasing
NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has initiated a Request for Proposal (RFP) to obtain responses from interested foreign satellite operators for leasing satellites with transponders working in Ku and C-band frequencies.
Isro’s move comes in the wake of acute Ku-band transponder shortage that the Indian DTH industry faces as they seek to add channels and offer high-definition (HD) services on their platform.

Market leader Dish TV said early this year that it will be utilising four 54 MHz Ku-band transponders on AsiaSat 5 to enhance its HD and SD offerings. The additional transponder capacity on AsiaSat 5 will enable Dish TV to significantly increase its DTH offerings to more than 30 HD and 320 SD channels.


Tata Sky, a joint venture between Tata Group and Rupert Murdoch’s Star Group, wants 12 additional transponders for expansion but Isro is unable to meet their needs.

“All the DTH operators want more transponder space. Isro has to speed up the satellite launches. There also should be an urgency to allow space on foreign satellites. Then only can the DTH industry expand their channel offerings,” a top executive of a leading DTH company said on condition of anonymity.



Isro plans to increase the transponder capacity by building and launching communication satellites GSAT-9, GSAT-10 and GSAT-11.

Isro at present has 187 transponders from nine Indian communication satellites including transponders of GSAT-12. It has taken 86.5 transponders on lease basis from foreign operators through its marketing wing Antrix Corporation Limited.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office V Narayanasamy said a RFP has been initiated to obtain the responses from interested foreign satellite operators for leasing of space.

---------- Post added at 10:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:18 AM ----------

ISRO to launch 3 nano spacecraft along with Megha-Tropiques
Bangalore, Aug 24 (PTI) ISRO plans to launch three nano satellites, including one from Luxembourg, and an advanced weather and climate research satellite, on board PSLV from Sriharikota spaceport next month.The other two nano "piggy-back" satellites, which would be co-passengers of Megha-Tropiques, are one from SRM University and the other named "Jugnu" is a research spacecraft from IIT Kanpur, ISRO sources told PTI.The SRM satellite, aimed at monitoring green house gases, is a student-driven research project funded by the university.Megha-Tropiques is a joint atmospheric mission of ISRO and French National Space Centre (CNES).Sources said top CNES officials are slated to witness the launch by PSLV, ISRO's work-horse launch vehicle.Megha-Tropiques (Megha meaning cloud in Sanskrit and Tropiques denoting tropics in French) will investigate the contribution of water cycle in the tropical atmosphere to climate dynamics.
ISRO to launch 3 nano spacecraft along with Megha-Tropiques, IBN Live News

 

[sathya]

India Designing New Class Of Rockets

Indian space scientists are designing a new class of rockets to launch heavy satellites.

The Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle Mark-III will have the capability to launch 4-ton communication satellites into geostationary transfer orbit, according to V. Narayanasamy, deputy minister in the prime minister’s office.

In the area of air-breathing technology, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully flight tested an advanced, high-performance sounding rocket fitted with a passive scramjet engine combustor module, Narayanasamy told the Indian parliament Aug. 25. Flight testing of an active scramjet combustor module with the sounding rocket is planned for 2012-2013, he says.

The government also is seeking proposals from interested foreign satellite operators for leasing satellites with transponders working in Ku- and C-band frequencies. ISRO currently has 187 transponders from nine Indian communication satellites. It has leased 86.5 transponders from foreign operators through Antrix Corporation Ltd.

ISRO has successfully launched 22 foreign satellites from its Satish Dhawan Space Center, Shriharikota, using its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. These satellites belonged to Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and Turkey.

“About 1.25 billion rupees [$26 million] have been paid for these services,” Narayanasamy adds.

 

[angeldemon_007]

International Asteroid Defense Plans Form

A further step has been taken toward forming an international body that could plan for and respond to the threat of an asteroid impacting Earth.

The late August meeting in Pasadena, Calif., involved NASA, the European Space Agency and national space agencies from Germany and France. These are members of the United Nation’s Action Team-14, co-organizer of the workshop along with the Secure World Foundation (SWF) and the Association of Space Explorers.

Drawing on meetings last year in Germany and Mexico to discuss the threat of near-Earth objects (NEOs), the Pasadena workshop focused on plans to mitigate the effects of an asteroid strike, as well as developing an international model for the response to these threats.

“How should we respond to the threat of NEOs?” asks SWF Executive Director Ray Williamson. “How shall the space agencies organize themselves to deal with the response side of it? How do we generate the information and do the analysis that will lead to a warning at the appropriate time? What are the steps? There are very serious policy and legal issues about how to deal with these things internationally, and we’re not there yet. So these are first steps to thinking through a lot of those issues.”

Another key task will involve setting up a NEO Mission Planning and Operations Group (MPOG) that will plan, organize and conduct missions to threatening asteroids. The MPOG will be modeled along the lines of the inter-space agency group established to monitor space debris, Williamson says.

Action Team-14, part of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, will present recommendations to the U.N. working group at a NEO-mitigation working group meeting in Vienna next February. The group’s report will then be passed on for review by a full committee meeting in June 2012, prior to completion of a set of recommendations on which the U.N. can act in February 2013.

In the meantime, Williamson says the group also will help get the MPOG started so that when the report to the U.N. is delivered there will be a structure in place to help execute the proposals.

The plan also includes widening the group to involve space agencies from China, Russia, India and others to contribute ideas and hardware. Chinese space officials were invited to the Pasadena meeting but were unable to attend because of visa issues.

The bottom line, Williamson says, is: “If a threat is detected, who actually says ‘Go forth and deal with it?’ It’s an international issue. Maybe we detect an asteroid that’s coming toward the U.S. but if we move it, we want to make sure we’re reducing the risk of dropping it on Europe, for example.” To help the group plan responses to various contingencies, it is running different NEO scenario simulations, as well as examining a range of potential missions to asteroids that would make safe candidates for experiments in techniques for altering orbital paths.

The group also was briefed on the latest results from NASA’s ongoing NEO survey, and in particular the alarming number of very small objects measuring less than 140 meters (460 ft.) that are being detected. “We’ve known they’re probably out there, but now suddenly — oh, gee. It’s like going down the highway blind, and suddenly the blinders come off and you see there’s another highway beside you with traffic coming in the other direction,” Williamson says.

Even this raises an issue. “How do you deal with the information should we discover one is heading to Earth? How do you handle that?”

International Asteroid Defense Plans Form | AVIATION WEEK

 

[Kinetic]

Nice video. Thanks for sharing.

 

[SpArK]

news.outlookindia.com | ISRO to Launch Satellite Megha-Tropiques in Sept

The Indian Space Research Organisation today said it planned to launch Megha-Tropiques, an advanced weather and climate satellite, onboard Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) later this month.

The satellite would be launched this month-end onboard ISRO's workhorse PSLV from spaceport Sriharikota, ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of a function.

"The preparations are going on," he said adding the satellite would carry four scientific instruments, developed jointly by ISRO and French national space agency centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) to provide information on rain above the oceans and water vapour content in the atmosphere.

Megha-Tropiques is similar to Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite.

According to ISRO, the agency and CNES were pursuing co-operative programmes since 1993 under which joint satellite missions like Megha-Tropiques were taken up to study the atmosphere and the oceans.

Besides Megha-Tropique, Radhakrishnan said, the PSLV would also carry three nano satellites for monitoring green house gases. While one nano satellite was from Luxembourg, SRM University and IIT Kanpur have developed one each.

To a query, the ISRO chief said the Geo-synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with indigenously-developed cryogenic engine would be launched during "the second quarter of next year."

In December 2010, homegrown launch vehicle GSLV-F06 fitted with Russian cryogenic engine carrying communication satellite GSAT-5P on-board failed in its mission when the rocket was hit by a snag within seconds after lift-off from Sriharikota.

 

[bigest]

INdia send man to space ,it's a good problem

 

[WHITESMOKE]

INdia send man to space ,it's a good problem

Could you please explain the bold part?

 

[angeldemon_007]

ISRO to launch 2 satellites this month - www.daily.bhaskar.com

 

[Furqan741]

Hmmmm. Good.

 

[angeldemon_007]

US scientist spy may have worked for ISRO - Hindustan Times

 

[kingkobra]

Over 100 students from space varsity join ISRO

BANGALORE, SEPT. 9:
It was a small step and a sigh for the space organisation when the first batch of 117 young graduates came out of its captive nursery and joined its various centres last month. At one stroke, they filled nearly half of ISRO's annual recruitment needs. And they kept the space technology talent pool alive and thriving, according to some senior scientists at the Bangalore headquarters.

The Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology was started in September 2007 as the brain child of the then Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair. That was the time ISRO's eight centres were losing over 100 people or a third of what it hires each year, during 2004-06, and it was mostly to the high-paying Infotech sector.

The tide may not have turned fully but there is a difference. As IIST's Director, Dr K.S. Dasgupta, said, “At ISRO, our students start out with a package of Rs 40,000 (a month). They get paid better than the best in the industry, or Infosys for that matter. There are many hidden benefits such as staff quarters, loans, medical reimbursement, besides overseas trips.” It is also the largesse from the Sixth Pay Commission that came into effect in 2008 to fight the private sector which was taking away staff of premier public research organisations.

According to Dr Dasgupta, youngsters now do not think twice about joining the space agency. This year, the Thiruvananthapuram-based institute received 93,000 applications for 150 seats compared to around 80,000 last year.

The four-year State-funded course is entirely free, along with free books, hostel and canteen facilities in the 55-acre campus nestling ISRO's propulsion hub, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Valiamala. “More than meeting our own requirements, we mean to catch young minds and groom them for ISRO,” said Dr Dasgupta. “IIT Bombay and a very few other institutes offer aerospace courses but our grooming is definitely different. The IIST graduates have worked at our centres, with our scientists, on projects and are familiar with the system. They are productive from Day 1 while normally we put other new recruits through an induction programme.”

Other similar organisations like HAL, NAL and DRDO also have a large need for aerospace engineers. But IIST's graduates can land only in ISRO centres and work through a five-year bond. Those who want out have to shell out Rs 10 lakh — just a couple of lakhs more than what the institution would have spent on each of them.

IIST, whose Chancellor is Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, offers aerospace, avionics and physical sciences — each stream should keep the organisation's and the nation's R&D fires burning. Rocket dynamics, strong navigational and guidance focus that is normally not covered in other institutions, besides on-board radio frequency systems for satellite communication as well as some acquaintance with astronomy and astrophysics.

These and other newbies will be filling in the vacancies that arise from 200-250 retirements within the 16,000-plus space agency each year. “Of course we have to wait for the centres' assessments on how good our students are in their work and suitably improve the syllabus,” he said.

Four years ago, just before the institute was launched, a concerned Mr Nair had lamented that the private sector's wage structure was to blame for the flight of talent from agencies like ISRO. In an interaction with Business Line, he had advocated self-regulation including a ceiling on the maximum salary that the industry pays, in the larger interest. Will the IIST and the new big bucks in the public sector change the story?

Business Line : Industry & Economy / Economy : Over 100 students from space varsity join ISRO

 

[Paan Singh]

India to have one more satellite launch site

New Delhi: Amid requests from various countries for launch of their satellites, India has decided to set up one more launch site to expand its capacity in this aspect.
At a meeting held by the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary TKA Nair in New Delhi to review performance of the Department of Space, it was decided that a feasibility study would be conducted for a new site, sources said.
The decision to find a new site was taken after the meeting. ISRO has only two satellite launch pads, both of which are affected during the cyclone season, the sources said
The two launch pads are located at Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR).
During recent years, there have been requests from a number of countries for launching their satellites in India.
The meeting was also informed that despite successful launch of GSAT-8 and GSAT-12 satellites, there is shortage of transponders primarily due to DTH and communication requirements.
It was decided that steps should be taken to meet the gap within two years, the sources said.
At present, Department of Space is leasing transponders and using foreign launch vehicles to meet the needs.
The sources said thrust is being given by the PMO on these spheres as part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's desire to see boost in scientific innovation in the current decade.
Pursuant to Prime Minister's keenness, government has decided to push contribution of private sector in scientific research and development from the current 20 per cent to 50 per cent and undertake a number of other crucial steps.
The meeting felt that investments in research and development in the country is "highly skewed" as 80 per cent of contribution comes only from the public sector.
It was noted that in advanced and emerging economies, private sector plays a dominant role in R&D and encourages innovation, the sources said.
Accordingly, it was decided that secretaries concerned would jointly prepare a proposal on private sector investment in R&D by the end of next month, they said.

 

[trident2010]

Oceansat-2 ground station inaugurated in Hyderabad

A state-of-the-art Oceansat-2 ground station was inaugurated on Monday by Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) here.

The Department of Space and INCOIS established the ground station to receive and process data from Ocean Colour Monitor on-board the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Oceansat-2 in real time.

The Oceansat-2 ground station, fitted with a 7.5 m diameter antenna, could cover an area of 5,000 km diameter circle, covering the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west, a note issued by INCOIS on the occasion said.

The ground station consists of various sub-systems like antenna and feed system, radio frequency and tracking, base band, automation, modulation and de-modulation systems, direct archival and quick—look browsing and Oceansat data production generation system.

INCOIS said, the 7.5 meter diameter antenna system at the new ground station could also be used to receive data from satellites launched by ISRO in the future study of oceans.

The chlorophyll data received from OCM at the ground station would be integrated with Sea Surface Temperature from NOAA satellites for providing the Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisory services.

The PFZ advisories generated by INCOIS using Oceansat-2 data advise fishermen on the optimal locations for fishing.

INCOIS said an estimated 65,000 users regularly access the PFZ service, thereby benefiting by 60-70 per cent reduction in search time for fish shoals and 2-3 times increase in net profit.

“The recent study, carried out by National Council of Applied Economic Research, on the socio—economic benefits of PFZ advisory services and ocean state forecasts, has estimated the net annual benefits to be in the range of Rs 34,000 to Rs 50,000 crore due to scientific identification of PFZs based on satellite information,” INCOIS said.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan, Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences Shailesh Nayak, Incois director Satheesh Shenoi and other officials were present on the occasion.



The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Science : Oceansat-2 ground station inaugurated in Hyderabad