Indian Space Capabilities

[Gessler]

India prepares to establish navigation satellite system

About nine years back, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s scientists and engineers began to look at the possibility of establishing a navigation satellite system for the country, rather like America’s Global Positioning System (GPS).

Like the GPS, the Indian satellites would continually transmit data that allowed suitably equipped receivers to establish their location with considerable precision. The GPS requires a constellation of 24 orbiting satellites, supported by a global network of ground stations, to cover every part of the world. That kind of global system is expensive.

ISRO had a more limited goal — creating a system wholly in India's control for providing navigation signals over this country and surrounding areas. The cost of such a system was a major consideration.

“We looked at many thousands of configurations,” said one person who was involved in those early studies. The configuration that was finally chosen for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) required just seven satellites.

All seven IRNSS satellites will be at a height of about 36,000 km, taking a whole day to circle the Earth. Three of the satellites will be placed over the equator, in what is known as the geostationary orbit, where they match the Earth's rotation and therefore appear from the ground to remain at a fixed position in the sky. The remaining four satellites will be in pairs in two inclined geosynchronous orbits. From the ground, these satellites will appear to travel in figures of ‘8’ during the course of a day.

The project to establish the IRNSS at a cost of Rs. 1,420 crores was approved by the Union Government in June 2006. The primary service area for the system covers India and up to 1,500 km beyond its borders.

If necessary, the coverage area around India could be enhanced by adding four satellites, the ISRO Chairman, K. Radhakrishnan, told The Hindu.

The first of the IRNSS satellites is scheduled go into space aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on July 1.

Navigation satellites periodically transmit their precise position in orbit along with the exact time when each transmission takes place. Since these microwave signals travel at the speed of light, the delay between a signal’s transmission and its reception allows a receiving device to compute its distance from the satellite involved. With data from four satellites, the receiver can then work out its own position.

Navigation satellites therefore need to carry extremely accurate clocks. Each IRNSS satellite is equipped with three rubidium atomic clocks, which keep precise time down to a few tenths of a trillionth of a second in an hour. Although currently these sophisticated clocks are imported, research efforts to make them indigenously are in progress.

But for the atomic clocks to function properly, they have to be kept at within one degree Celsius of their optimum operating temperature. They must also be protected from excessive vibration and electromagnetic interference. The IRNSS satellites had therefore to be designed to ensure such an environment.

Using the time provided by the clocks and taking into account the satellite’s own position in orbit, an onboard navigation payload generates the signal that will be broadcast.

IRNSS satellites transmit signals in two microwave frequency bands known as L5 and S. The system will provide two types of services, the ‘Standard Positioning Service’ that will be accessible to anyone and an encrypted ‘Restricted Service’ that will be available only to the military and other government-authorised users.

The system “is expected to provide a position accuracy better than 20 metres in the primary service area,” according to an ISRO brochure. However, the space agency’s technical personnel believe its actual performance is likely to be better than that and match single-frequency U.S. GPS receivers’ position accuracy of about 15 metres.

Those who wish to use the IRNSS will need receivers equipped to pick up and utilise the data transmitted by the Indian satellite system. A standard GPS receiver will not do.

ISRO's Space Applications Centre at Ahmedabad, along with industry, were in the process of developing suitable receivers, said the space agency’s chairman.

India prepares to establish navigation satellite system - The Hindu

The launch is closing in...

 

[RPK]

PSLV C22 / IRNSS 1A Mission Status »

# Launch rehearsal is in progress
# Global checks completed successfully

 

[RPK]

IRNSS 1A was getting ready for Themal Vacuum Test

 

[Guynextdoor2]

THANK YOU CONGRESS FOR YOUR VISIONARY LEADERSHIP IN GIVING INDIA ISRO AND SUCH EXCEPTIONAL SPACE CAPABILITIES!!!!!

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

THANK YOU CONGRESS FOR YOUR VISIONARY LEADERSHIP IN GIVING INDIA ISRO AND SUCH EXCEPTIONAL SPACE CAPABILITIES!!!!!

A major correction. It was not congress but Dr Vikram Sara bhai who was the force behind creation of ISRO

 

[Guynextdoor2]

A major correction. It was not congress but Dr Vikram Sara bhai who was the force behind creation of ISRO

COngress nurtured it for decades after his founding, gave it support and funding, did not relent even when there were failures, stood up to international sanctions when needed. ISRO is not a private body, it's chairman is a Govt. Secretary just like any other govt. body.

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

COngress nurtured it for decades after his founding

Congress has nothing to do with ISRO, BARC or for that matter any successful Indian Institution. Congress only promotes nepotism, cronyism and corruption, it is devoid of vision, hard work and merit, which is in contrast to what ISRO stands for. Dont try to steal the credit of Dr Vikram sara bhai and successive ISRO directors. These ppl worked hard and nurtured a vision for india to become a leader in application of space science and technology for the benefit of Indians. Current ISRO scientists are living that vision not your stupid congress that cannot think beyond votes, caste and religion.

gave it support and funding, did not relent even when there were failures, stood up to international sanctions when needed.

Are fu**king joking here??? It was ppl in ISRO like Dr APJ Kalam Sir, who worked strenuously in the midst of all kind of sanctions, technology denial and meager funding from GOI. They faced many failures, but in the end built a strong base on Which todays ISRO is standing.

On the other hand your dear congress leaders were busy with imposing emergency, commiting sikh genocide and hatching arms scandals etc, that they still continue to promote and propagate.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Congress has nothing to do with ISRO, BARC or for that matter any successful Indian Institution. Congress only promotes nepotism, cronyism and corruption, it is devoid of vision, hard work and merit, which is in contrast to what ISRO stands for. Dont try to steal the credit of Dr Vikram sara bhai and successive ISRO directors. These ppl worked hard and nurtured a vision for india to become a leader in application of space science and technology for the benefit of Indians. Current ISRO scientists are living that vision not your stupid congress that cannot think beyond votes, caste and religion.



Are fu**king joking here??? It was ppl in ISRO like Dr APJ Kalam Sir, who worked strenuously in the midst of all kind of sanctions, technology denial and meager funding from GOI. They faced many failures, but in the end built a strong base on Which todays ISRO is standing.

On the other hand your dear congress leaders were busy with imposing emergency, commiting sikh genocide and hatching arms scandals etc, that they still continue to promote and propagate.

WTF do you mean 'people like abdul kalam sir'? He was a government employee. His job was to implement govt policy. Where do you think all these labs and the billions of $$ in funding that ISRO gets every year?

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

WTF do you mean 'people like abdul kalam sir'? He was a government employee. His job was to implement govt policy. Where do you think all these labs and the billions of $$ in funding that ISRO gets every year?

Congress is not doing a favor to anyone by funding ISRO or for that matter any other government institution. When they get mandate from people of India, its their duty, responsibility, RAJ DHARM to serve the people and promote policies that are favorable to the republic of India.

Also Dont behave as if funding comes from your dear party. it comes from Taxpayer i.e., citizen of India. ISRO has a vision, it takes initiative of coming up with a policy, works hard to get it approved and implements it.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Congress is not doing a favor to anyone by funding ISRO or for that matter any other government institution. When they get mandate from people of India, its their duty, responsibility, RAJ DHARM to serve the people and promote policies that are favorable to the republic of India.

Also Dont behave as if funding comes from your dear party. it comes from Taxpayer i.e., citizen of India. ISRO has a vision, it takes initiative of coming up with a policy, works hard to get it approved and implements it.

Yeah, bring Mamta Banerjee into department of space and you'll see how easily Raj Dharam can go down the gutters. Fact is congress has visionary apprroach, nurtured ISRO, kept it away from political interference even if failures occur. ISRO is ENTIRELY the achievement of congress. It's vision is the vision that GOI has given it.The tax Payer has not told the congress to put a space program in place, no govt. ever came to power simply by winning in space. COngress has ignored that and continued nurturing ISRO because of the great potential. They can very well put the same amount in a 100 other projects but they haven't.

 

[sankranti]

Yeah, bring Mamta Banerjee into department of space and you'll see how easily Raj Dharam can go down the gutters. Fact is congress has visionary apprroach, nurtured ISRO, kept it away from political interference even if failures occur. ISRO is ENTIRELY the achievement of congress. It's vision is the vision that GOI has given it.The tax Payer has not told the congress to put a space program in place, no govt. ever came to power simply by winning in space. COngress has ignored that and continued nurturing ISRO because of the great potential. They can very well put the same amount in a 100 other projects but they haven't.

Congress tatta is claiming success for ISRO ..........Congress is also responsible for building the Railways in India. After all if the congress had not given money the Raiways could not have been built.

The congress is also reponsible for introducing Maruti car into india....after all if Sanjay gandhi had not taken money and got maruti here we would all be still driving fiat and ambassador cars.

Let us also not forget to thank congress for the film industry as they had not put sanction on it and let it flourish.

We all should also thank the congress for having Sunday as a holiday. After all they could have made it a 7 day working week.

Did I miss anything else guynextdoor ?

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Congress tatta is claiming success for ISRO ..........Congress is also responsible for building the Railways in India. After all if the congress had not given money the Raiways could not have been built.

The congress is also reponsible for introducing Maruti car into india....after all if Sanjay gandhi had not taken money and got maruti here we would all be still driving fiat and ambassador cars.

Let us also not forget to thank congress for the film industry as they had not put sanction on it and let it flourish.

We all should also thank the congress for having Sunday as a holiday. After all they could have made it a 7 day working week.

Did I miss anything else guynextdoor ?

Maggot....

 

[sankranti]

Maggot....

Awww ...... . don't hurt my feelings

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

Yeah, bring Mamta Banerjee into department of space and you'll see how easily Raj Dharam can go down the gutters. Fact is congress has visionary apprroach, nurtured ISRO, kept it away from political interference even if failures occur. ISRO is ENTIRELY the achievement of congress. It's vision is the vision that GOI has given it.The tax Payer has not told the congress to put a space program in place, no govt. ever came to power simply by winning in space. COngress has ignored that and continued nurturing ISRO because of the great potential. They can very well put the same amount in a 100 other projects but they haven't.

.......congress only vision is how to remain in power.

It doesn't matter which politician is in the department of space because his/her advisers are the secretary and the Chairman of Space Commission, both come from ISRO. These two persons head the committees that formalize the policies. So my dear frnd, stop your nonsense rants about your mai/baap congress.

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

Joint Statement on Fourth U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue

The Secretary and the Minister welcomed the expanded work plan endorsed by the U.S.-India Civil Space Joint Working Group in a number of areas,

1) including measures that will improve the use of earth observation data to promote sustainable development

2) and the compatibility-interoperability between the U.S. Global Positioning System and the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System.

3) They applauded agreement by the Indian Space Research Organization and the U.S. National Aeronautic and Space Agency to explore further cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the moon and Mars.

4) They welcomed the announcement of NASA support through its Deep Space Network facilities to ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission, and

5) the ISRO-NASA technical discussions to integrate a U.S. L-band and Indian S-band synthetic aperture radar on an Indian spacecraft for earth observation studies.

6) Both sides intend to cooperate bilaterally and in multilateral forums to promote efforts to ensure the long term sustainability of outer space. To this end, both sides plan to undertake discussions on areas of mutual interest such as space situational awareness, and collision avoidance as part of a Space Security Dialogue.

Source: Joint Statement on Fourth U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue | IIP Digital