Indian Space Capabilities

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A brilliant spectacle in eastern horizon ​

CHENNAI: It was brilliant spectacle in the eastern horizon as the PSLV-C12 rose from the spaceport at Sriharikota at the appointed time of 6.45 a.m. on Monday. As the four-stage rocket sped up in a straight path with the early morning sun behind it, a fabulous-looking shadow of the rocket’s smoke trail painted itself in the sky.

It was a wonderful sight again, in the backdrop of a clear sky, to see the vehicle’s first stage discard itself and the rocket majestically continuing its journey into space.



PROUD MOMENT: VSSC Director K. Radhakrishnan; ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair; Director of ISRO Satellite Centre T.K.Alex; and Vice Chancellor of Anna University P. Mannar Jawahar display models of PSLV-C12, RISAT-2 and Anusat at Sriharikota on Monday.


At the end of about 18 minutes of flight, the fourth stage injected RISAT-2 at a velocity of 26,000 km an hour into orbit at an altitude of 550 km. About a minute later, the 38-kg Anusat was in orbit.

This was the 14th successful flight in a row for the PSLV.

ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair called it a “precise” mission with “no deviation whatsoever in the flight parameters.” He described the launch as “more thrilling than a cricket match” because during the countdown, “we put up boundaries and [delivered] googlies and finally achieved it.”

He was referring to a “drama” on Sunday afternoon when an umbilical cord detached itself from the rocket and fell on the connectors, disrupting the filling of the fuel in the rocket. Six hours of the 48-hour countdown were lost.

“In that condition, we could not have run the launch,” he said. However, the ISRO’s crisis managers rose to the occasion and “without even having a cup of tea, made everything all right, and the result is we have gone on the dot,” he said at a press conference after the launch of the satellites.

Mr. Nair said it would be “a season of fireworks” this year at Sriharikota with a series of “major missions” lined up by the ISRO. By June end, a PSLV will put in orbit ISRO’s Oceansat-2. Another PSLV will deploy in orbit Resourcesat-2. A Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, with an indigenous cryogenic stage, would also lift off from Sriharikota. The indigenous Radar Imaging Satellite RISAT-1 too may go up by this year-end.

Asked at what cost the RISAT-2 was bought from Israel, Mr. Nair said, “We had cooperation with the Israel Aerospace Industries” in building the RISAT-2. He, however, declined to reveal its commercial aspects.

The RISAT-2 had a micro-wave radar imaging configuration. Till now, the ISRO’s earth observation satellites operated in the visible and infra-red region. For the first time, the ISRO would have a satellite operating in the micro-wave band. It could precisely take images of objects on the ground. It would be an asset to the country, he asserted. Only Japan, the European Space Agency, Canada and Israel could build radar imaging satellites.

R.R. Navalgund, Director, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, said a radar imaging satellite in the micro-wave region operating in the X or C or L band facilitated better disaster management, as it had enhanced capability to discriminate ground features and had higher frequency of visits.

A lot of data could be stored in Anusat built by Anna University, its Vice-Chancellor Dr. P. Mannar Jawahar said.

It had the capability to relay messages from one station to another in digital format, said Mr. Nair.

While George Koshy was the Mission Director of the PSLV-12, C. Venugopal was the Vehicle Director. R.N. Tyagi was the Satellite Director for the RISAT-2 and K.S.V. Seshadri the Project Director of Anusat.

Manned missions

About the ISRO’s plans to send an Indian into space, K. Radhakrishnan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said the mission had four major elements: setting up facilities to train astronauts, building a new launch pad at Sriharikota and establishing facilities to enable the crew to get into the vehicle and a mission control centre to communicate with the astronauts all through the mission.

A GSLV would put the module carrying two Indian astronauts into space. They would stay in space for seven days. The module would orbit at an altitude of 400 km to 700 km.

Dr. Radhakrishnan said, “We need to develop crew modules. We need to have developmental flights. We need to test the vehicle without humans first. All these require the development of critical technologies.”

Another important issue related to re-entry technology. The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) in January 2007 was a major input for this technology. The ISRO aimed to put Indian astronauts in space in seven years from now. The project would cost Rs.12, 400 crores.

Chandrayaan-1 completed six months in orbit on Sunday, said S.K. Shivakumar, Director, ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore. The spacecraft was doing well. “We are doing manoeuvres with it every month,” he added.

N. Narayana Moorthy, Project Director, GSLV Mark III, said the ground testing of the new vehicle’s major propulsion systems would be done at Sriharikota in August. “All facilities are ready. The hardware is ready.”

The first cryogenic engine for the vehicle would be ready for testing by this year-end. The GSLV Mark III would lift off in 2011.

 

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Asked whether the RISAT-2’s synthetic aperture radar operating in the X-band meant that it would be used for defence applications, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said, “There is nothing like a spy satellite in our agenda. We have only earth observation, communication and scientific satellites.”

Src: The HINDU

 

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Src: The HINDU

Publicly they may say that they are using this satellite for only civil work but we all know that this sat. have dual use capability,so it will be meaning less to think that india will not be use this sat. for military purpose.

 

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India to Have it's own Liquid Telescope

Next year, the town in Uttarakhand will host a unique telescope, only among a handful of its kind in the world, that uses a big, spinning bowl of liquid—and not the usual glass mirrors—to focus light from celestial objects.
The telescope, with its 4m wide dish, will cost only one-hundredth of its equivalent-sized glass-mirrored counterpart, and is much easier to maintain, say scientists associated with the project, making it a potential candidate for futuristic space and lunar observatories.
he International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT), as it is called, is part of an agreement between the University of Belgium and the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), an autonomous organization funded by the Centre’s department of science and technology.
“We will not be really involved in the construction and such,” said Ram Sagar, director of ARIES, “We will be handling the operations and maintenance part of it.”
Sagar said the telescope would not cost more than Rs1.5 crore. “The glass mirror equivalent would be anywhere near Rs150 crore,” he added.
Like in a camera, the primary dish in a telescope collects light from a source and focuses it to a point. From here, a complex arrangement of lenses magnifies the image for the human eye.
The bigger the primary mirror, greater the chances of catching light, and therefore, “seeing” a distant, elusive celestial body. However, such mirrors are extremely expensive to make. Polishing their surfaces and chiselling them to a parabola (the most effective geometric shape for focusing light) are what adds to the cost.
In ILMT, mercury is filled in a parabolic dish, which is rotated at a constant speed.
That a liquid spun in a container naturally acquires a parabolic shape has been known to physicists since centuries.
But Isaac Newton, who is credited with the design of the modern reflector telescope, and knew this property of liquids, didn’t have electric motors and charge-coupled devices (CCD), for making such a telescope.
An electric motor turns the dish in ILMT and a CCD—like in digital cameras—allows you to take pictures without a photographic film.
Sagar said that mercury is the most popularly used liquid for such mirrors. “It’s a highly reflective liquid, can peer as far into the sky as its mirror-equivalent and the images are as clear,” he added.
However, because the mercury can spill, the telescope can only look straight up and cannot be rotated like the mirror telescopes.
“So, you may have to have a series of these telescopes to increase the collection area. You can have 20-30 such telescopes instead of the rotating ones,” said Sagar.
Ravi Subramanhyan, director at the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore founded by late Nobel laureate C.V. Raman, said that such a telescope would be a boost to Indian astronomy. “This, and another 3.6m dish telescope being built in the same spot, would be among the largest optical telescopes in India. That would draw more collaborative efforts among scientists in India, as well as abroad,” he said.
India and Belgium are collaborating on a 3.6m dish telescope, which promises to be the biggest optical telescope in India. “Since we were anyway building this telescope, the Belgian scientists requested that we host the liquid mirror one, too,” said Sagar, “so that’s how this telescope is being built here.”

India to have its own liquid telescope - Technology - livemint.com

Another Giant step in Indian Space Research. Kudos to our scientists

 

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Radar reconnaissance capability of RISAT-2 comparable to USAF's latest U-2 spy plane: Lockheed Martin​

On Monday, the trusty Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle carried into orbit what is widely perceived as an Israeli-built radar satellite intended for India’s defence and security services. Earth-viewing satellites built and launched hitherto by India have depended on picking up light coming from the ground below. These satellites cannot work at night or when clouds block visibility. Putting a radar on a satellite overcomes these problems and enables it to capture images irrespective of weather and lighting conditions. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has for some years been developing its own radar satellite, RISAT-1 (an acronym for Radar Imaging Satellite), which may be ready to take to the sky by the end of 2009. Meanwhile, the RISAT-2 satellite, which has just been launched, was realised “in association with Israel Aerospace Industries,” according to an ISRO press release. (But RISAT-2, in contrast to RISAT-1, does not figure in the Annual Report or the Outcome Budget presented by the Department of Space to Parliament last year.) In January 2008, the PSLV launched Israel’s TECSAR radar spy satellite. A drawing of RISAT-2 released by ISRO shows the satellite to be strikingly similar to that of TECSAR, and their weights and orbits also match. RISAT-2 is said to have a resolution that varies from one to 10 metres, depending on the mode in which it operates. With a higher resolution than that of RISAT-1 or Canada’s RADARSAT-2, the satellite just launched will be able to detect far smaller objects. The Indian space agency’s press release claims that RISAT-2 “will enhance ISRO’s capability for earth observation,” especially during floods, cyclones, and landslides, and aid in the management of disasters. On the other hand, the space website Spaceflight Now, quoting officials of the U.S. aerospace giant, Lockheed Martin, observed that RISAT-2 will give India a radar reconnaissance capability comparable to that on the latest U-2 spy plane operated by the U.S. Air Force.

India’s first university-built satellite, ANUSAT, travelled as a co-passenger on the latest PSLV launch. The 38-kg “micro” satellite designed by the Anna University in Chennai will be capable of storing and forwarding messages as it orbits the earth. IIT Kanpur is planning another small satellite and IIT Mumbai too is believed to be considering one. Such satellites provide an opportunity to test advanced technologies inexpensively and is also seen as a way to get a younger generation interested in spaceflight. For ISRO, the PSLV has registered its 14th consecutive success. A key challenge coming up this year is the launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle equipped for the first time with an indigenous cryogenic engine and stage.

 

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It's strike II for Chandrayaan; American Association of Science and NASA appreciative of findings​

BANGALORE: India’s Moon mission — Chandrayaan-1 — is certainly making strides in the time it has been around the Moon. After revealing traces of iron deposits and formation of craters recently, it is now throwing up pin-point evidence on the evolution of the Moon.

Forty years after the American Apollo Mission, Chandrayaan-1 has revealed direct evidence on the formation of crusts/highlands on the Moon.

No less than the American Association of Science and Nasa investigators acknowledge this contribution of the Indian mission. “Nearly 40 years after Apollo, no one had directly and unequivocally confirmed the true nature of the lunar highlands. Researchers from the Chandrayaan-1 mission have reported that they now have the final, direct proof,” the association has said in a recent publication in the journal Science.

The Indian mission through the Moon mineralogy mapper has offered proof that the Moon’s highlands were formed by the eruption of a hot liquid inside the Moon’s surface popularly known as magma. While it has been held that only the lowlands were formed by the magma , this new evidence suggests even the highlands were formed by a similar process.

“The hot liquid, magma, seems to have flowed on to the surface and taken the form of lava. The rocky remains that floated to the top appear to have transformed into the Moon’s highlands or mountains,” an Isro scientist explained.

This “lunar magma ocean hypothesis” , as it is popularly known, gained support from Apollo, groundbased, and orbital observations to become the paradigm for how planetary bodies got their first, or primary, crust. Experts from Brown University , USA, have said new images show the lunar surface in very fine detail. The images are so clear that even the colours of the surface can be seen separately to indicate the formation of the highlands or the crust.

Investigators behind Nasa’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument flying onboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft report that the entire Inner Rook Mountains is of this character. “It validates the magma ocean. The huge impact that formed the great Mare Orientale basin threw up those mountains,” investigators say.

MISSION possible

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s imager on Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft is reporting similar findings in 70 impact craters around the Moon Corroboration from other space agencies is not a must Yet, anything that indicates similar results enhances faith in Chandrayaan-1.

It's strike II for Chandrayaan- ET Cetera-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

 

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Here is the Science article mentioned in the above report:

http://m3.jpl.nasa.gov/Science_April-10-09.pdf

 

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RISAT specs from National Remote Sensing Centre: ISRO

Welcome to NRSC

 

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ISRO to send bacteria cells into space​

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Bangalore: In its first set of biological experiments, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will send bacteria cells into space — and bring them back — in the second Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-2) scheduled for launch this year-end.

Two life science experiments, using E.coli and photosynthetic bacteria, will help us understand cell division, genomics (genetic changes) and proteomics (changes in proteins) in microgravity conditions, said Kamanio Chattopadhyay, national coordinator of the Indian Microgravity Programme, who is coordinating scientific experiments for the mission.

In the first experiment, an E.coli cell would be grown in a bio-reactor and brought back to the earth to carry out genomic studies.

“When the experiment is recovered, we will explore why microgravity alters the growth of cells.” The experiment could be seen as a prelude to ISRO’s manned space mission slated for 2015, he said.

“We know that astronauts experience physiological changes when they go into space, the most common being bone loss. NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] has done experiments to prove that microgravity impacts genes. We need to understand this phenomenon better.”

The payload would be developed in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

In the other experiment, photosynthetic bacteria would be cultured to study the effect of microgravity on photosynthesis. Much like plants, cynobacteria carry out photosynthesis. This experiment would be developed jointly by CCMB, ISRO and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The effect of space radiation and microgravity on seeds — of rice and medicinal plants — would be the subject of a third experiment developed by the Pune and Kerala universities. Using a dosimeter, the experiment would measure levels of radiation exposure on the seeds.

The satellite would also have a materials science experiment onboard to study the role of gravity on melting and sintering of metal powder. Developed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, this payload would use a model copper-tin alloy as the subject.

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Coast Guard men recover the Indian Space Research Organisation's 550-kg recoverable space capsule SRE-1 that splashed down in the Bay of Bengal near Chennai in January 2007 after 12 days in space.


The experiments would remain in orbit for 10 days, said Dr. Chattopadhyay. “While SRE-1 [launched in 2007] proved we had mastered technology for safe vehicle re-entry, SRE-2 will focus on life science experiments in microgravity.” SRE-1 was launched on January 10, 2007 and it successfully re-entered the earth’s atmosphere 12 days later.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/02/stories/2009050256751800.htm

 

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Model of space crew module ready​

Saturday, May 02, 2009

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Ergonomic model of the module.​

CHENNAI: India’s manned mission to space has taken a small step forward with the fabrication of the ergonomic model of the crew module that will take two Indian astronauts into space in seven years from now.

This model has already arrived at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, from Bangalore. It has panels for the astronauts to operate and train. A metal model was earlier fabricated. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) calls its manned mission ‘Indian Human Space Flight Programme.’

In a recent interview, VSSC Director K. Radhakrishnan said the mission’s objective was to send a two-member crew into space in low-earth orbit at an altitude of 275 km to 400 km, “orbit them for about seven days and bring them back safely” to earth. It would be a sea-landing, either in the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea. The module with the crew will be recovered from sea.

The complex mission called for fabrication of several components: a crew module with enough space for three astronauts; environment control and life-support systems for the astronauts; flight suits; and a highly reliable vehicle.

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The ISRO’s Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) would be used in the initial flights to carry the crew into space. The vehicle had to be improved with high reliability to be called “a human rated vehicle” — to put humans into space. In the initial missions, GSLV-Mark II would be used to carry two astronauts.

Dr. Radhakrishnan said: “Later, when the GSLV-Mark III is ready, we should be able to take at least three members. The crew module is designed in such a way that three persons can be accommodated. However, initially, we will put two in space. Here, the improvement and reliability of the vehicle is important.”

A new element is that the crew module will have a crew escape system (CES). If a mishap were to be expected in any phase of the mission, either in the launch pad, initial phase of the flight or towards the orbit, the CES would be able to detach the crew from the rocket. “The CES will have the ability to sense the mishap a few seconds in advance and get the crew out fast,” he explained.

Control centre

A critical requirement will be the building of a Mission Control Centre (MCC) to monitor the mission during its ascent, orbital and descent phase. The facilities at the spaceport at Sriharikota and ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Centre (ISTRAC), Bangalore, will be used for the MCC.

A new launch pad — it will be the third — will be built at Sriharikota with facilities to take the astronauts into the rocket and quarantine them. There will be crew-conditioning facilities to take care of them after they return from space. In space, the astronauts will conduct experiments relating to agricultural seeds, material processing and the growth of bacteria in space environment.


The Hindu : National : Model of space crew module ready

 

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Self delete...

 

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And now, lectures and examination question papers via satellite​

May 3rd, 2009

On April 20, while the world was focused on Risat-2, a much smaller satellite was launched by the same Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C12) — Anusat.

Anusat, a 50-kg micro satellite, is the result of a first-of-its-kind collaboration: designed and fabricated by academicians from Anna University, Chennai, and by Isro experts. While anu in Sanskrit means atom, Anusat’s ambitions aren’t small. According to experts, Anusat is to Indian universities and education what Risat-2 is to India’s borders and security.

With Anusat, Anna University will be able to connect with all its affiliated colleges. The university’s vice-chancellor, Prof P. Mannar Jawahar, said, “Anusat has been placed in orbit and all sub-components were working well. Soon question papers and other relevant information can be sent from the university to colleges using high-security, high-speed link. Question papers can now be dispatched to colleges just half-an-hour before examinations commence. Apart from this, we would be broadcasting lectures live from the university to all our colleges”.

Within two years, the university plans to launch another satellite in the Anusat series that will have the capability to connect colleges across the country.

“Since Anusat has its limitation in transmitting data, we have decided to develop a second satellite which will be much more sophisticated and be able to connect colleges and universities across the country”, Prof Jawahar said. While Anusat cost the university approximately Rs 5.5 crore, it’s part-II will come at an estimated cost of Rs 12 crore.

The launch of Anusat is also significant for University of Pune’s department of electronic science whose faculty and students managed to indigenously build and make operational a receiving station and retriever capsule. This will help in not only sourcing information and data from Anusat in a 15-minute time window, but they will also analyse it and make its findings available for further research throughout the country.

Sharing details about the university’s contribution to the project, Dr Pandit Vidyasagar, head of Anusat’s retriever module project, said: “The University of Pune has many firsts to its credit in the field of bio-informatics and nano-technology, but the success of space recovery experiment has been the most cherished project”.

“One of the major benefits of hosting the receiving station is that it will give students an opportunity to have hands-on experience and live and continuous access to data that is required for research. Currently 60 MSc. (electronics) students will be monitoring the working of the receiving station. Later it will be open for students from other universities and institutions”, said Dr Vidyasagar.

The success of the project has prompted the department of science and technology to sanction Rs 15 crores to the University of Pune as an incentive for further research in space technology.

And now, lectures via satellite | Deccan Chronicle

 

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An Indian spy in the sky​

May 3rd, 2009



Kargil, 1999. As they had done for years during the winter months, Indian troops and intelligence assets withdrewn from the heights in Kargil, Dras and other sectors, sure that the Pakistanis would do the same. But they didn’t. Instead, they sent hundreds of terrorists and Army personnel to hide in the mountains and capture the heights and the crucial Srinagar-Leh National Highway 1.

No one saw the terrorists coming because no one kept vigil. Doubtless, it is difficult for humans to stay at heights of 5,000-6,000 metres in the winter months. Only a high-quality spy satellite in the sky could have kept an eye on terrorist infiltration routes. Unfortunately, India did not have one then. But a decade and many infiltrations and terrorist attacks later, on April 20, 2009, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) launched just such a satellite.

A PSLV rocket launched Risat-2, a 300-kg satellite developed with Israeli assistance, into a 550-km high circular orbit. It will stay up there for at least three years and keep an eye on terror routes, Pakistani troop movements, their missile deployments and test-firings, and, playing the role of a good neighbour, even on Pakistan’s agricultural crops. Placed over the Equator at an inclination of 41 degrees, it will also monitor India’s coastline and the seas — including the route Ajmal Kasab and nine other terrorists took to reach Mumbai on 26/11.

Admittedly, India has taken a long time, in fact over 45 years from the early 1960s when it started launching rockets, to put a “spy” in the sky. This is not to argue that India did not have the capability to do so in the past, but it never felt the pressing need to do so. Many of Isro’s remote sensing satellites (satellites that study the earth) are dual-use capable — for used militarily while also serving civil purposes — but the Indian satellite programme has always had a pronounced socio-economic bias.

Risat (short for Radar Image Satellite) represents a quantum leap in India’s intention and capability. After Risat-2, a bigger, indigenous Risat-1 is in the works and is likely to be launched by year-end.

Risat-2, launched in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks, has an Israeli Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and is a small yet multi-purpose satellite that will serve a limited purpose for a limited period of time. Risat-1 will be bigger, at 1,700 kg, also multi-purpose, and will have more sensors on board.

Furthermore, unlike the optical remote sensing satellites that Isro has sent up until now, Risat-2 offers the technology of an active sensor — that is, operating in the microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum, it “illuminates” its targets. This is what makes Risat-2 an all-weather, day-and-night “spy”. Terrorists routinely infiltrate under the cover of bad weather. But now, India’s Risat-2 will be watching.

SAR, mounted on a fast-moving platform, is able to take images in spot, mosaic and strip modes. The spot mode helps to focus a high-powered beam on a small area to build a high-resolution picture. Satellites in this category usually offer images with a resolution between 10 cm and 1 metre — good enough to monitor terrorist infiltration along the border. It will also offer imagery intelligence ranging from missile launch preparations to building of temporary or permanent structures, such as bunkers, near India’s border. Incidentally, 1-metre resolution image is enough to spot a car, while a 10-cm resolution image, taken at the right angle, will reveal the car’s licence plate.

While there is still speculation over which Central agency — the Union home ministry or Military Intelligence — will handle the “spy” data from Risat-2, there is no doubt that India’s military and paramilitary forces will benefit from the satellite’s capabilities.

Yet one must note that Risat-2 is only one small piece in India’s anti-terror strategy which involves multiple agencies. Even with regard to gathering intelligence, Risat-2 should not be seen as a single-window solution. Its value must be enhanced by other inputs, including human intelligence. The satellite can give a snapshot, literally, of the ground reality. Deciphering it and acting on it is a human, nay political, function.


* Ajey Lele is a research fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi


India’s other eyes

India is a world leader in the remote sensing data market and with the launch of Risat-2, Isro will have nine remote sensing satellites in orbit. The others include:

* Technology Experimental Satellite (TES), 2001: India’s first military satellite sends 1-metre resolution images. Indian military obtained high-resolution images of Pakistani troop movement along the border and the war in Afghanistan from this satellite.

* Resourcesat-1, 2003: A sophisticated remote sensing satellite operating in multiple spectral bands, with a resolution of 6 metres.

* Cartosat-1, 2005: Has two panchromatic cameras able to take black-and-white pictures of an object from two different angles. It has a 2.5-metre resolution.

* Cartosat-2, 2007; 2A, 2008: Has panchromatic cameras, capable of 0.8-metre resolution images. Is meant for spot imagery.

* Gagan/IRNSS: India is developing or partnering multiple navigation satellite systems. The Gagan system will augment data from the American GPS system, while IRNSS will be a 7-satellite indigenous network meant to cover the Indian Ocean region for both civil and military applications.

* IAF satellite: The Indian Air Force is set to get a dedicated communications satellite by mid-2010.


An Indian spy in the sky | Deccan Chronicle

 

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`Jugnu' to light up space research - Kanpur - Cities - The Times of India

`Jugnu' to light up space research
7 May 2009, 2124 hrs IST, Abhinav Malhotra, TNN
Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text:
KANPUR: IIT-Kanpur which is soon going to enter into its jubilee year is ready to set new highs in the field of space research with its much
coveted space project -- the development and the launch of the nano satellite `Jugnu'.

A team of students, working under the guidance of faculty members of the institute have been working on this project prior to the launch of Jugnu. Its launch is expected in the month of September or December, 2009. The satellite has been termed as India's first indigenously made satellite and it is expected that it will be launched by the scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Head of mechanical department, Dr N S Vyas informed that the nano satellite, Jugnu will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (also known as SHAR, located in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh) by ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). "It is extremely cost effective and reliable launch vehicle. After its launch, Jugnu will be continuously monitored and controlled by ground station located at the campus," said Dr N S Vyas.

Weighing less than 3 kg and with most functional qualities of a normal satellite on a small platform, the payload of the satellite will include an indigenously designed camera for near remote sensing and a GPS receiver. Jugnu will transmit blinking signal, at all times, all over the earth. The designed life span of the satellite is proposed to be one year. Jugnu's design will have to overcome many challenges as it will have to face high vibrations even before its ejection. The satellite will also have to survive high doses of radiation that can cause damage to the system memory. There are many other functionality constraints on the satellite hardware due to the limited power availability.

The nano satellite project of the IIT-K is going on in the mechanical engineering department, the department which has to its credit many successful projects. One such project is the `derailment prevention project' under Dr Vyas of the mechanical engineering department, in association with RDSO, Lucknow, for enhancing the safety of the passengers.

On further exploring about the satellite, a member of the team Jugnu informed, "The images collected will also be useful in studying the vegetation and the water bodies. The satellite design is mostly indigenous. In view of the high cost associated with the launch special efforts are being made to keep the weight to the lowest minimum."

"Most of the performance tests for the sub-systems of satellite will be carried out in the institute itself, using existing infrastructure. However, launch critical tests will be carried out at ISRO centres," added the team member.

The aim of the making and launching of Jugnu is to develop a long term infrastructure and human resources in the IIT-K for future space research programs in the institute in collaboration with ISRO. The efforts of the team Jugnu were appreciated even by Dr David Morrison, director, NASA Lunar Science Institute who had visited the IIT-K campus at the time of IIT's annual technical fest, Techkriti.

 

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ISRO over the moon as 1.35 lakh (135 thousand) apply for 300 jobs​

7 May 2009,

MUMBAI: India’s successful moonshot, Chandrayaan-1, has not only enriched the country’s brand value but also flooded Isro offices with more than a lakh job applications from youngsters, which the space agency’s officials say is unprecedented.

V Jayaraman, director of Isro’s Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency , told TOI on Wednesday that Chandrayaan’s success has spurred the demand for jobs in Isro. “The organisation has acquired a glamour value thanks largely to the moon mission, and students in standard X and XI from all over India are knocking on our door,’’ he said.

Jayaraman said that at present there were more than 1.35 lakh applications for a mere 300 openings in different categories at Isro. He said that from among the applicants, about 70,000 students qualified for the entrance examination which was held on April 26. About 46,000 actually took the test.

“From centres like Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, we usually receive on average about 4,000 to 5,000 applications. But this year the figure from these places has shot up,’’ Jayaraman said. He cited the economic slowdown as a possible factor for the surge in applications.

Isro’s chief spokesperson S Satish said that many people who had left Isro for IT organisations now wanted to return to the space agency.

ISRO over the moon as 1.35 lakh apply for 300 jobs- LATEST NEWS-The Economic Times