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ISRO launches record 104 satellites into space

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http://www.rediff.com/news/report/isro-to-create-new-world-record-on-wed/20170214.htm

On the morning of February 15, ISRO will hurl into space using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle three Indian satellites and 101 small foreign satellites.
No other country has ever tried to hit a century in a single mission.
Pallava Bagla reports.


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India will boldly go to Venus for the first time and re-visit the Red Planet very soon.

Buried and hidden in the hundreds of pages of the new format electronic budget documents, is the first formal acknowledgement by the government about these two new bold inter-planetary sojourns to Earth's immediate neighbours.

104
Satellites the ISRO will launch in a single mission, a record no other country has achieved.

This uplifting news comes ahead of the Indian Space Research Organisation attempting to undertake its mega launch where it will drop off into space not one, two or three but a full load of 104 satellites in space in a single mission.

No other country has ever tried to hit a century in a single mission.

The last world record is held by Russia which in 2014 rocketed 37 satellites in a single launch using a modified inter-continental ballistic missile.

If all goes according to plan, on the morning of February 15, ISRO will hurl into space using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle three Indian satellites and 101 small foreign satellites.

India is hoping to better the previous world record by a whopping two-and-a-half times.

ISRO, considered the new kid on the block in the multi-billion dollar world launcher market, hopes to set an enviable benchmark for the space fairing nations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's love affair with space is quite evident.

The government, it seems, is rather pleased with the Indian space agency as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave the Department of Space a whopping 23 per cent increase in its budget.

Under the space sciences section, the budget mentions provisions 'for Mars Orbiter Mission II and Mission to Venus.'

The second mission to Mars is tentatively slated for the 2021-2022 timeframe and as per existing plans it may well involve putting a robot on the surface of the Red Planet.

While India's first mission to Mars undertaken in 2013 was a purely Indian mission, the French space agency wants to collaborate in making the Mars Rover.

On a visit to India this month, Michael M Watkins, Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said NASA would be keen to at least put a telematics module so NASA's rovers and the Indian satellites are able to talk to each other.

The second Indian mission to Mars is likely to be all about doing good science since the first one had a nationalistic streak on it in trying to beat China to the orbit of Mars which the Mars Orbiter Mission did magnificently.

India's maiden mission to Venus, the second planet of the solar system named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, is in all probability going to be a modest orbiter mission.

Watkins said a mission to Venus is very worthwhile as so little is understood about that planet. NASA, he added, would be willing to partner India's maiden voyage to Venus.


Towards that, NASA and ISRO have already initiated talks this month on trying to jointly undertake studies on using electrical propulsion to power this mission.

India's original inter-planetary dreamer K Kasturirangan, once ISRO's chairman, says, "India should be part of this global adventure and exploring Venus and Mars is very worthwhile since humans definitely need another habitation beyond Earth."

Closer home on its 39th launch India's workhorse rocket, the PSLV, will lift off carrying 1,378 kg of robots to be deployed in space.

The first to be let off will be India's high resolution Cartosat-2 series satellite made especially to monitor activities of India's hostile neighbours at a resolution of less than a metre keeping a bird's eye view on both Pakistan and China.

This earth imaging capability is not unusual, but the rest of the passengers are unique.

There are two small Indian satellites each weighing less than 10 kg that are forerunners of a new class of satellites called ISRO Nano Satellites which the engineers seek to master.

What follows next is a trailblazing performance by the PSLV when at an altitude of over 500 km in space it will release from its womb, 101 co-passengers one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and a whopping 96 from the United States.

It is only recently that American private companies have warmed up to ISRO as India offers cheap and reliable option.

Of the American satellites, 88 belong to a San Francisco-based start-up company, Planet Inc, which is sending a swarm of small 4.7 kg satellites it calls Doves.

This constellation will image Earth like never before and with a high repeat rate provide satellite imagery at an affordable cost.

This suite of 101 small satellites all together weighing 664 kg will be released in space in a manner akin to a typical school bus which drops off its passengers, namely children at their respective bus stops in a sequential manner, avoiding squabbling and elbowing in near zero gravity.

Ensuring that no collisions take place is an art that ISRO has mastered from previous launches.

In less than 600 seconds all 101 satellites will be released into space each travelling at a whopping velocity of over 27,000 km per hour or at 40 times the speed of an average passenger airliner.

Some experts suggest that in a bid to earn some money, ISRO is actually contributing significantly to the creation of space junk as these small satellites are really not very useful.

"I think that these launches can be done responsibly and provide benefits to all people," says Laura Grego, senior scientist, global security programme, Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, USA.

"Developing a culture of responsible space launch and operations is key as more and more countries become space-faring."

"While the number of countries that can launch satellites independently is still quite small, many dozens of countries own and operate satellites," adds Grego.

"India has the capability putting several satellites in a single launch and demonstrating that capability is certainly not bad as it adds to India's credibility," says Dr Kasturirangan.

"Later, if ISRO deploys this capability of formation flying in a constellation of its own satellites it would be a useful addition to its arsenal."
 
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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a record 104 satellites in one go on Wednesday morning on board a single rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The space agency began the countdown for the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)’s 39th flight on Tuesday after the Mission Readiness Review committee and Launch Authorisation Board gave its approval for lift off, ISRO said. Scientists had commenced filling of the propellant for the rocket, it added.

The PSLV-C37/Cartosat2 Series satellite mission includes international payloads.

The mission

PSLV will first launch the 714 kg CARTOSAT-2 Series satellite for earth observation and then inject 103 co-passenger satellites, together weighing about 664 kg at lift-off into polar Sun Synchronous Orbit, about 520 km from Earth.

ISRO scientists have used the XL Variant – the most powerful rocket – earlier used in the ambitious Chandrayaan and during the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).

Why is it significant

If the launch is successful, India will become the first country to launch the most satellites – 104 – in a single rocket. Currently, the Russian Space Agency holds the record with 37 satellites being launched in one go in 2014.

The US space agency Nasa launched 29, while ISRO successfully launched 20 satellites in one go in June 2015.

The payload

The PSLV is carrying a 714 kg main satellite for earth observation and 103 smaller ‘nano satellites’ which would weigh a combined 664 kg. In total, the entire launch will be carrying a satellite mass of about 1,378 kg.

Of the 101 co-passenger satellites, 96 of these belong to USA, and one each are from ISRO’s international customers Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland and United Arab Emirates.

Two of India’s nano satellites, weighing about 30 kg, will also piggyback off the rocket.

The nano-satellites belonging to international customers are being launched as part of the arrangement by Antrix Corporation Ltd (ANTRIX), the commercial arm of ISRO.

Cartosat-2 Series, which is the primary satellite, will be similar to the earlier four satellites in Cartosat-2 Series.

Cartosat Series and India’s nano satellites

The Cartosat satellites are being launched to provide remote sensing services.Images sent by it will be useful for coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, distribution of water and creation of land use maps, among others.

The Cartosat-2 Series has a mission life of five years.

The two Indian nano satellites INS-1A and INS-1B were developed as co-passenger satellites to accompany bigger satellites on PSLV.

The primary objective of INS (ISRO Nano Satellite) is to provide an opportunity for ISRO technology demonstration payloads, provide a standard bus for launch on demand services.

INS-1A carries Surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function Radiometer and INS-1B caries Earth Exosphere Lyman Alpha Analyser as payloads.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...-into-space/story-yfC70LKVupmiagGxWvnW0I.html

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About Mission

PSLV-C37 / Cartosat -2 Series Satellite
India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its thirty ninth flight (PSLV-C37), will launch the 714 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 103 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 664 kg at lift-off into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). PSLV-C37 will be launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. It will be the sixteenth flight of PSLV in 'XL' configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).

The co-passenger satellites comprise 101 nano satellites, one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 96 from United States of America (USA), as well as two Nano satellites from India. The total weight of all the satellites carried onboard PSLV-C37 is about 1378 kg.

PSLV-C37 also carries two ISRO Nano satellites (INS-1A and INS-1B), as co-passenger satellites. These two satellites carry a total of four different payloads from Space Applications Centre (SAC) and Laboratory for Electro Optics Systems (LEOS) of ISRO for conducting various experiments.

The 101 International customer Nano satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS), the commercial arm of ISRO and the International customers.

PSLV-C37 is scheduled to be launched on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 at 9.28 Hrs IST from Sriharikota
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. . .
Cartosat -2 Series Satellite
The Cartosat-2 series satellite is the primary satellite carried by PSLV-C37. This satellite is similar to the earlier four satellites of the Cartosat-2 series. After its injection into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit by PSLV-C37, the satellite will be brought to operational configuration following which it will begin providing regular remote sensing services using its Panchromatic and Multi-spectral cameras.

The imageries from Cartosat-2 series 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 manmade features and various other Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.

Cartosat-2 Series Satellite is scheduled to be launched on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 at 9.28 Hrs IST from Sriharikota.

Launch Mass:
714 kg
Type of Satellite:
Earth Observation
Manufacturer:
ISRO
Owner:
ISRO
Application:
Earth Observation
Orbit Type:
SSPO

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Fuel Filling Procedure
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Dynamic balancing of Payload
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