India effectively uses the Space technology for its development, governance and benefiting the common man, which was the vision of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian Space Programme
Sumit Kumar
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) carries a legacy of an unrelenting space programme aimed at enhancing its services particularly in communication and navigation domain, many a times overcoming the denial of technology transfer to develop its own indigenous capabilities to shine among the constellations of nations making rapid stride in the space domain.
“The successful operationalisation of the communications, earth observation and navigation satellites in their intended orbits in past years have ensured the continuity of various services offered earlier besides enhancing the quality of some of those services. In this regard, while INSAT/GSAT series of satellites have enhanced the number of communication transponders and weather monitoring payloads, the NavIC (IRNSS) series of Navigation
satellites have enabled us to develop the capability to provide accurate position, navigation and time information in and around India,” said a senior official from ISRO.
The most remarkable progress has come in the field of launch vehicles, which has leapfrogged from Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) in 1970s to Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (GSLV Mk.3) in recent times. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from early 90s and GSLV from the beginning of last decade are in use for launching satellites. After India successfully developed an upgraded version of GSLV namely GSLV Mk.3 to launch GSAT 19 satellite in June this year it marked a turning point as ISRO developed the capability to put heavy satellites in space orbit on its own. Nearly two decades ago India was denied the similar technology from Russia under US pressure.
Till now India has mostly relied on French Ariane 5 rocket to launch its heavy satellites. But after developing GSLV Mk.3 India has joined a group of selected countries including Russia, USA and France who are capable of putting heavy satellites in space orbit.
By developing cutting edge spatial
technology with effective low cost
successful launches India is fast becoming an attraction for other countries. “In the past three years India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has launched a total of 174 foreign satellites for 14 countries which are Algeria, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Switzerland, UAE, UK, and USA. Three of the PSLV launches during the past three years were exclusive commercial missions to launch customer satellites from abroad. So far India has launched 209 satellites for 28
foreign countries,” said the official.
The profits from such missions are increasing over the period as it was around 209.13 crore in 2015-16, marginally above the previous year 2014-15, when its profit stood at 205.10 crore. With over Rs 400 crore of orders already in its kitty, ISRO plans to increase its commercial satellite launches from 9 last year to 18-24 in the coming years. In order to harness the
commercial revenues from such missions, ISRO started the Antrix Corporation as its Marketing arm in 1992 for promotion and commercial exploitation of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of technologies developed by ISRO. ISRO has come a long way with over 91 spacecraft
missions, 63 launch
missions including Scramjet-TD & RLV-TD apart from launching 209 satellites from 28 countries which have boosted its image across the world.
India’s maiden successful mission to Mars with acronym MOM, which stands for Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has made the Indian scientists walk taller among its
competitors. MOM having a life span of six months in Mars orbit was placed into its elliptical orbit on September 24, 2014 it has performed beyond expectations giving useful data to the scientists which will help scientists in
demystifying the red planet. “More than 550 good quality images of Mars have been captured by the Mars Colour Camera and have been received and processed at ISRO Space Science data centre. Imaging of the two Moons of Mars, ‘Phobos and Deimos has revealed new details about these objects,” said the official.
ISRO will add many feathers to its cap with its future missions as it plans to launch its lunar mission Chandrayaan -2 in the early 2018 apart from sending a mission to study the Sun by 2020. “Chandrayaan -2 will be launched during first quarter of 2018. Aditya-L1 for
observations on the SUN corona and observations on the solar chromosphere using an UV payload and on the
photosphere and flares using X-ray payloads is planned for launch during 2020 time frame,” said the official.
A series of successful missions has boosted its morale and it is mulling missions to Venus or an asteroid. Also there are many projects in the pipeline which includes launching IRNSS-1H by month end to augment IRNSS constellation. Also ISRO is planning to launch a series of GSAT satellites including GSAT-6A in September this year and GSAT-11 in 2018. Apart from this many
satellites from Cartosat Series, Oceansat, and Resourcesat satellites
family will be launched in the coming period. “The CARTOSAT, Resourcesat and SCATSAT series of satellites have significantly boosted our capability to survey precious natural resources, to undertake many cartography related applications and to understand the interaction between the oceans and the atmosphere,” said the official.
Even as ISRO prepares for greater participation in the space exploration, an eye is always on the welfare of common Indians which includes using space infrastructure for the satellite communication, disaster management support and satellite navigation. The ISRO successfully used the data received from the Remote Sensing, Meteorological and Communication satellites to give timely warning
during natural calamities including furious floods in 11 states and a major forest fire in Uttarakhand State in 2016. The depressions formed in the Bay of Bengal including the cyclonic storms Roanu in May 2016 and Kyant in October 2016 were monitored and the cyclone track and intensity were predicted and information was regularly updated and disseminated which saved many lives. At the international level, in 2016, ISRO supported 23 disaster events in 10 countries by providing 42 data sets from IRS satellites.
The ISRO reached a high point after it launched
independent global navigation satellite system which was called NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It has huge benefits which will provide accurate real-time positioning and timing
services over India and the region around it extending to 1,500km. Only a handful of countries including the US, EU, China and Russia have their own navigational system.
In its limited capacity ISRO is also helping the
government in reaching out to India’s neighbours. It launched a South Asia Satellite, also known as GSAT-9 in May 2017 at a cost of 235 crores having a life span of 12 years to provide crucial information on communication and disaster management. Except for Pakistan all the South Asian nations had supported the launch of satellite
dedicated exclusively for the South Asian countries.
With India effectively firming its position in the space domain, comparison is bound to be there with other nations like USA and China which are its competitors but the ISRO plays it down saying, “We are not in competition with anybody. India is effectively using the Space
technology for its development, governance and benefiting the common man, which was the vision of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian Space Programme.”
(The writer is a Delhi based journalist)
