Indian Space Program Discussion

JaiS · Post by **JaiS** » 22 Mar 2009 04:33

First student-made satellite to take off in April

Called Anusat, the micro-student satellite will be launched by the four-stage PSLV. It has been designed and developed by 37 aerospace engineering students with the help of 10 of their teachers of the prestigious Madras Institute Of Technology, the alma mater of former President and rocket scientist A P J Abdul Kalam.

Madras Institute of Technology's R Dhanraj told TOI that the satellite will operate in the low earth orbit at an altitude between 600 and 800 km. It is equipped with a "store and forward" payload and the data will be received both at the Chennai tech university as well as Pune University. The satellite will mainly be used for amateur communication purposes, providing students with a hands-on experience about space sciences and technology.

IIT-Mumbai and IIT-Kanpur are also in the process of designing and developing micro-satellites.

m mittal · Post by **m mittal** » 23 Mar 2009 02:24

In the early 1960's ....India was slowly awakening to the Space age.....Although rest of the world was preparing to reach for the Moon...we were making our humble beginning...a small rocket took off from Thumba on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, announcing the birth of the modern space age in India. That was when the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) formally came into existence. Over the years, TERLS have given birth to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)...
Some Pics that will make every Indian proud...

Pics that say...we may not be as successful as the US or Russia...but we are there nevertheless...so watch out for us.. .

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8159/att39826361.jpg

This was how the Rocket Cone was transported to the Launch Pad at Thumba !!

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2957/att39826362.jpg

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5239/att39826363.jpg

November 21, 1963: The Nike Apache rocket being readied for launch

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4759/att39826364.jpg

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8190/att39826365.jpg

Try Identifyin the person on the left...most probably you wont be able to identify...He is our very own...Dr. A.P J. Abdul Kalam...

Early days at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. Readying equipment to be carried by a sounding rocket into the atmosphere are Kalam and R. Aravamudan

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4205/att39826366.jpg

And now the present day Lauch Station at Sriharikota

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1631/att39826367.jpg

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3259/att39826368.jpg

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5791/att39826369.jpg

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7108/att39826370.jpg

JaiS · Post by **JaiS** » 24 Mar 2009 09:13

ISRO chief, HEC to talk space

Indo-French satellite to study tropical areas

International conference on Megha-Tropiques begins today

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Mar 2009 09:54

Megha-Tropiques satellite likely to be launched this December

Rampy · Post by **Rampy** » 25 Mar 2009 20:59

I was reading an article in debka it says India is launching anti-terror sat

what on earth is that

India, for instance, is overhauling its special forces from top to bottom and preparing to launch the world's first anti-terror satellite RISAT 2 on short-order delivery from Israel.

Gurus can throw some light

KrishG · Post by **KrishG** » 25 Mar 2009 21:36

Rampy wrote:I was reading an article in debka it says India is launching anti-terror sat what on earth is that

India, for instance, is overhauling its special forces from top to bottom and preparing to launch the world's first anti-terror satellite RISAT 2 on short-order delivery from Israel.
Gurus can throw some light

It's basically a spy sat. And it's India's first dedicated spy satellite.

When ISRO launched TecSAR for Israel, Israel didn't pay fort the launch but according to a mutual agreement would provide India with another TecSAR for India(Exchange offer). This RISAT-2 is a clone of TecSAR launched by India for Israel and this will be for India.

vavinash · Post by **vavinash** » 25 Mar 2009 21:42

A launch on PSLV would not have cost more than 15 million but a techsar like sat would cost in the vicinity of 100 mil. India would have paid more if that were true.

Brando · Post by **Brando** » 25 Mar 2009 21:50

While a lot of people are celebrating over this Israeli acquisition, I found that it was foolish of them to make such a big deal about this and put it in all the news papers. They should have launched the satellite discreetly and not disclosed the fact that the Israelis gave it to them. What's the point in announcing to the whole world " Look, this is our spy satellite! " . I think that defeats the purpose. At the very least they should have called it a CartoSat and launched it under false pretenses as some mapping satellite.

Also, another distressing factor would be the fact that ISRO nor DRDO could come out with similar capability military satellite despite our dire need for one all these years.

Rampy · Post by **Rampy** » 25 Mar 2009 22:22

But I thought India did launch a Spy Sat with 2M resolution, but Army was not too happy with it and moreover it was not dedicated to mil.
Guess we have the knowledge but we are taking help to expedite the process

p_saggu · Post by **p_saggu** » 25 Mar 2009 22:41

Rampy update your knowledge,
The current resolution of Indian imaging satellites is 1 meter as per open source info - what ISRO claims. It would be not to unreasonable to assume that the true resolution is way below 1 meter that ISRO is letting on.

What sort of resolution on the SAR can we expect?

Brando · Post by **Brando** » 25 Mar 2009 22:52

The TES and Cartosat 2 have resolutions of 1 mt but they are only black and white and cant be used to penetrate weather or in the night and can only capture data in the visible spectrum. The SAR is something akin to a SEM, so weather and lighting conditions dont matter.

p_saggu · Post by **p_saggu** » 25 Mar 2009 23:01

There is a scene in the movie Body of lies where a US predator which has SAR is monitoring a group of arabs who are about to kidnap Leonardo Di Caprio. Now what these arabs do is drive their SUVs in circles around leonardo so as to raise a huge dust cloud which the predator (Equipped with a SAR) can't look through. Ultimately one of the SUVs stops within the cloud, kidnaps Leonardo and the Predator can't tell which vehicle is the hero in.

Can't SAR penetrate a dust cloud (Admittedly it will find it tough if the cloud is thick enough)

KrishG · Post by **KrishG** » 25 Mar 2009 23:27

vavinash wrote:A launch on PSLV would not have cost more than 15 million but a techsar like sat would cost in the vicinity of 100 mil. India would have paid more if that were true.

No. TecSAR doesn't cost so much. Only the Ofeq series cost close to 100 million. The cost of TecSAR could be somewhere around 30-50 million at most.

Brando wrote:While a lot of people are celebrating over this Israeli acquisition, I found that it was foolish of them to make such a big deal about this and put it in all the news papers. They should have launched the satellite discreetly and not disclosed the fact that the Israelis gave it to them. What's the point in announcing to the whole world " Look, this is our spy satellite! " . I think that defeats the purpose. At the very least they should have called it a CartoSat and launched it under false pretenses as some mapping satellite.

Also, another distressing factor would be the fact that ISRO nor DRDO could come out with similar capability military satellite despite our dire need for one all these years.

TecSar has an image resolution of 3 m. Even the Ofeq series have a resolution of 0.8 m.
India will launch Cartosat-3 in 2011 with a resolution of 0.3 m only matched by US spy satellites.
The only thing is that India until now has not inevested in dedicated spy satellite constellations and have depended on IRS series to do the job in case of Kargil war etc.

p_saggu wrote:Rampy update your knowledge,
The current resolution of Indian imaging satellites is 1 meter as per open source info - what ISRO claims. It would be not to unreasonable to assume that the true resolution is way below 1 meter that ISRO is letting on.

What sort of resolution on the SAR can we expect?

The Israeli Risat has a resolution of 1m and the Indian RISAT has a resolution of 3m.

Kailash · Post by **Kailash** » 25 Mar 2009 23:33

While a lot of people are celebrating over this Israeli acquisition, I found that it was foolish of them to make such a big deal about this and put it in all the news papers. They should have launched the satellite discreetly and not disclosed the fact that the Israelis gave it to them. What's the point in announcing to the whole world " Look, this is our spy satellite! " . I think that defeats the purpose. At the very least they should have called it a CartoSat and launched it under false pretenses as some mapping satellite.

Also, another distressing factor would be the fact that ISRO nor DRDO could come out with similar capability military satellite despite our dire need for one all these years.

Why to disguise it? Who cares? No one has the political need and very few have the technical capability to shoot our launched vehicle or satellite down. And secondly, do you think Cartosat is only used for civilian purposes? Any advanced remote sensing satellite is dual purpose by nature.

One thing I am interested to know about the spy satellites is how soon can we focus on an area of interest and zoom in? Is is possible to achieve transfer rates for a live coverage of a specified spot on the ground? In times of war, or even to confirm the operation of terror camps etc, this may prove invaluable.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 25 Mar 2009 23:37

India will launch Cartosat-3 in 2011 with a resolution of 0.3 m

source?

p_saggu · Post by **p_saggu** » 25 Mar 2009 23:45

It has to be a chaiwala. There is no such info on open source or we'd have known.

p_saggu · Post by **p_saggu** » 25 Mar 2009 23:49

About satellite camera optics.
Aren't we importing the glasses from Germany? do we manufacture the entire camera in house or assemble it here?
IIRC the chandrayaan had a unique camera which took images from several angles at once (Excuse the low knowledge base of moi). won't such high quality optics be controlled items which would not be readily parted to developing nations - nations which are close to Russia?

tejas · Post by **tejas** » 26 Mar 2009 04:11

Gerard wrote:
India will launch Cartosat-3 in 2011 with a resolution of 0.3 m
source?

The only source I can find is wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARTOSAT-3 Take it FWIW, Boss. BTW, many open source articles list U.S satellite resolution at 2 cm, i.e., 0.02 m

So we are no where near Umrikah, though 30 cm resolution is more than adequate for precision strikes and reconaissance.

JaiS · Post by **JaiS** » 26 Mar 2009 05:46

UoP will act as one of the two ground stations of India’s first student-made satellite ANUSAT

K Mehta · Post by **K Mehta** » 26 Mar 2009 13:35

Gerard wrote:
India will launch Cartosat-3 in 2011 with a resolution of 0.3 m
source?

http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/dec252007/1715.pdf
Page 1728 Fig 21
It is there in the pdfs but i will have to look up. IIRC its .25 meter resolution
Gerard and other mods
This issue of current science has a special section on Indian space programme. Can this be put into the first post of the topic? Would be really grateful if Individual pdf are linked with author names. I will post it in the next post, please make it the first post of the discussion.

K Mehta · Post by **K Mehta** » 26 Mar 2009 13:45

Current science issue with special section on Indian space programme

The articles are in PDF format
Evolution of Indian launch vehicle technologies
S. C. Gupta, B. N. Suresh and K. Sivan

Spacecraft technology
V. R. Katti, K. Thyagarajan, K. N. Shankara and A. S. Kiran Kumar

Applications of space communication
A. Bhaskaranarayana, B. S. Bhatia, K. Bandyopadhyay and P. K. Jain

Remote sensing applications: An overview
Ranganath R. Navalgund, V. Jayaraman and P. S. Roy

Space astronomy and interplanetary exploration
P. C. Agrawal, B. V. Sreekantan and Narendra Bhandari

Developments and achievements in atmospheric sciences and space meteorology in India
A. Jayaraman, P. C. Joshi and R. Ramesh

Space mission planning and operations
V. Adimurthy, M. Y. S. Prasad and S. K. Shivakumar

Organizational systems, commercialization and cost–benefit analysis of Indian space programme
K. R. Sridhara Murthi, U. Sankar and H. N. Madhusudhan

Legal environment for space activities
K. R. Sridhara Murthi, V. Gopalakrishnan and Partha Sarathi Datta

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 26 Mar 2009 16:38

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 Mar 2009 07:12

Indian Scientists Seek to Make Indian Dishes for Astronauts

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... orbit.html

KrishG · Post by **KrishG** » 28 Mar 2009 21:17

Indian scientists told to create a curry fit for an astronaut

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 981669.ece

Wow! Why can't Indian astronauts eat Maggi or somethin ??

Kakarat · Post by **Kakarat** » 28 Mar 2009 22:03

Radar imaging satellite ours, not Israel's, says ISRO Chairman

Asked if RISAT is an Israeli satellite or an Indian one, the Secretary in the Department of Space said "we don't launch any Israeli satellite. It's an Indian satellite".

On whether Israel has contributed to the satellite, Nair said "no. That many countries contribute, not only Israel. It's our satellite".

Asked if Israel supplied Synthetic Aperture Radar for the satellite, he said "those finer details...We will talk when we make the launch".

p_saggu · Post by **p_saggu** » 28 Mar 2009 22:51

All these secretive launches are now done from the older lauch pad with the Housing moving away from the launch vehicle on the platform and launch tower.

This is a good move - keeps the launcher covered until the last moment, keeps the snooping DDM away. Meanwhile DDM can be given tours of the new launch assembly building and the launch pad.

Why can't GOI ban DDM from asking some questions to Government employees - because DDM doesn't contribute to any national good, their needless investigation to uncover "a great secret" about cooperation with Israel will lead to unnecessary complications in India's foreign relations. Once things get reported in the national press, other news organizations pick these up - and governments have to come out with a statement and also put out counter statements to statements from other nations on the issue - Completely avoidable.

Stupid DDM, immature GOI, Immature ISRO for not having a smooth talking media manager.

JaiS · Post by **JaiS** » 30 Mar 2009 06:10

ISRO hopes to map surface of Moon

LeT targeted Madhavan, Kasturirangan

Indian space project uses Cannon connectors

Money Spinning in India's Weather Predictions

Following are the three reports appeared on 'The Pioneer' daily on the violation of norms in the purchase of Radars and Lightning Detection Systems by India Meteorological Department.

All reports from late 2008.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 31 Mar 2009 19:15

Under-construction building collapses at VSSC

One worker was killed and nearly 30 others were injured on Tuesday when the roof of a building under construction came crashing down at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) campus in the Kerala capital.

Eight of the injured are in a serious condition. The accident took place when a portion of the roof of the new five-storey building gave way, an ISRO official said.

"The building was to be used to assemble rockets," the official said. "Construction work was going on and hence there were several workers. Rescue operations are on."

Vivek K · Post by **Vivek K** » 31 Mar 2009 21:01

Was this a steel building (made with steel members) or a concrete one with a concrete slab as roof? Of course it may not be a design fault and the failure may have occured due to poor construction practices/management.

p_saggu · Post by **p_saggu** » 31 Mar 2009 21:56

Vehicle assembly building.

On the new launch pad I think ISRO is constructing another VAB just behind the earlier one, The rail tracks go around the first building to meet the main track.
This will allow for higher frequency of launches using the new launch pad.

Was it this one? The last one had a concrete roof.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 01 Apr 2009 00:59

The VAB is at Sriharikota where the launch complex is. The mishap occured at VSSC which is in Trivandrum on the west coast.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 01 Apr 2009 07:02

An Indian space shuttle takes shape

An Indian version of the space shuttle will be test-flown from the spaceport at Sriharikota in a year’s time.

kit · Post by **kit** » 01 Apr 2009 10:01

SSridhar wrote:An Indian space shuttle takes shape

An Indian version of the space shuttle will be test-flown from the spaceport at Sriharikota in a year’s time.

Cool

I am waiting for this
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/News/ ... rplane.jpg

disha · Post by **disha** » 01 Apr 2009 12:46

Cool I am waiting for this
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/News/ ... rplane.jpg

I do not think that is the one that will be tested. It looks more like the DRDO Avatar concept or their version of Hypersonic missile.

The ones that will be tested is given here:

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/media/Aer ... 4.JPG.html

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/5893/r ... 032pr4.jpg

The scramjet engine will be tested separately and if both goes well then they will be mated together. Even if it does not go well, using earth storable fuels, ISRO will realise its TSTO concept.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 01 Apr 2009 19:47

Is there any open source info on PSLV launches for this year. Was searching for Oceasnsat launch apparently scheduled for early 2009, but could not find any so far. It is April already and no official statements from ISRO so far in the press.

Any help is appreciated.

KrishG · Post by **KrishG** » 01 Apr 2009 21:35

Bade wrote:Is there any open source info on PSLV launches for this year. Was searching for Oceasnsat launch apparently scheduled for early 2009, but could not find any so far. It is April already and no official statements from ISRO so far in the press.

Any help is appreciated.

Actually, Oceansat was to be launched n April but will not happen. It will be launched with 5 cubesats under commercial contract in Sun synchronous orbit. The cubesats are being launched for a commercial contract with a company called ISI launch.

I last time I contacted ISI launch, 3 out of 5 cubesats were ready to shipped to SHAR. They were talking about a tentative April launch but we know that now it's not going to happen because RISAT and Anusat are going to be launched. Hopefully, we'll see a May or June launch before the flight GSLV.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 01 Apr 2009 22:16

Thanks Krish. I searched for ISIS and found that they have 4 cubesats piggybacking on the PSLV-C14 along with the primary payload Oceansat.

So your reading is that if this launch window is lost due to cuebsat delays, then the wait could be a long one due to the already queued up upcoming PSLV launches. GSLV uses a different launch pad isn't it ?

link to ISIS on PSLV launches

Prem Kumar · Post by **Prem Kumar** » 01 Apr 2009 22:37

Perhaps a dumb question: does OceanSat have dual-use? The stated use is for things like identifying fishing zones, sea surface wind/temperature measurement for weather forecasting etc. Can it be used for ocean surveillance - tracking/photographing ships etc?

I couldnt find much on Google/Wikipedia. Actually I couldnt find much on satellite based ocean surveillance on the net (even for countries like the U.S)

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 01 Apr 2009 22:49

Oceansat is for peaceful purposes only. The spatial resolution is ~1km, so at most it can do is track the wakes of large ships. I doubt it will get used for such purposes. It is for detecting fishing zones and other naturally occurring harmful biological events (algal growth) in coastal communities etc.

There is a geostationary payload at much higher resolution planned by ISRO which could be interesting from a disaster recovery/military perspective.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 01 Apr 2009 22:58

Prem There was a US sat called Seasat that was used to monitor ocean currents etc. Might find some good color pics of its efforts.

Bade is right the sensor resolution and the orbit will be such that it covers the oceans mostly. India needs an ocean sat as it needs to monitor the Monsoon as it develops.