Bharat Rakshak

As to why India is involved in practically all (glonass, gallileo, irnss) at great cost I don't understand.

disha wrote:Anyway., here is a link to a study on IRNSS http://www.ion.org/publications/abstrac ... cleID=9566., all I have is an abstract!!

The IRNSS’ services will be available only after three or four of a constellation of seven satellites are put into orbit, ISRO scientists said.

These satellites will provide accurate information on the position of cars/trucks, ships and aircraft vis-a-vis their destination, with the help of a receiver. It could be an independent receiver or one that is built into a mobile phone, car, truck, ship or aircraft. Missiles, submarines, battleships and battle tanks, with the help of the receiver and the satellites in the constellation, can navigate their way towards their destination.

The IRNSS can provide precise information on the position of an aircraft with respect to the runway when the aircraft is about to land. The pilot will know how far or how high he is from the runway.

Varoon Shekhar wrote:http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/nigh ... 894116.ece

Article on IRNSS in latest Frontline. Says satellite won't be put into use until all the series are in orbit. Can't the single satellite be used in a limited way, or by restricted users?

Snehashis wrote:Microwave masters

Posted: 21 Feb 2012

“OURS is a unique laboratory. Only about 15 countries in the world are engaged in research in microwave tubes, which is a tough technology area,” says Lalit Kumar, Director of the Microwave Tube Research and Development Centre (MTRDC), Bangalore. Microwave tubes, or MWTs, find applications in civilian systems, high-end communication systems and many defence systems. In fact, it is the MWTs onboard satellites that send signals to ground stations. Each satellite carries 30 to 40 travelling wave tubes (TWTs), which have high channel width, efficiency and life.

The MTRDC is one of 52 laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) across the country. Its mandate is to work in the development of MWTs for the DRDO's Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, the Defence Avionics Research Establishment, and the Defence Avionics Application Laboratory (which develops radar, electronic warfare equipment and communication and data link systems for the military). The MTRDC also develops microwave power modules (MPMs), electronic power conditioners (EPCs), high-density cathodes, and so on for various defence systems.

“The technological capability necessary for making these devices include computer-aided design and simulation, ultra-high vacuum, special purpose precision machining, protective atmosphere heat treatment and brazing, thin-film coating, high-frequency measurements, high-voltage testing and environmental testing for reliability,” said Lalit Kumar. “The state-of-the-art J.C. Bose Microwave Tube Facility, inaugurated recently at the MTRDC by V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, willboost research and development of MWTs,” he added. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bangalore, is the production agency for the MWTs and radars, electronic warfare systems and data links. The MTRDC is situated inside the BEL complex. It was the vision of V.S. Arunachalam, former Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, that led to the establishment of the laboratory. Former heads of the MTRDC, such as K.N. Tiwari, M.D. Rajnarayan, K.U. Limaye nurtured it. The MTRDC's goal is “to facilitate Em-power to empower the defence”.

The modern name for MWTs is vacuum electron devices (VEDs). But all VEDs are not necessarily MWTs. VED is the family name, while MWT forms the subset. MWTs are VEDs capable of generating or amplifying high-frequency signals for various defence and civilian applications in communications, radars, electronic warfare and integrated support measures (ISM) systems. Microwaves travel in matter in the same way light waves do but can penetrate most materials other than metals and other electrical conductors. Motion of electrons in vacuum is most critical in MWTs, which also find application in deep space communication, energy generation by fusion, sintering of ceramics in industry, processing of materials and in medical applications such as imaging and hyperthermia.

The purpose behind using MWTs is to amplify power. They can amplify microwave power a million times more, that is, one milliwatt into 100 watts and one watt into a megawatt. They are rugged devices. Some of these devices, used in satellites, last in space for about 15 years. The MTRDC did not develop the MWTs used in satellites but contributed to the design of the high-efficiency multistage collector for the first Indian space-qualified TWT developed for ISRO by the Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) and BEL.

Lalit Kumar said: “The devices we make work for about 10,000 hours. Military systems are much more demanding. Military devices typically work from 1,000 to 10,000 hours. Each of these devices is handcrafted using exotic materials, high melting-point metals and precious metals. They are expensive because they cannot be mass produced. For instance, a magnetron used in a microwave oven may cost about Rs.500. But a military magnetron will cost not less than Rs.500,000 because so much sophistication goes into its microwave tube. We have made devices that will sell at Rs.50 lakh to Rs.60 lakh a piece.”

TWTs are MWTs of special design, made using a broadband circuit in which a beam of electrons interacts continuously with a guided electromagnetic field to amplify waves. Two major classes of TWTs – the helix TWT and the coupled cavity TWT (CCTWT) – have been developed.

K.S. Bhat, Associate Director, MTRDC, said developing VEDS required a coming together of a number of disciplines: vacuum technology, electronics, high-power technology, material science, high-voltage engineering, and so on. The MTRDC has developed a number of devices, mostly TWTs, which are broadband amplifiers. They have a large market share among the MWTs. TWTs contribute to almost half the share of the MWT market in the world, with all the other devices such as magnetrons and klystrons, contributing the rest. Lalit Kumar said: “So we have chosen to work in this field, and this is important. We have already made a high-power X-band CCTWT for the airborne radar, an S-band CCTWT for the ground-based radar surveillance radar and broadband helix TWTs for electronic warfare applications.”

Apart from these tubes, the MTRDC is now making complete MPMs, which are highly compact, efficient amplifier modules combining the best attributes of solid state and vacuum device technologies. Lalit Kumar likened the clubbing of solid state and vacuum device technologies to a relay race, with the first half of the race (for low power) won by the former and the second half (for high power) won by the VEDs. MPMs are used in flight-level radars (FLR) manufactured by BEL, Bangalore. The weight and volume of these radars, which earlier employed big high-power amplifier racks, have come down by ten times after the employment of MPMs.

The MTRDC is also working on vacuum micro-electron devices, which will combine the best of solid state and vacuum devices. The MTRDC has also mastered the development of high-density dispenser cathodes. A cathode, the emitter of electrons, is the most important part of any MWT and is the component that determines the tube's life. “Several batches of cathodes for helix TWTs, CCTWTs and magnetrons have been developed and tested in the actual tube environment. Their performance has been at par with imported equivalents,” Bhat said. There are not more than five manufacturers of cathodes in the world.

The MTRDC has been successful in developing highly compact EPCs, which deliver conditioned power to various electrodes of the TWT and solid state amplifiers. “In layman's terms, the EPCs are called power supplies. But power supply is simple technology. What we are doing is highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art, most compact, 95 per cent efficient power converters for specific devices such as TWTs and solid-state amplifiers. They also monitor the health, control the operation and communicate with the host system of these devices to carry out commands,” explained Lalit Kumar.

He is happy that the Indian capabilities and achievements in vacuum electronics were highlighted to the entire international VED community from 15 countries when the MTRDC hosted the 12th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) International Vacuum Electronics Conference (IVEC-2011) in Bangalore in February 2011. It was lauded as the largest IVEC gathering outside the United States and had several first-time events.

July 17, 2013

IRNSS-1A is positioned in the designated equatorial cross over longitude of 55 deg E.

All operations are normal.

In Orbit Test is in progress.

SSridhar wrote:ISRO Release

July 17, 2013

IRNSS-1A is positioned in the designated equatorial cross over longitude of 55 deg E.

All operations are normal.

In Orbit Test is in progress.

Gagan wrote:The only reasonable option then is to have a system that is fully under the control of GoI

Shrinivasan wrote:

disha wrote:Anyway., here is a link to a study on IRNSS http://www.ion.org/publications/abstrac ... cleID=9566., all I have is an abstract!!

Here is the complete study... http://www.scribd.com/doc/153888774/ISR ... t-Al-jan11

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch three satellites belonging to the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) constellation this year.

Delivering the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Memorial Lecture on ‘Recent Flights in Indian Space Programme’, scientific secretary of Isro V Koteshwara Rao on Thursday said three IRNSS satellites-IRNSS-1B,IRNSS-1C and IRNSS-1D will be launched this year.

IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system designed to provide position information in the Indian region and 1,500 km around the Indian mainland.

IRNSS would provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Services (SPS) – provided to all users – and Restricted Services (RS) that is provided only to authorised users.

It is a constellation of seven satellites and Isro has already launched IRNSS-1A, first of the seven satellites constituting the space segment of the IRNSS last year. The entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is planned to be completed by 2015-16.

He added that apart from the three satellites belonging to the IRNSS series, Isro has a target to launch five more satellites, which includes a commercial launch- SPOT-7 satellite and an GSLV Mk III experimental flight.

SPOT-7 is an advanced French Remote Sensing Satellite, which will be launched during first quarter of 2014.

Varoon Shekhar wrote:"Three (3) IRNSS Launches slated this year..."

How will they manage 3 IRNSS satellite launches, plus SRE-2 with a Cartosat, one more GSLV mark 2, one commercial launch of "SPOT" from France, plus Astrosat? That makes 7 launches for 2014. Is that doable?

Airlines that use the national GPS augmentation system GAGAN may get incentives, according to a top official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The Ministry plans to aggressively promote GAGAN across all other air transportation sectors, such as Railways, maritime and road transport, Airports Authority of India Chairman R.K. Srivastava announced on Wednesday at a conference of users of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). The event was organised by Indian Space Research Organisation and AAI.

Mr. Srivastava said, "AAI is considering incentives and programmes to accelerate GAGAN's use among commercial airlines and general aviation aircraft. We will conduct a few user meets before deciding the quantum."

The government-owned Alliance Air and Pawan Hans Helicopters may be the first users.

Officials indicated that the AAI board recently approved the incentive plan. Airlines may be discounted for the cost of fitting the receiver (around Rs. 1 crore); or be charged between five and 10 per cent lower RNFC (route navigation facilities charges). Major airlines now pay RNFC of around Rs. 100 crore a year. Other options are being explored. Mr. Srivastava said AAI is pushing for retrofitting GAGAN receivers on existing aircraft and also buying aircraft fitted with them in future.

AAI and ISRO have jointly established the Rs. 770-crore GAGAN over a decade, mainly to ease air traffic and airport congestion across the country. Fully approved for use in April this year, the system is yet to be actively used by aircraft manufacturers or airlines, which, experts say, is also the case with the US and European augmentation systems.

AAI's Member (ANS) A.K. Dutta and General Manager GAGAN S.V. Satish said GAGAN would reduce fuel expenditure and cost of flying in general; it would simplify flights to remote, hilly locations in the north-east and landing in small airports that do not have suitable ground aids. Satish Reddy, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, said Indian manufacturers should focus on making GAGAN and the regional system IRNSS a low-cost, reliable success, whether by integrating them in receivers or in smart phones.

The Indian Space Research Organisation has unveiled plans to gradually make its regional satellite navigation system global — akin to powerful position-telling systems such as the U.S.’ GPS and the Russian GLONASS.

ISRO Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said four of the seven Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) satellites are in orbit and the last three spacecraft would be added in orbit by March 2016. The IRNSS would provide self-reliance in the strategically important area of position-related information, he said at a users’ conference on global navigation satellite systems on Thursday.

The focus now was on completing the regional constellation and extending it to South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries. “After that we will look at taking it gradually over the entire globe, may be in less than a decade. It could be done by adding a set of regional satellites over adjoining countries. We are working towards this with other countries – [South] Korea and the Gulf nations, to name a few,” Mr. Kiran Kumar said.

The signals from the regional system were already available 1,500 km beyond the borders.

In April this year, ISRO and the Airports Authority of India also completed GAGAN, focussed on airlines, airports and the civil aviation sector but applicable to land and sea-based services. GAGAN enhances the GPS-derived details of location and time of objects or persons.

Both IRNSS and GAGAN, he said, would drive an unlimited set of personal, public and industrial users, from transportation, railways, forestry, farming, agriculture and security. Around 200 navigation receiver sets built by industry and using ISRO design would be out soon.

‘Panic Button and Global Positioning System in Mobile Phone Handsets Rules 2016’ notified

WCD Minister, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi congratulates Prime Minister on the historic step for safety of women

The Department of Telecommunications has notified the “Panic Button and Global Positioning System in Mobile Phone Handsets Rules 2016”. The Ministry of Women and Child Development had taken up the issue of installation of a physical panic button on mobile phones as one of the initiatives in June 2014. It was observed that in order to provide safety to women in distress situation, it is important to enable them to send out distress signal to a family member or the police authorities so that they can be rescued.

The Ministry had discussed this issue with a number of stakeholders as well as Department of Telecommunications and had insisted that a physical panic button is much superior to having an App on the mobile phone. It was argued that a women in distress does not have more than a second or two to send out a distress message as a perpetrator will often reach out to her mobile phone in the event of a physical/sexual assault. After an elaborate process of discussion and deliberation, the Department of Telecommunications as well stakeholders finally agreed to have this facility installed in the mobile phones.

Accordingly, the Department of Telecommunications has notified the rules on panic button vide notification dated 22nd April, 2016 issued under section 10 of the Indian Wireless Telegraph Act 1933. Under these rules, w.e.f. 1.1.2017, all feature phones will have the facility of panic button configured to the numeric key 5 or 9 and all smart phones will have the panic button configured to three times short pressing of the on-off button. Further, w.e.f. 1.1.2018, all mobile phones will be required to have the facility of identifying the location through satellite based GPS.

The Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, congratulated the Prime Minister on this historic step which aims at providing a security net to millions of women who face distress situation in day to day life. She stated that India will be one of the first countries to have mandated this for making women feel safe. She also stated that a panic button will also act as a deterrent to perpetrators. She has thanked the Minister for Communication and IT as well as mobile phone handset manufacturers for agreeing to bring about this historic change on her request.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development will now be working with the Department of Telecommunications and the stakeholders to ensure that similar solutions be made available for existing mobile phone handsets in the form of software patches by which same buttons could be configured to send out emergency calls for concerned telephone numbers. Ministry stated that these software patches will be made available for direct download in the smart phones and installation at the mobile phone shops by the concerned manufactures/service providers.

 
(Release ID :142272)

PSLV-C33 core stage integrated over the launch pedestal. Courtesy: ISRO

SRIHARIKOTA: Soon after the last of the seven-satellite constellation that India is setting up to provide indigenous navigation system reached its predetermined path in space, Prime Minister Narendra Modi named it ‘Navic’ and dedicated the navigation system to the nation.

PM Modi Terms PSLV-C33 Launch as Example of 'Make in India'

India Completes Navigation System With Launch of 7th Satellite With Launch of 7th Satellite

In his televised address after the successful launch of IRNSS-1G, Modi said Navic (Navigation with Indian Constellation) will ensure that the country need not rely on foreign navigational support platforms, thereby make the country 'self- reliant' in this regard. India has become only the fifth country to have an indigenous designed regional navigation system after the United States (GPS), Russia (Glonass), China (Beidou) and France (Doris).

This 'proud example of Make in India, Made in India and Made for India' would benefit the 125 crore Indians, especially the fishermen, and also the entire SAARC region, Modi said, lauding the team at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for their 'gift' to the nation.

Launched from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) in Sriharikota, about 80 kilometres from Chennai, the PSLV-C33 rocket bearing the IRNSS-1G satellite took off precisely at 12.50 pm. With the Indian scientists mastering the operation of the vessel that has come to become among the most reliable spacecrafts in the world, the launch was uneventful – it lifted off into the clear sky, performed as per the set parameters and placed the satellite in its Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.

Besides providing accurate position information to common users, the completely independent platform of IRNSS will enable a safe and secure positional service system towards meeting the country's strategic needs.

IRNSS, or Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System, comprises of seven satellites which will enable the real-time positioning services over the country and a region extending to 1500 km around the country. ISRO launched the first navigation satellite, IRNSS-1A in July 2013. While Standard Positioning System (SPS) will be provided to all the users, restricted service (RS), an encrypted service, would be provided to only authorised users.

IRNSS-1G being loaded into Large Space Simulation Chamber (LSSC) for thermal vacuum test. | EPS

SRIKARIKOTA: India today completed its landmark mission for a regional navigational system on par with US-based GPS with the successful launch of IRNSS-1G, the seventh and last in the constellation of satellites that make up the system.

When the IRNSS-1G becomes operational in about a month's time, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) would offer services like terrestrial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, navigation aide for hikers and travellers, visual and voice navigation for drivers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the scientists and congratulated the people of the country on the achievement saying, "with this successful launch, we will determine our own paths powered by our technology".

"The world will know it as Navic.... The new technology will benefit our people, our fishermen. This is a great gift to people from scientists," Modi said.

ISRO's workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C33) lifted off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in this spaceport, about 110 kms from Chennai, at 12.50 PM and soared into clear skies.

The four-stage rocket injected IRNSS-1G into the intended orbit about 20 minutes after the lift-off as the PSLV marked yet another textbook launch and its 34th consecutive successful mission, reaffirming its dependability.

While IRNSS was already operational with four satellites, the remaining three were required to make it "more accurate and efficient", Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The IRNSS comprising the seven satellites will offer services with much 'better accuracy' and targeted position in navigation on par with the Global Positioning System of the United States.

ISRO had launched and operationalised other six satellites - IRNSS-1F on March 10, 2016, IRNSS-1E (January 20, 2016), IRNSS-1D (March 28, 2015), IRNSS-1C (October 16, 2014), IRNSS-1B (April 4, 2014) and IRNSS-1A on July 1, 2013.

According to ISRO officials, the total cost of all the seven satellites was Rs 1,420 crore.

For today's mission, ISRO used the PSLV-XL variant which has six solid strap-on motors to augment the thrust provided by the first stage, making the rocket powerful.

The XL variant was used during the launch of Mars Orbiter Mission, Chandrayaan-1, ASTROSAT besides the six earlier IRNSS satellites.

IRNSS-1G which has a 12-year mission life would become operational in about a month's time, marking the full-fledged functioning of the IRNSS.

With the operations of six satellites, so far, India demonstrated a targeted position of accuracy much better than 20 metres above earth and round-the-clock.

A team of Finnish researchers describe the results of a recent successful campaign to track signals from the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System using a software designed receiver, the FGI-GSRx. Initial results indicated amazing results despite the receiver location being well outside the satellites’ intended coverage area. Finland lies north of 60°N latitude more than 5,000 kilometers away from India. Astonishingly, the achieved accuracy was of 95% circular error probability (CEP), considering that only 2 IRNSS satellites were used in the position solution, the accuracy figures are consistent with a GPS-only scenario. Therefore, the impact of these results is considerable and interesting to the positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) research and user community even outside the intended service area of IRNSS.

This proves how powerful the IRNSS system really is, ISRO has been able to achieve such expansive range coverage with only 2 satellites whereas GPS & GLONSS have launched more than 24 satellites to cover the globe, hypothetically given the results of the Finnish experiment ISRO may be able to achieve global coverage with just 15-18 satellites. A truly remarkable achievement indeed. In view of this, IRNSS signals might be very useful in augmenting GPS and Galileo service in northern Europe.

Besides providing a leading technological edge over GPS, IRNSS will enable handheld devices to receive seamless S-Band signals. Additionally, once a simple code is added in the mobile phones, they would be able to receive L-band signals as well.

A senior ISRO official said, “Both these L and S band signals received from seven satellite constellation of the IRNSS are being calculated by a special embedded software which reduces the errors caused by atmospheric disturbances significantly. This in turn gives a superior quality location accuracy than the American GPS system,”

srin wrote:Wondering aloud on the utility of IRNSS (despite my own posts above) ...

Because India has access to GLONASS military signal, it doesn't need to rely on GPS anyway. So why IRNSS indeed ?