Indian Space Projects

GSLV F01 Launch

Aditya

A satellite to study the sun's corona, proposed to be launched in 2012. The satellite will help to determine why solar flares and solar winds disturb the communication network and electronics on earth. ISRO plans to use the data from the satellite to better protect its satellites and spaceware from being damaged by hot winds and flares ejected out of the corona.

Aditya will be the first satellite specifically designed to study the Sun's corona.

Astrosat

India's first dedicated astronomy research satellite, Astrosat, is being developed by ISRO in collaboration with Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore, University of Leicester, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.

The 1,650 kg satellite, designed to observe the universe using the X-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths, will be launched atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the middle of fiscal year 2010.

It will be placed in a 650km (400 miles) orbit with an 8° inclination for spectroscopic studies of X-ray binaries, supernova remnants, quasars, pulsars, galaxy clusters and active galactic nuclei at a number of different wavelengths simultaneously, from the ultraviolet band to energetic x-rays.

The satellite will carry the following instruments:

Large-Area Xenon-filled Proportional Counters (LAXPC)
A Coded-mask Camera with Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride detector array (CZTI)
A Soft-Xray imaging telescope with multi-foil Wolter optics and CCD detector (SXT)
A Scanning X-ray Sky Monitor consisting of three one-dimensional coded mask cameras (SSM)
Two 40-cm dia Ultraviolet Telescopes for Visible, NUV and FUV coverage (UVIT)
A Charged particle monitor (CPM)

The total weight of all the instruments will be about 750 kg, and the weight of the entire spacecraft will be about 1650 kg.

The camera was designed by the University of Leicester and the manufacture of the hardware components was undertaken by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. In addition to the manufacture of the camera hardware, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research has built the main telescope body and mirror. The University of Leicester is to assemble the camera, support the project through consultancy and calibrate the camera at the Space Research Centre.

Illustration courtesy ISRO

TIFR is also developing the satellite’s attitude control system, consisting of two star trackers and gyros, to facilitate accurate pointing of the instruments towards a specific direction in the sky.

The challenges associated with developing the Attitude Control System have been overcome and delivery of the payload to the ISRO satellite center will begin from the middle of this year.

In particular, it will train its instruments at active galactic nuclei at the core of the Milky Way that is believed to have a super massive black hole.

Other research institutions contributing to the collaborative effort of the project include:

ISRO
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
Raman Research Institute, Bangalore
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune
Nuclear Research Laboratory, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai
S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata
Canadian Space Agency.

Chandrayaan

Chandrayaan-1 is a 1,304-kg spacecraft equipped with 10 scientific instruments to study the Moon from a 100-km orbit. An additional probe slammed  into the lunar surface hoping to uncover signs of Helium 3, an isotope that may fuel energy generation from nuclear fusion in the future.

Chandrayaan carries 11 scientific instruments 4 of which were built in India, 2 in the US. 3 by European Space Agency (ESA) and one in Bulgaria.

India’s contributions to the spacecraft instruments include a terrain-mapping stereo camera with a 5m resolution to map the moon’s topography, a hyper-spectral imaging camera to help map the moon’s mineral distribution, a lunar laser-ranging instrument to determine the difference in height between the spacecraft and the lunar surface, and a high-energy X-ray spectrometer to detect radioactive emissions from the surface.

Illustration courtesy ISRO

NASA Instruments

NASA’s contribution includes a mini-synthetic-aperture radar (mini-SAR) developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland and funded by NASA, and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) built by Brown University in Rhode Island and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The mini-SAR will map the moon’s permanently shadowed lunar polar regions, including large areas that are never visible from Earth. The mini-SAR “is a precursor to an advanced technology system” built for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, scheduled for launch April 24, 2009.

Both instruments will use their positions in lunar orbit to continue investigating the hydrogen signatures detected in the deep polar craters by ground-based radars and orbiters like the Pentagon's Clementine missile defense testbed. Some scientists believe those signatures could originate with material from ancient comets that flowed to the lunar poles and remained preserved in the deep freeze of permanent darkness in deep craters there.

The M3 is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer that will help produce the first map of the entire lunar surface at high spatial and spectral resolution, showing the minerals that make up the moon's surface.

A detailed map of lunar resources, possibly including water, will be useful to astronauts who may live and work on the moon and for those who may use the moon as a way station for longer journeys into space.

ESA Instruments

ESA provided the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray spectrometer (C1XS) with the United Kingdom to study the moon’s origin and evolution, and an Sub KEV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA, with Sweden) to image the moon’s surface composition and surface interactions with the solar wind.

ESA and Germany’s Max Planck Institutes provided a near-infrared spectrometer to survey mineral resources for future landing sites and exploration, and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences provided a radiation dose monitor experiment to measure the radiation environment in near-lunar space.

Mission Objectives

The mission objectives are to use high-resolution remote sensing in a range of frequencies (visible light, near infrared and low- and high-energy X-rays) to create a three-dimensional moon atlas and map the lunar surface for presence of water and distribution of minerals and chemical elements like magnesium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, iron, titanium, radon, uranium and thorium.

The Chanrayaan mission was budgeted at Rs 386 crore

Flight

It was launched on an Indian-built PSLV-C11 rocket, a 316-tonne upgraded version of ISRO's workhorse PSLV launcher, on October 22

The Bulgarian experiment, Radom, was activated on October 22, when the mission was launched.

The launcher put Chandrayaan-1 in an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 22,866 km and a perigee of 256 km around the earth.

Over the next few days, ISRO performed four maneuvers by firing the LAM to keep increasing this ellipticity.

On November 4, the spacecraft was put into an highly elliptical orbit with an apogee of 3,80,000 km. The moon is 3,84,000 km away from the earth.

On November 8, Chandrayaan's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) was fired for 817 seconds as it passed at a distance of about 500 km from the moon, to slow it down to 366 meters per second and facilitate its capture by the moon's gravity.

The spacecraft entered into a 11 hour elliptical polar orbit around the moon which brought it to within 504 km of the Moon's surface and took it as far as 7,502 km away

On November 9, the LAM was fired and the spacecraft's orbit around the moon was further reduced to 7,502 km by 200 km.

On Tuesday, November 12, the spacecraft was further lowered to a 102 km periselene (nearest point to moon) and 255-km aposilene (farthest point from moon) orbit.

On Wednesday evening, November 12, Chandrayaan was successfully lowered into its final orbit, about 100 km from the moon. 

At 8.06.54 p.m. IST  on Friday, November 14, the MIP was released. It impacted the Shackleton crater 25 minutes later.

About 300 seconds after the separation of the MIP, the SCC received signals of a reduction in the velocity of the descent of the MIP indicating that the retro-rocket had fired.

For 25 minutes of its descent towards the lunar soil, ISRO received continuous radio frequency signal from the MIP.

Data from the video-camera of the MIP, its radar altimeter and mass spectrometer kept pouring in simultaneously throughout the 25 minutes of the MIP's descent. The video-camera had taken a number of pictures of the moon's surface.

Twenty-five minutes after the separation began, the receiver went on unlock, indicating that the MIP had impacted.

The spacecraft is guided and monitored remotely from the space agency's telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac).

Status Report: November 16

Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI), one of the 11 scientific instruments (payloads) carried by Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, has successfully been turned ON today. The instrument was switched ON when the spacecraft was passing over western part of the moon's visible hemisphere.

Preliminary assessment of the data from LLRI by ISRO scientists indicates that the instrument's performance is normal. LLRI sends pulses of infrared laser light towards a strip of lunar surface and detects the reflected portion of that light. With this, the instrument can very accurately measure the height of moon's surface features.

LLRI will be continuously kept ON and takes 10 measurements per second on both day and night sides of the moon. It provides topographical details of both polar and equatorial regions of the moon. Detailed analysis of the data sent by LLRI helps in understanding the internal structure of the moon as well as the way that celestial body evolved.

Of the 11 scientific payloads on board Chandrayaan, the following four have been successfully turned on

LLRI
Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC),
Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM)
Moon Impact Probe (MIP)

Status Report: November 30

Eight of the ten instruments on board the Chandrayaan have been activated. These are: mini synthetic aperture radar (MiniSAR), moon mineralogy mapper (M3), radiation dose monitor (RADOM), terrain mapping camera (TMC), hyper-spectral imager (HySI), lunar laser ranging instrument (LLRI), imaging x-ray spectrometer (C1XS) and smart near infrared spectrometer (SIR-2).

The remaining two, the sub-kiloelectronvolt (keV) atom reflecting analyser (SARA) and the high-energy x-ray spectrometer (HEX),  will be activated in mid December.

ISRO's deep space network (DSN) at Byalalu, about 40 km from India's tech hub of Bangalore, transmits commands and receives signals from the spacecraft.

India's first lunar mission signifies the country's breakthrough into the club of space powers, making it the third Asian country after Japan and China to reach the Moon.

Status Report: January 11

The Sub-Kev Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA), a contribution through ESA from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the Space Physics Laboratory and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, was activated in the week.

All the ten instruments on board are functioning as designed. The spacecraft was inserted into its 100 km circular orbit with an accuracy of 5km.

Following orbital insertion, the temperature within the spacecraft began to rise. The problem was resolved by reorienting the spacecraft.

"The spacecraft has about 183 kg fuel onboard and we are looking at a two-year plus mission life," S K Shivakumar, Director ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) said at the 96th Indian Science Congress in Shillong on January 4.

Orbital maneuvers need to be carried out on the spacecraft once every 28 days to ensure that it stays in the designated 100 km circular orbit and does not go astray.

"About three kg fuel is used when onboard motors are fired for carrying out the orbital maneuver," said Shivakumar, whose team has been monitoring the spacecraft ever since it's launch on October 22 last year.

Project review on 100th day

A group of 70 scientists assembled in Bangalore on Thursday, January 29, to review the observations made using the 10 scientific instruments on board the Chandrayaan.

ISRO Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair confirmed that all the 10 instruments are performing well.

"We had an assessment of all the 10 instruments on board the space craft and it was confirmed that their performance has been excellent so far."

During the course of the two day meeting scientists will identify "areas of interest" that the instruments will focus on, including identifying any water-ice on the lunar surface, said ISRO Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair.

Additional Info

MiniSAR Nasa subsite
Moon Mineralogy Mapper

Chandrayaan II

The Chandrayaan-2 is a joint Indo-Russian project, with each agency putting in around Rs 425 crore,  expected to take off sometime between 2010 and 2012. It will consist of an orbiter and a lander. The lander will have two robotic moon rovers. The lander will be designed and made by Russia, while the accompanying moon rover will be jointly designed and developed by India and Russia.

Mayilsamy Annadurai, Project Director Chandrayaan-1, told the press on January 18 that Chandrayaan 2 will be launched using a GSLV Mk III. The complete spacecraft will weigh 2,700 kg.

Russian press reports place the weight of the Moon lander at 400 kg.

In a statement to the press on April 20, following the launch of RISAT 2, Chandrayaan-2 project, TK Alex, director of the ISRO Satellite Center, said that ISRO is finalizing the test equipment that would go with the two rovers that would soft land on the moon.

The landing site on the moon is yet to identified but the far side of the moon, particularly South Pole Aitkin (SPA) basin is a prime candidate.

The instrument package on board the orbiter is yet to be finalized. It could consist of Terrain mapping camera, 400-4000nm hyper spectral Imager, Low energy X-ray spectrometer (CCD-array)and Gamma ray, neutron, alpha spectrometer

ISRO announced on Wednesday, December 24, that the design for Chandrayaan II has been completed and it will be launched by 2012.

“The designs for Chandrayaan II have been completed and we hope to launch it by 2012,” ISRO chairperson G. Madhavan Nair told reporters here on the sidelines of a function organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to felicitate the Chandrayaan I team.

GAGAN

GAGAN is a satellite based navigation system that will serve as a low cost substitute for Instrument Landing System (ILS). The system is being developed by ISRO in collaboration with Airports Authority of India.

GAGAN will use a satellite based Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) technology (Satellite based WASS is also referred to as Satellite Based Augmentation Systems or SBAS) developed by Raytheon for the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA.).

WAAS is a ground and space-based network that provides corrections for GPS signals so they can yield more precision in all modes of transportation, including civil aviation. Lateral Precision with Vertical (LPV) guidance on the WAAS, facilitates civil aircraft to make an instrumented approach for landing with cloud ceilings as low as 250 ft. and visibility as low as 0.75 mi. This compares well with a typical ILS that allows an aircraft to make an instrumented approach with a cloud ceiling as low as 200 ft. and visibility as low as 0.50.

The GAGAN system will consist of a nationwide network of receiving stations that are precisely surveyed to compare the position determined from GPS satellite signals against the location of the receiver. The observed deltas will then be sent to a master control center where computer processing will extrapolate the data to generate correcting deltas for GPS signals anywhere within the network. These correcting deltas will be relayed via geostationary satellite to civil aircraft so more precise fixes of their position can be derived from GPS satellite signals. ISRO will launch and manage the data link satellites.

The cost savings in using a system like GAGAN accrue from the fact that its ground system does not need to be duplicated for each runway, as is the case for an ILS. The GPS signals, as well as the correcting deltas, can be made available to aircraft for any runway within the network using satellite based communication.

GAGAN will provide a precision of 1.5-meter accuracy in the horizontal plane, 2.5-meter in the vertical. This is the same as the FAA system. However, to account for possible worst-case positioning errors in civil aviation, a much rougher figure of about 15 meters horizontal will be used, for example.

In addition to using GPS signals, GAGAN will be able to use timing and positioning signals from GLONASS and the proposed GALILEO Navigation Satellite System..

The GAGAN system will have a full complement of the SBAS inclusive of ground and
onboard segment. It will be built in phases. The first phase will serve as a technology demonstrator. Eight receivers will be built, over a period of two years, to cover the country. One of the receivers will be collocated in Bangalore with the master control center. The onboard segment consists of a navigation payload onboard Indian geostationary satellite GSAT-4 slated for launch in 2005-2006.

One essential component of the GAGAN project is the study of the ionospheric behavior over the Indian region. This has been specially taken up in view of the rather uncertain nature of the behavior of the ionosphere in the region. The study will lead to the optimization of the algorithms for the ionospheric corrections in the region.

India plans to use the GAGAN system initially in 40 candidate airports that will require CAT-1 or close to CAT-1 capability in the near future.

Europe, US/ Canada, Japan, Australia are currently developing their individual SBAS similar to GAGAN. National Institute for Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) of Indonesia has expressed interest in GAGAN

GSLV D3

GSLV D3 will carry an Indian developed cryogenic third stage which will eventually be capable of launching 2500kg into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).

The cryogenic engines that have powered the GSLV rocket so far were sold to India by Russia. Of the seven cryogenic engines supplied, five have now been used. Eventually, all GSLVs will use the Indian Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) that develops 9 ton of thrust against 7.5 ton of the Russian CUS and carries 15 ton of propellant against 12.5 ton

The GSLV D3 is sometime referred to in the press as GSLV Mk 2. However, ISRO does not officially have a GSLV Mk 2 designation.

A human flight rated version of the GSLV with a capsule escape rocket is proposed to be used initially for India's manned space mission. This too has been referred to as GSLV Mk II in the press.

The GSLV D3 is expected to be launched in Jun- Jul 2009 carrying the 2.4 ton GSAT - 4.

GSLV Mk III (LVM3)

A scale model of GSLV MkIII at Aero India 2009

GSLV-Mk III will launch a four ton payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit and up to 10-ton satellites in low Earth orbit. It is expected to be operational by 2010/2011 with first flight in 2009-10.

The launcher will be eventually used for the Indian manned space flight program. It will allow the Indian Manned Spacecraft to carry three astronauts instead of the two planned with the GSLV Mk II.
 
The launcher is not a derivative of GSLV. It is a completely new design.

It is a three-stage launcher with a 110 ton core liquid propellant stage (L-110) using two Vikas engines, a strap-on stage with two solid propellant motors, each with 200 ton propellant (S-200), and a cryogenci upper stage with a propellant loading of 25 tonne (C-25).

GSLV Mk-III will have a lift-off weight of about 629 ton and will be 42.4 m tall. The payload fairing, with a diameter of 5 m and 5 m cylindrical height, will provide for about 110 cubic meter of payload volume.

The launcher is under development with a $500 million budget and a Russian cryogenic stage, which will eventually be replaced with an Indian Cryogenic Engine (ICE). Both the variants are expected to be ready in 2009 for first flight.

The Cryogenic Upper Stage of GSLV features a propellant loading of 12.5 tons and that of GSLV Mk II, 15 tons. The Mk III, as indicated above, carrles 25 tons of LOX/LH2.

The LVM3 designation refers to the configuration of the launcher, which can be easily upgraded.

IAF Satellite

The first dedicated satellite for the Indian Air Force is expected to be launched in July 2009, PTI reported on November 18.

According to IAF Chief Fali H. Major, the satellite will serve as the air force's eye in the skies. It will link up the six AWACS that the IAF is acquiring with each other as well as other ground and airbased radars.

In early January 2009, the IAF Chief said the IAF satellite will be launched in 2010, suggesting there has been a delay in the project.

Indian Mars Mission

ISRO is planning to launch a orbiter mission to Mars using a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

The Mars orbiter will study the planet's atmosphere, weather and its interactions with solar wind.

"Next year we will be able to finalize and by 2013 it can take off," Isro Chairman G Madhavan Nair told PTI on the sidelines of a felicitation of the Chandrayaan-I team by CII on December 23.

Indian Human Spaceflight Program

A manned space flight is proposed before 2015, at a budget of Rs 12.4 billion ($242 million), using a fully autonomous orbital vehicle carrying two or three crew members to 400km (250 miles) low Earth orbit for up to 7 days and back.

The planning commission has already approved the mission.

The Indian Government has sanctioned Rs 95 crore to study all aspects of the manned space mission.

A 100 acre astronaut training is planned to be completed on the outskirts of Bangalore by 2012 by ISRO in collaboration with IAM Bangalore at a cost of Rs 10 billion.

For more information on this project visit the knoll for Indian Human Spaceflight Program.

Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System is planned as a constellation of seven satellites, 3 in GEO and 4 in GSO orbit. The first satellite is planned to be launched in 2009-10.

The IRNSS is expected to provide position accuracies similar to the Global Positioning System (10m over Indian landmass and 20m over the Indian Ocean) in a region centered around the country with a coverage extending up to 1,500 km from India.

Details of the IRNSS and GAGAN

Oceansat - 2

Oceansat - 2 is expected to be launched in August use a PSLV launcher.

It will provide continuity to the services and applications of the Oceansat-1 with the Ocean Color Monitor (OCM) 2. It will additionally feature a Ku-band pencil beam Scatterometer (SCAT) and an Italian payload called Radio Occultation Sounder for the Atmosphere (ROSA).

OCM-2

OCM-2 will be used for potential fishing zones (PFZs) forecast and feature a solid-state camera operating in push broom scanning mode, using linear array Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) as detectors. This camera has eight narrow spectral bands operating in visible and near infrared (NIR) bands (402-885 nm). Since the ocean observation is planned at the local time of equator crossing time of 1200 hrs noon, the camera can be tilted up to ± 20° in the along track direction to avoid sun glint.

OCM data will be available in two spatial resolutions: Local Area Coverage (LAC) of 360 m and Global Area Coverage (GAC) of 4 km.

SCAT

SCAT an active microwave device designed and developed at ISRO/SAC, Ahmedabad. It will be used to determine ocean surface level wind vectors through estimation of radar back-scatter.

The scatterometer system has a 1-m parabolic dish antenna and a dual feed assembly to generate two pencil beams and is scanned at a rate of 20.5 rpm to cover the entire swath.

The inner beam makes an incidence angle of 48.90° and the outer beam makes an incidence angle of 57.60° on the ground. It covers a continuous swath of 1400 km for inner beam and 1840 km for outer beam respectively. The inner and outer beams are configured in horizontal and vertical polarization respectively for both transmit and receive modes.

The aim is to provide global ocean coverage and wind vector retrieval with a revisit time of 2 days.

ROSA

ROSA is a new GPS occultation receiver provided by ASI (Italian Space Agency). The objective is to characterize the lower atmosphere and the ionosphere, opening the possibilities for the development of several scientific activities exploiting these new radio occultation data sets.

There appear to be differences between ISRO and ASI over the transfer of technology for the ROSA payload. ISRO ChiefMadhavan Nair was in Italy in May 2009 to resolve these differences.

Megha-Tropiques Weather Satellite

The Megha-Tropiques tropical weather and climate monitoring satellites, a joint project of ISRO and the French Space agency CNES, is scheduled for launch during 2009-10.

The Megha-Tropiques mission will be used to study the water cycle in the tropical atmosphere in the context of climate change. It will help scientists monitor the complex interaction between solar radiation, water vapor, clouds, precipitation and atmospheric motion and understand how these impact the life cycle of convective systems in the tropical region and influence the Indian monsoon.

Megha-Tropiques knol

PSLV lite satellite launcher

ISRO plans to develop a new three stage variant of the PSLV to place satellites weighing less than 500kg into 400-500km low-earth orbit (LEO).

The new launcher will address a growing need for launching small satellites like the 300kg Israeli spy satellite, Tecsar, which ISRO launched in January, and the 352kg Italian astronomical satellite, Agile, which it launched in April 2007.

A low earth orbit allows a satellite to return to map a targeted region on earth at more frequent intervals.

"This (launcher) is for strategic reasons. There is also demand from international customers," said an ISRO official, who did not want to be named.

The new launcher is expected to take six months to develop.

Semi Cryogenic Engine

 India will develop a semi cryogenic engine using liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene under a Rs. 1,798 crore six year project cleared by the Union Cabinet on December 19, 2008.

 The project envisages foreign collaboration with a foreign exchange component of Rs. 588 crores.

 The liquid stages of PSLV and GSLV engines use toxic propellants that are harmful to the environment. The trend worldwide is to change over to eco-friendly propellants.

 Liquid engines working with cryogenic propellants (liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen) and semi cryogenic engines using liquid oxygen and kerosene are considered relatively environment friendly, non-toxic and non corrosive. In addition, the propellants for semi-cryogenic engine are safer to handle and store. It will also reduce the cost of launch operations.

This advanced propulsion technology is now available only with Russia and USA. The world’s most powerful liquid engine, the Russian RD 170, is powered by a LOX - kerosene combination.

LOX - Kerosene engines have powered several American launchers as well, including Saturn V, which carried American astronauts to the moon. For India it is the beginning to rise in to the moons and the stars.

The semi cryogenic engine will facilitate applications for future space missions such as the Reusable Launch Vehicle, Unified Launch Vehicle and vehicle for interplanetary missions.

Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT)

The radar imaging satellite is scheduled for launch by the end of FY 2009.

The 1,780-kg Risat features a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) operating in a multi-polarization and multi-resolution mode. It has a 6 x 2 meter planar active array.

The radar will be able to provide day and night imaging through dust, cloud and smoke.

The satellite provide 3-50 meters spatial resolution. Various modes such as Scan SAR and strip and spot modes are planned to provide images with coarse, fine and high spatial resolutions.

Some of the new technological elements in RISAT are: 160 x 4 Mbps data handling system, 0.3 Nm (50 Nms) reaction wheels, antenna deployment mechanism, 70 V power bus, thermal control of SAR antenna and phased array antenna (with Dual Polarization).

Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT 2)

ISRO successfully launched RISAT 2, a 300 kg radar imaging satellite equipped with a X-Band synthetic aperture radar, at 6:45 am IST (0115 UT)  on April 20.

The satellite was placed in orbit using a core along version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C12;
along with a 38 kg mini communication satellite, Anusat, built by Anna University, Chennai.
 
The 44 meter tall PSLV-C12 weighing 230 ton was launched from the Second Launch Pad (SLP) at SDSC SHAR.

It placed RISAT 2 in a 550 km height orbit with an inclination of 41 deg to the equator and an orbital period of about 90 minutes.

The launch marked the first operational use of the indigenous Advanced Mission Computers and Advanced Telemetry System, which guided the vehicle from lift-off till the injection of the two satellites in the desired orbit. The new computer replaces a 30-year-old computer system,

RISAT 2 is a dual (civil and military) use off the shelf Israeli TecSAR acquired for surveillance that can take 1 m resolution images at night and through clouds.

ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair told the press that RISAT-2 has been positioned at a 41 degree inclination to enable it revisit a spot at frequent intervals.

Also the frequency of the satellite has been so fine-tuned that "we can go as low as the soil and even a few meters below the soil," Mr Nair said, adding, this satellite would enhance ISRO’s capability for mapping the earth particularly during floods, cyclones, landslides and in natural disasters management.

In the past India had to rely heavily on pictures from a Canadian satellite even during the Kosi floods last year, the ISRO Chief pointed out, adding, ‘RISAT-2’ will be particularly helpful in mapping our rice crop coverage.

ANUSAT is the first experimental communication satellite built by an Indian University under the over all guidance of ISRO. ANUSAT will demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations.

The launch was the fourteenth consecutive success for PSLV. In these launches, PSLV has placed a total of sixteen Indian satellites and sixteen foreign satellites into Polar, Geosynchronous Transfer and Low Earth Orbits.

Ref:
http://kuku.sawf.org/Articles/57295.aspx
http://kuku.sawf.org/Articles/57601.aspx

Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD)

Scale model of RLV-TD and SRE at Aero India 2009

The Indian government gave ISRO the go ahead to develop a scramjet powered Re-entry Launch Vehicle (RLV) Technology Demonstrator in 2004.

The RLV has been conceived by ISRO as a space launch system that will significantly cut down launch cost from the present level of around $12,000 / kg.

ISRO displayed a scale model of the RLV-TD at Aero India 2009.

The RLV will possess wings and tail fins, and will be launched atop a 9 ton solid booster called S-9, similar to the ones on the PSLV.

ISRO plans to achieve RLV capability in three phases.

In the first phase, which is currently underway, ISRO will develop re-entry technology, which will cover issues like precise control of the angle of entry into the atmosphere, materials technology to minimize the chance of burn-up at the high temperatures generated during re-entry, and control of the spacecraft to ensure its landing at the desired spot on the ground.

In January 2007 ISRO launched Space Recover Experiment (SRE), a 1,212-pound (550-kg) space capsule into orbit, along with Cartosat-2, using a PSLV. It then deorbited the SRE and successfully guided it to a splash down in the Bay of Bengal, validating manned flight re-entry technology.

A follow-up mission, SRE 2, is planned in the 2010-11 time frame. During the mission, the booster rocket will take the RLV to a specific altitude, release the RLV and fall into the sea. On re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere, the RLV will land in the sea, to be recovered.

In the first trial-flight in 2010, the RLV will not be recovered from sea because it will not be cost-effective to do so. ISRO will instead use telemetry data data on the re-entry, deceleration and return.

In the second phase RLV will be tested without its scramjet engine. After burnout, the booster will separate and fall away, and the RLV will go on to make an unpowered ascent.

The RLV will then re-enter the atmosphere at hypersonic speed and use aerodynamic breaking to decelerate. It will be brought to a gliding, unpowered cruise speed of about 0.8 mach, and slowed down further to make a horizontal landing.

Eventually, the RLV will be powered by an air breathing scram jet.

It is hoped that RLV technology will mature by 2015 by which time the solid rocket booster used as the first state will also be recovered and reused.

The RLV and the rocket booster will be separately recovered, with the former making a conventional landing on a runway and booster making a parachute landing.

Unlike NASA's Space Shuttle, which powers itself into orbit around the earth and subsequently de-orbits and re-enters the atmosphere to glide back to a landing, ISRO's RLV is not designed to enter orbit. It is a pure launcher. Not a spacecraft cum launcher.

It will loft a satellite into orbit and immediately re-enter the atmosphere and glide back for a conventional landing.

SARAL Weather Satellite

Saral (Satellite with ARgos and ALtika) is being built jointly by the CNES and ISRO for launch in 2011.

 With signal frequencies in the Ka-band, it will enable better observation of ice, rain, coastal zones, land masses (like forests), and wave heights. The ARgos element helps measure temperature and salinity of oceans while ALtika is a system to measure the height of the ocean, waves and tides.

"With Saral we will be able to realize precise, repetitive global measurements of sea surface height, significant wave heights and wind speed for developing operational oceanography. Saral will also give us a better understanding of climate and help us develop forecasting capabilities. This will greatly contribute to the building of a global ocean observing system. The launch of this mission is planned for 2011, with a life of 3 years (2 years for the nominal phase, and one year for the extended phase). This mission is a 50-50 cooperation between CNES and ISRO," Mr. d’Escatha told The Hindu. "Saral will replace an aging Franco-U.S. satellite which will be phased out shortly. When sailors are in distress at sea they use the ARgos system to help locate them. With this, India will become a full member of the ARgos community."

SRE 2

A follow-up to the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, or SRE-1, which was tested in January 2007. SRE-2 will be launched in the 2010-11 time frame.

The SRE, a 1,212-pound (550-kg) space capsule, validated technology developed for a manned spacecraft's controlled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere and tested heat-resistant materials developed to ensure a safe ride home for the crew.