Space Technology

Space technology is technology for use in travel or activities beyond Earth’s atmosphere, for
purposes such as spaceflight or space exploration. Space technology includes space vehicles
such as spacecraft, satellites, space stations and orbital launch vehicles; deep-space
communication; in-space propulsion; and a wide variety of other technologies including
support infrastructure equipment, and procedures.
The space environment is a sufficiently novel environment that attempting to work in it often
requires new tools and techniques. Many common everyday services for terrestrial use such
as weather forecasting, remote sensing, satellite navigation systems, satellite television, and
some long-distance communications systems critically rely on space infrastructure. Of the
sciences, astronomy and Earth science benefit from space technology.[1] New technologies
originating with or accelerated by space-related endeavors are often subsequently exploited
in other economic activities.

Basics of Orbit
An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes around another one. An
object in an orbit is called a satellite. A satellite can be natural, like Earth or the moon. Many
planets have moons that orbit them. A satellite can also be man-made, like the International
Space Station.
Planets, comets, asteroids and other objects in the solar system orbit the sun. Most of the
objects orbiting the sun move along or close to an imaginary flat surface. This imaginary
surface is called the ecliptic plane.

What Shape Is an Orbit?

Orbits come in different shapes. All orbits are elliptical, which means they are an ellipse,
similar to an oval. For the planets, the orbits are almost circular. The orbits of comets have a
different shape. They are highly eccentric or “squashed.” They look more like thin ellipses
than circles.
Satellites that orbit Earth, including the moon, do not always stay the same distance from
Earth. Sometimes they are closer, and at other times they are farther away. The closest point
a satellite comes to Earth is called its perigee. The farthest point is the apogee. For planets,
the point in their orbit closest to the sun is perihelion. The farthest point is called aphelion.
Earth reaches its aphelion during summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The time it takes a
satellite to make one full orbit is called its period. For example, Earth has an orbital period of
one year. The inclination is the angle the orbital plane makes when compared with Earth’s
equator.

How Do Objects Stay in Orbit?

An object in motion will stay in motion unless something pushes or pulls on it. This statement
is called Newton’s first law of motion. Without gravity, an Earth-orbiting satellite would go
off into space along a straight line. With gravity, it is pulled back toward Earth. A constant
tug-of-war takes place between the satellite’s tendency to move in a straight line, or
momentum, and the tug of gravity pulling the satellite back.

An object’s momentum and the force of gravity have to be balanced for an orbit to happen.
If the forward momentum of one object is too great, it will speed past and not enter into
orbit. If momentum is too small, the object will be pulled down and crash. When these forces
are balanced, the object is always falling toward the planet, but because it’s moving sideways
fast enough, it never hits the planet. Orbital velocity is the speed needed to stay in orbit. At
an altitude of 150 miles (242 kilometers) above Earth, orbital velocity is about 17,000 miles
per hour. Satellites that have higher orbits have slower orbital velocities.

Types of Orbit
Upon launch, a satellite or spacecraft is most often placed in one of several particular orbits
around Earth – or it might be sent on an interplanetary journey, meaning that it does not
orbit Earth anymore, but instead orbits the Sun until its arrival at its final destination, like
Mars or Jupiter.
There are many factors that decide which orbit would be best for a satellite to use,
depending on what the satellite is designed to achieve.

 Geostationary orbit (GEO)

 Low Earth orbit (LEO)
 Medium Earth orbit (MEO)
 Polar orbit and Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO)
 Transfer orbits and geostationary transfer orbit (GTO)
 Lagrange points (L-points)
  Geostationary orbit (GEO)

 Satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) circle Earth above the equator from west to east
following Earth’s rotation – taking 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds – by travelling at
exactly the same rate as Earth. This makes satellites in GEO appear to be ‘stationary’
over a fixed position. In order to perfectly match Earth’s rotation, the speed of GEO
satellites should be about 3 km per second at an altitude of 35 786 km. This is much
farther from Earth’s surface compared to many satellites.
 GEO is used by satellites that need to stay constantly above one particular place over
Earth, such as telecommunication satellites. This way, an antenna on Earth can be
fixed to always stay pointed towards that satellite without moving. It can also be used
by weather monitoring satellites, because they can continually observe specific areas
to see how weather trends emerge there.
 Satellites in GEO cover a large range of Earth so as few as three equally-spaced
satellites can provide near global coverage. This is because when a satellite is this far
from Earth, it can cover large sections at once. This is akin to being able to see more of
a map from a metre away compared with if you were a centimetre from it. So to see all
of Earth at once from GEO far fewer satellites are needed than at a lower altitude.
 ESA’s European Data Relay System (EDRS) programme has placed satellites in GEO,
where they relay information to and from non-GEO satellites and other stations that
are otherwise unable to permanently transmit or receive data. This means Europe can
always stay connected and online.
LOW EARTH ORBIT (LEO):

 A low Earth orbit (LEO) is, as the name suggests, an orbit that is relatively close to
Earth’s surface. It is normally at an altitude of less than 1000 km but could be as low as
160 km above Earth – which is low compared to other orbits, but still very far above
Earth’s surface.
  By comparison, most commercial aeroplanes do not fly at altitudes much greater than
approximately 14 km, so even the lowest LEO is more than ten times higher than that.
 Unlike satellites in GEO that must always orbit along Earth’s equator, LEO satellites do
not always have to follow a particular path around Earth in the same way – their plane
can be tilted. This means there are more available routes for satellites in LEO, which is
one of the reasons why LEO is a very commonly used orbit.
 LEO’s close proximity to Earth makes it useful for several reasons. It is the orbit most
commonly used for satellite imaging, as being near the surface allows it to take images
of higher resolution. It is also the orbit used for the International Space Station (ISS), as
it is easier for astronauts to travel to and from it at a shorter distance. Satellites in this
orbit travel at a speed of around 7.8 km per second; at this speed, a satellite takes
approximately 90 minutes to circle Earth, meaning the ISS travels around Earth about
16 times a day. However, individual LEO satellites are less useful for tasks such as
telecommunication, because they move so fast across the sky and therefore require a
lot of effort to track from ground stations. Instead, communications satellites in LEO
often work as part of a large combination or constellation of multiple satellites to give
constant coverage. In order to increase coverage, sometimes constellations like this,
consisting of several of the same or similar satellites, are launched together to create a
‘net’ around Earth. This lets them cover large areas of Earth simultaneously by working
together.

Medium Earth orbit

Medium Earth orbit comprises a wide range of orbits anywhere between LEO and GEO. It is
similar to LEO in that it also does not need to take specific paths around Earth, and it is used
by a variety of satellites with many different applications.
It is very commonly used by navigation satellites, like the European Galileo system (pictured).
Galileo powers navigation communications across Europe, and is used for many types of
navigation, from tracking large jumbo jets to getting directions to your smartphone. Galileo
uses a constellation of multiple satellites to provide coverage across large parts of the world
all at once.

Polar orbit and Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO)

Satellites in polar orbits usually travel past Earth from north to south rather than from west
to east, passing roughly over Earth’s poles.
Satellites in a polar orbit do not have to pass the North and South Pole precisely; even a
deviation within 20 to 30 degrees is still classed as a polar orbit. Polar orbits are a type of low
Earth orbit, as they are at low altitudes between 200 to 1000 km.
Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) is a particular kind of polar orbit. Satellites in SSO, travelling
over the polar regions, are synchronous with the Sun. This means they are synchronized to
always be in the same ‘fixed’ position relative to the Sun. This means that the satellite always
visits the same spot at the same local time – for example, passing the city of Paris every day
at noon exactly.
This means that the satellite will always observe a point on the Earth as if constantly at the
same time of the day, which serves a number of applications; for example, it means that
scientists and those who use the satellite images can compare how somewhere changes over
time.
This is because, if you want to monitor an area by taking a series of images of a certain place
across many days, weeks, months, or even years, then it would not be very helpful to
compare somewhere at midnight and then at midday – you need to take each picture as
similarly as the previous picture as possible. Therefore, scientists use image series like these
to investigate how weather patterns emerge, to help predict weather or storms; when
monitoring emergencies like forest fires or flooding; or to accumulate data on long-term
problems like deforestation or rising sea levels.
Often, satellites in SSO are synchronized so that they are in constant dawn or dusk – this is
because by constantly riding a sunset or sunrise, they will never have the Sun at an angle
where the Earth shadows them. A satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit would usually be at an
altitude of between 600 to 800 km. At 800 km, it will be travelling at a speed of
approximately 7.5 km per second.

Transfer orbits and geostationary transfer orbit (GTO)

Transfer orbits are a special kind of orbit used to get from one orbit to another. When
satellites are launched from Earth and carried to space with launch vehicles such as Ariane 5,
the satellites are not always placed directly on their final orbit. Often, the satellites are
instead placed on a transfer orbit: an orbit where, by using relatively little energy from built-
in motors, the satellite or spacecraft can move from one orbit to another.
This allows a satellite to reach, for example, a high-altitude orbit like GEO without actually
needing the launch vehicle to go all the way to this altitude, which would require more effort
– this is like taking a shortcut. Reaching GEO in this way is an example of one of the most
common transfer orbits, called the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
Orbits have different eccentricities – a measure of how circular (round) or elliptical
(squashed) an orbit is. In a perfectly round orbit, the satellite is always at the same distance
from the Earth’s surface – but on a highly eccentric orbit, the path looks like an ellipse.
On a highly eccentric orbit like this, the satellite can quickly go from being very far to very
near Earth’s surface depending on where the satellite is on the orbit. In transfer orbits, the
payload uses engines to go from an orbit of one eccentricity to another, which puts it on
track to higher or lower orbits.
After lift-off, a launch vehicle makes its way to space following a path shown by the yellow
line, in the figure. At the target destination, the rocket releases the payload which sets it off
on an elliptical orbit, following the blue line which sends the payload farther away from
Earth. The point farthest away from the Earth on the blue elliptical orbit is called the apogee
and the point closest is called the perigee.
When the payload reaches the apogee at the GEO altitude of 35 786 km, it fires its engines in
such a way that it enters onto the circular GEO orbit and stays there, shown by the red line in
the diagram. So, specifically, the GTO is the blue path from the yellow orbit to the red orbit.

Lagrange points
For many spacecraft being put in orbit, being too close to Earth can be disruptive to their
mission – even at more distant orbits such as GEO.For example, for space-based
observatories and telescopes whose mission is to photograph deep, dark space, being next to
Earth is hugely detrimental because Earth naturally emits visible light and infrared radiation
that will prevent the telescope from detecting any faint lights like distant galaxies.
Photographing dark space with a telescope next to our glowing Earth would be as hopeless
as trying to take pictures of stars from Earth in broad daylight.
Lagrange points, or L-points, allow for orbits that are much, much farther away (over a
million kilometres) and do not orbit Earth directly. These are specific points far out in space
where the gravitational fields of Earth and the Sun combine in such a way that spacecraft
that orbit them remain stable and can thus be ‘anchored’ relative to Earth. If a spacecraft
was launched to other points in space very distant from Earth, they would naturally fall into
an orbit around the Sun, and those spacecraft would soon end up far from Earth, making
communication difficult. Instead, spacecraft launched to these special L-points stay fixed, and
remain close to Earth with minimal effort without going into a different orbit.
The most used L-points are L1 and L2. These are both four times farther away from Earth
than the Moon – 1.5 million km, compared to GEO’s 36 000 km – but that is still only
approximately 1% of the distance of Earth from the Sun.

Satellite
A satellite is a body that orbits around another body in space. There are two different types
of satellites – natural and man-made. Examples of natural satellites are the Earth and Moon.
The Earth rotates around the Sun and the Moon rotates around the Earth. A man-made
satellite is a machine that is launched into space and orbits around a body in space. Examples
of man-made satellites include the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space
Station.
Types of Satellites
1.Astronomical: Deployed for observation of distant planets, stars, galaxies, and objects in-
universe. It is a space Telescope hanging in space to photograph objects in space.
2.Biosatellite : Places animals or plants in space to conduct research on the effects of space
on these living objects.
3.Communication:These satellites support telecommunication. Telecasting, Phone calls,
Internet connectivity, Radio, and much remote connectivity are typical applications.
4.Earth Observation: Deployed to study environment, monitor climatic changes and mapping
the earth for non-military purposes.
5.Navigation: Facilitates to trace the exact location of any objects on the Earth. This leads to
the development of new applications, technology, and business cases.
6.Killer (Military) : Deployed to attack enemy satellites and space objects during the war
period.
7.Space Stations : Designed for human beings to live and conduct research on objects on
planets, stars, and galaxies.
8.Reconnaissance: Deployed for spying, surveying and scouting enemy territory during the
war period.
9.Crewed Spacecraft: These satellites ferry astronauts to space and bring them back to earth.
It has good grounding facilities and helps astronauts in accessing space stations.
10.Recovery: Recovery satellites are mainly used to recover bio, reconnaissance and other
satellites back to earth.
11.Solar Power:Space-based satellites gather energy from the Sun and transmit it to earth for
consumption.
12.Miniaturized: Smaller sized and lower weight satellites are launched at an economical cost
used for the limited purpose of scientific data gathering and radio relay.
13.Tether:Tether satellites are connected to another satellite by the tether. It is used as a
secondary payload to another main satellite mainly used in students and mini-projects.
14.Weather : These satellites are used to measure and report the Earth’s weather, and the
reports are used in a weather forecast.

List of Earth Observation Satellites

Launch Launch
Launch Vehicle Orbit Type Application
Date Mass

Disaster
Nov 07, Management
EOS-01 PSLV-C49/EOS-01 LEO
2020 System, Earth
Observation

Disaster
Dec 11, PSLV-C48/RISAT- Management
RISAT-2BR1 628 Kg LEO
2019 2BR1 System, Earth
Observation

Nov 27, PSLV-C47 / Cartosat- Earth

Cartosat-3 SSPO
2019 3 Mission Observation

Disaster
May 22, Management
RISAT-2B 615 Kg PSLV-C46 Mission LEO
2019 System, Earth
Observation

Nov 29, PSLV-C43 / HysIS Earth

HysIS SSPO
2018 Mission Observation

PSLV-C40/Cartosat-2
Cartosat-2 Series Jan 12, Earth
710 Kg Series Satellite SSPO
Satellite 2018 Observation
Mission

Cartosat-2 Series Jun 23, PSLV-C38 / Cartosat- Earth

712 kg SSPO
Satellite 2017 2 Series Satellite Observation
Cartosat -2 Feb 15, PSLV-C37 / Cartosat - Earth
714 kg SSPO
Series Satellite 2017 2 Series Satellite Observation

RESOURCESAT- Dec 07, PSLV-C36 / Earth

1235 kg SSPO
2A 2016 RESOURCESAT-2A Observation

Sep 26, PSLV-C35 / SCATSAT- Climate &

SCATSAT-1 371 kg SSPO
2016 1 Environment

Climate &
Environment,
Sep 08, GSLV-F05 / INSAT-
INSAT-3DR 2211 kg GSO Disaster
2016 3DR
Management
System

PSLV-C34 /
CARTOSAT-2 Jun 22, Earth
737.5 kg CARTOSAT-2 Series SSPO
Series Satellite 2016 Observation
Satellite

Climate &
Environment,
Jul 26,
INSAT-3D 2060 Kg Ariane-5 VA-214 GSO Disaster
2013
Management
System

Climate &
Feb 25, Environment,
SARAL 407 kg PSLV-C20/SARAL SSPO
2013 Earth
Observation

Apr 26, Earth

RISAT-1 1858 kg PSLV-C19/RISAT-1 SSPO
2012 Observation

Climate &
Megha- Oct 12, PSLV-C18/Megha- Environment,
1000 kg SSPO
Tropiques 2011 Tropiques Earth
Observation

Apr 20, PSLV-C16/ Earth

RESOURCESAT-2 1206 kg SSPO
2011 RESOURCESAT-2 Observation

Jul 12, PSLV-C15/ Earth

CARTOSAT-2B 694 kg SSPO
2010 CARTOSAT-2B Observation

Oceansat-2 Sep 23, 960 kg PSLV-C14 / SSPO Climate &

2009 OCEANSAT-2 Environment,
Earth
 Observation

Apr 20, Earth

RISAT-2 300 kg PSLV-C12 / RISAT-2 SSPO
2009 Observation

Apr 28, PSLV-C9 / CARTOSAT Earth

IMS-1 83 kg SSPO
2008 – 2A Observation

Apr 28, PSLV-C9 / CARTOSAT Earth

CARTOSAT – 2A 690 Kg SSPO
2008 – 2A Observation

Jan 10, PSLV-C7 / Earth

CARTOSAT-2 650 kg SSPO
2007 CARTOSAT-2 / SRE-1 Observation

May 05, PSLV-C6/CARTOSAT- Earth

CARTOSAT-1 1560 kg SSPO
2005 1/HAMSAT Observation

IRS-P6 / Oct 17, PSLV-C5 Earth

1360 kg SSPO
RESOURCESAT-1 2003 /RESOURCESAT-1 Observation

The Technology
Oct 22, Earth
Experiment PSLV-C3 / TES SSPO
2001 Observation
Satellite (TES)

Oceansat(IRS- May 26, Earth

1050 kg PSLV-C2/IRS-P4 SSPO
P4) 1999 Observation

Sep 29, Earth

IRS-1D 1250kg PSLV-C1 / IRS-1D SSPO
1997 Observation

Mar 21, Earth

IRS-P3 920 kg PSLV-D3 / IRS-P3 SSPO
1996 Observation

Dec 28, Earth

IRS-1C 1250 kg Molniya SSPO
1995 Observation

Oct 15, Earth

IRS-P2 804 kg PSLV-D2 SSPO
1994 Observation

Sep 20, Earth

IRS-1E 846 kg PSLV-D1 LEO
1993 Observation

Aug 29, Earth

IRS-1B 975 kg Vostok SSPO
1991 Observation

Earth
Jul 13,
SROSS-2 150 kg ASLV-D2 Observation,
1988
Experimental
 Mar 17, Earth
IRS-1A 975 kg Vostok SSPO
1988 Observation

Rohini Satellite Apr 17, Earth

41.5 kg SLV-3 LEO
RS-D2 1983 Observation

Earth
Nov 20,
Bhaskara-II 444 kg C-1 Intercosmos LEO Observation,
1981
Experimental

Rohini Satellite May 31, Earth

38 kg SLV-3D1 LEO
RS-D1 1981 Observation

Earth
Jun 07,
Bhaskara-I 442 kg C-1 Intercosmos LEO Observation,
1979
Experimental

Satellite Launching Vehicles

SLV
Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3) was India’s first experimental satellite launch vehicle,
which was an all solid, four stage vehicle weighing 17 tonnes with a height of 22m and
capable of placing 40 kg class payloads in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
The first experimental flight of SLV-3, in August 1979, was only partially successful. Apart
from the July 1980 launch, there were two more launches held in May 1981 and April 1983,
orbiting Rohini satellites carrying remote sensing sensors.
The successful culmination of the SLV-3 project showed the way to advanced launch vehicle
projects such as the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)

ASLV
The Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) Programme was designed to augment the
payload capacity to 150 kg, thrice that of SLV-3, for Low Earth Orbits (LEO). While building
upon the experience gained from the SLV-3 missions, ASLV proved to be a low cost
intermediate vehicle to demonstrate and validate critical technologies that would be needed
for the future launch vehicles like strap-on technology, inertial navigation, bulbous heat
shield, vertical integration and closed loop guidance.
PSLV
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the third generation launch vehicle of India. It is the
first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages. After its first successful launch in
October 1994, PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India
with 39 consecutively successful missions by June 2017. During 1994-2017 period, the vehicle
has launched 48 Indian satellites and 209 satellites for customers from abroad.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the third generation launch vehicle of India. It is the
first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages.

 It is a four stage launch vehicle.

 A large solid rocket motor forming the first stage,
 An earth storable liquid stage as the second stage,
 A high performance solid rocket motor as third stage, and
 A liquid stage with engines as fourth stage.
 The vehicle successfully launched two spacecraft – Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and
Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013

Vehicle Variants and Launch Capability



PSLV-CA o No. of strap-on motors : Nil

o Payload capability to SSPO (600 km) : 1019 Kg

 No. of strap-on motors : Two

PSLV- DL  Payload capability to SSPO (600 km) : 1257 Kg

PSLV-QL 
 o No. of strap-on motors : Four


o No. of strap-on motors : Six
PSLV-XL o Payload capability to SSPO (600 km) : 1673 Kg
o Payload capability to sub GTO (284 x 20650 km) : 1425 Kg
o Payload capability to SSPO (600 km) : 1523 Kg

GSLV
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) project was initiated in 1990 with the
objective of acquiring an Indian launch capability for geosynchronous satellites.

GSLV uses major components that are already proven in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV) launch vehicles in the form of the S125/S139 solid rocket booster and the liquid-
fueled Vikas engine. Due to the thrust required for injecting the satellite in a geostationary
transfer orbit (GTO) the third stage was to be powered by a LOX/LH2 Cryogenic engine which
at that time India did not possess or had the technology know-how to build one.

Variants
GSLV rockets using the Russian Cryogenic Stage (CS) are designated as the GSLV Mark I while
versions using the indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) are designated the GSLV Mark II.
[21] All GSLV launches have been conducted from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in
Sriharikota.

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II (GSLV Mk II) is the largest launch vehicle
developed by India, which is currently in operation. This fourth generation launch vehicle is a
three stage vehicle with four liquid strap-ons. The indigenously developed cryogenic Upper
Stage (CUS), which is flight proven, forms the third stage of GSLV Mk II. From January 2014,
the vehicle has achieved four consecutive successes.
GSLV MkIII, chosen to launch Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, is a three-stage heavy lift launch
vehicle developed by ISRO. The vehicle has two solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster and a
cryogenic upper stage.

 GSLV Mk III is designed to carry 4 ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous

Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about
twice the capability of the GSLV Mk II.
 The first developmental flight of GSLV Mk III, the GSLV-Mk III-D1 successfully
placed GSAT-19 satellite to a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) on June
05, 2017 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.
  GSLV MkIII-D2, the second developmental flight of GSLV MkIII successfully
launched GSAT-29, a high throughput communication satellite on November
14, 2018 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota
 GSLV MkIII-M1, successfully injected Chandrayaan-2, India’s second Lunar
Mission, in to Earth Parking Orbit on July 22, 2019 from Satish Dhawan Space
Centre SHAR, Sriharikota

Significance

 It strengthens INDIA’s soft power diplomacy

 It reduces our dependency on foreign launch vehicles
 It has multiplier effect on other innovations like chandrayan 2,human space
flights etc
 It leads to commercial
 Self reliance

What’s the difference between liquid and solid-fuel rockets?

There are two main types of rockets: liquid-fuel and solid-fuel. Liquid-fuel rockets consist of a
fuel and oxygen (or other oxidizer) in liquid state. They are combined in a combustion
chamber and ignited. The fuel flow to the engine can be controlled, the amount of thrust
produced can be regulated and the engine can be turned off or on as needed. Solid-fuel
rockets consist of a fuel and oxidizer that are pre-mixed in a solid form. Once the solid fuel is
ignited, the resulting thrust cannot be regulated or turned off. This fuel system is simpler,
safer, and cheaper—but less efficient—than that of a liquid-fuel rocket.

Functioning of Engines
Cryogenic Engine:
Rocket engine needs enormous amount of thrust to escape Earth’s gravitational pull.
However the chemicals used for engines are Hydrogen and Oxygen (Hydrogen used as a fuel,
while Oxygen as a oxidiser) that produces a good thrust, found in Earth in the form of gas.
Carrying hydrogen and oxygen in their gaseous form will require a bigger fuel chamber,
which not only increase the size but also weight of the rockets and this will mean
undertaking of impossible task to send a launch vehicle into space. So the solution is to use
hydrogen and oxygen in their liquid form or in a cryogenic form which is easier to transport,
as the volume of propellent decrease. As density increases in liquid form, more thrust can be
produce in less burning time. Such engines are called Cryogenic engine.
Cryogenic fuel is used in rockets, spaceships or satellites because ordinary fuel can not be
used in space due to the absence of an environment that supports combustion. This fuel
requires storage at an extremely low temperature (-253 degree Celsius) to maintain them in
a liquid state.
Semi-Cryogenic Engine:
Unlike a Cryogenic engine, a Semi Cryogenic engine uses Refined kerosene instead of liquid
hydrogen. The liquid oxygen is used as a Oxidiser. That’s the advantage of using a Semi
Cryogenic engine as it requires Refined Kerosene which is lighter than liquid fuel and can be
stored in a normal temperature. Kerosene combined with liquid oxygen provide a higher
thrust to the rocket. Refined Kerosene occupies less space, making it possible to carry more
propellant in a Semi Cryogenic engines fuel compartment. A semi cryogenic engine is more
powerful, environment friendly and cost effective as compared to a cryogenic engine.

IMPORTANCE OF SEMI CRYOGENIC ENGINE

GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite launch Vehicle) uses a three stage launching system.
First Stage:- It is a solid stage which provides lift off to the rocket.
Second Stage:- It is a Liquid Stage.
Third Stage:- The third stage is the Cryogenic stage. This stage provides a good amount of
thrust so that we can put satellites in a geostationary orbit.

India developed the technology of Cryogenic Engine and to develop it further ISRO required
to use a combination of Solid, Semi cryogenic and Cryogenic stage instead of a Combination
of Solid, Liquid and Cryogenic stage. That mean
First Stage:- Solid Stage.
Second Stage:- Semi Cryogenic Stage.
Third Stage:- Cryogenic Stage.
Using a semi cryogenic engine in second stage, GSLV will be able to provide more thrust and
carry more weight into the space. India plan to use Semi Cryogenic Engine in GSLV
(Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle), ULV (Unified Launch Vehicle) and RLV (Reusable Launch
Vehicle) in future.

Recent launches
PSLV-C51 launch

PSLV-C51 was successfully launched by ISRO recently.

This was the 53rd flight of ISRO’s launch vehicle and the first dedicated mission of its
commercial arm, NewSpace India Ltd.
The mission was undertaken under a commercial arrangement with Spaceflight Inc., U.S.

Satellites onboard:
It carried 19 satellites (Including Brazil’s optical earth observation satellite, Amazonia-1, and
18 co-passenger satellites — five from India and 13 from the U.S.).
Amazonia-1 is the first fully Brazilian-made satellite, which would help to monitor the
Amazon forests.
The Amazonia-1 was injected into its precise orbit of 758 km in a sun-synchronous polar
orbit.
The satellites from India are:
The Satish Dhawan SAT (SDSAT) built by Space Kidz India. It has an engraving of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on the top panel.A nano-satellite intended to study the radiation
levels, space weather and demonstrate long-range communication technologies.
The UNITYsat, a combination of three satellites for providing radio relay services.Another
satellite belonging to the DRDO.
CMS-01 satellite
It is a communication satellite launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on
board the PSLV-C50.
CMS-01 is a communications satellite envisaged for providing services in extended C Band of
the frequency spectrum.
Its coverage will include the Indian mainland, and the Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep
islands, ISRO said.
The satellite is expected to have a life of more than seven years
GSAT 30
GSAT-30 derives its heritage from ISRO’s earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series and will replace
INSAT-4A in orbit.
GSAT-30 is configured on ISRO’s enhanced I-3K Bus structure to provide communication
services from Geostationary orbit.
GSAT-30 uses two satellite frequencies:
It gives the Indian mainland and islands coverage in the Ku band, and extended coverage in a
wider area stretching from Australia to Europe in the lower-frequency C-band.
The Ku and C bands are part of a spectrum of frequencies, ranging from 1 to 40 gigahertz,
that are used in satellite communications.

Services:
With a mission life of over 15 years, GSAT-30 will provide DTH [direct-to-home] television
Services, connectivity to VSATs [Very Small Aperture Terminals] for ATM, stock exchange,
television up-linking and teleport services, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) and e-
governance applications
EOS-01
What is EOS-01?
It is an earth observation satellite.
EOS-01 is nothing but another Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) that will work together with
RISAT-2B and RISAT-2BR1 launched last year.
Henceforth all the earth observation satellites would be called EOS-series.

What are earth-observation satellites used for?

Land and forest mapping and monitoring, mapping of resources like water or minerals or
fishes, weather and climate observations, soil assessment, geospatial contour mapping are
all done through earth-observation satellites.

Advantages of radar imaging over optical instruments:

Radar imaging is unaffected by weather, cloud or fog, or the lack of sunlight. It can produce
high-quality images in all conditions and at all times.

RISAT-2BR1

What is RISAT-2BR1?
It is a radar imaging earth observation satellite. It provides services in the field of agriculture,
forestry and disaster management. Its mission life is 5 years.
Other satellites on board: The nine customer satellites were from Israel, Italy, Japan and the
USA. These satellites were launched under a commercial arrangement with New Space India
Limited (NSIL).
Background: The RISAT, which was first deployed in orbit on April 20, 2009 as the RISAT-2,
uses synthetic aperture radars (SAR) to provide Indian forces with all-weather surveillance
and observation, which are crucial to notice any potential threat or malicious activity around
the nation’s borders. Following the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the launch of RISAT-2 was
prioritised over RISAT- 1, as its C-band SAR radar was not yet ready and RISAT -2 carried an
Israeli-built X-band radar.
What is RISAT-2BR1?
It is a radar imaging earth observation satellite.
It provides services in the field of agriculture, forestry and disaster management.
Its mission life is 5 years.

Other satellites on board:

The nine customer satellites were from Israel, Italy, Japan and the USA.
These satellites were launched under a commercial arrangement with New Space India
Limited (NSIL).

Background:
The RISAT, which was first deployed in orbit on April 20, 2009 as the RISAT-2, uses synthetic
aperture radars (SAR) to provide Indian forces with all-weather surveillance and observation,
which are crucial to notice any potential threat or malicious activity around the nation’s
borders.
Following the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the launch of RISAT-2 was prioritised over RISAT-
1, as its C-band SAR radar was not yet ready and RISAT -2 carried an Israeli-built X-band
radar.
What is PSLV?
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is an indigenously-developed expendable launch system of
the ISRO.

 It comes in the category of medium-lift launchers with a reach up to various

orbits, including the Geo Synchronous Transfer Orbit, Lower Earth Orbit, and
Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit.

Difference between PSLV and GSLV:

India has two operational launchers- Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
GSLV was developed to launch the heavier INSAT class of geosynchronous satellites into
orbit.

Different orbits:
There are three main types of Earth orbits- high Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit and low
Earth orbit. Which orbit a particular satellite is placed in depends on its function.

1. When satellites are about 36,000 km from the Earth’s surface, they enter what is
called the high Earth orbit. Here, it orbits in sync with the Earth’s rotation,
crating the impression that the satellite is stationary over a single longitude.
Such a satellite is said to be geosynchronous.
2. Just as the geosynchronous satellites have a sweet spot over the equator that
allows them to stay over one spot on Earth, polar-orbiting satellites have a sweet
spot that allows them to stay in one time. This orbit is a Sun-synchronous orbit,
which means that whenever and wherever the satellite crosses the equator, the
local solar time on the ground is always the same.

Cartosat-3
Cartosat-3 is a third-generation agile advanced earth observation satellite with high-
resolution imaging capability. Developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), it
will replace the IRS series.
Cartosat-3 has a panchromatic resolution of 0.25 metres making it the imaging satellite with
highest resolution and Mx of 1 metre with a high-quality resolution, which is a major
improvement from the previous payloads in the Cartosat series.
Cartosat-2 was used to plan and execute military operations such as ‘surgical strikes’ across
the Line of Control in 2016 and the operations across Manipur-Myanmar border in 2015.
Cartosat-2 has got resolution of 65 cm.

Applications of Cartosat-3:
It will address the increased user’s demands for large scale urban planning, rural resource
and infrastructure development, coastal land use and land cover etc
In its annual report of 2017-18, ISRO laid out a very clear strategy of developing India’s Earth
observation (EO) capabilities that is based on capturing different themes of land, water,
cartography, ocean, atmosphere, and meteorology.
New missions such as the Geo Imaging Satellite (GISAT), which will enable real-time imaging,
alongside the established Resourcesat, Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT), Cartosat, Oceansat
and the Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) constellation make India’s fleet of EO
satellites one of the most comprehensive remote-sensing data sets in the world.

NAVIC

Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) is an independent regional navigation satellite

system designed to provide position information in the Indian region and 1500 km around
the Indian mainland.
IRNSS would provide two types of services, namely Standard Positioning Services available to
all users and Restricted Services provided to authorised users.

Its applications include:

 Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation.

 Disaster Management.
 Vehicle tracking and fleet management.
 Integration with mobile phones.
 Precise Timing.
 Mapping and Geodetic data capture.
 Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers.
 Visual and voice navigation for drivers.

How many satellites does NAVIC consist of?

It is a regional system and so its constellation will consist of seven satellites. Three of these
will be geostationary over the Indian Ocean, i.e., they will appear to be stationary in the sky
over the region, and four will be geosynchronous – appearing at the same point in the sky at
the same time every day. This configuration ensures each satellite is being tracked by at least
one of fourteen ground stations at any given point of time, with a high chance of most of
them being visible from any point in India.

Significance
1.National security
2.Reliability
3.Accuracy
4.Disaster management
5.South Asian and Regional cooperation

NISAR
NISAR is a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO). NASA and ISRO are providing two radars that are optimized each in their
own way to allow the mission to observe a wider range of changes than either one alone.
NISAR will detect movements of the planet’s surface as small as 0.4 inches over areas about
half the size of a tennis court.

About NISAR:
It’s an SUV-sized satellite that is being jointly developed by the space agencies of the US and
India.
The partnership agreement was signed between NASA and ISRO in September 2014,
according to which NASA will provide one of the radars for the satellite, a high-rate
communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers and a payload data subsystem.
ISRO, on the other hand, will provide the spacecraft bus, the second type of radar (called the
S-band radar), the launch vehicle and associated launch services.
The satellite will be launched in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota,
India, into a near-polar orbit and will scan the globe every 12 days over the course of its
three-year mission of imaging the Earth’s land, ice sheets and sea ice to give an
“unprecedented” view of the planet.
The goal of NISAR is to make global measurements of the causes and consequences of land
surface changes using advanced radar imaging.
This mission concept and the resulting partnership are in response to the National Academy
of Science’s 2007 survey of Earth observational priorities for the next decade, known as the
decadal survey.
One of the top priorities identified in this survey was to gain data and insight in three Earth
science domains: ecosystems, deformation of Earth’s crust and cryospheric sciences.
Applications of NISAR:

 A dedicated U.S. and Indian InSAR mission, in partnership with ISRO, optimized
for studying hazards and global environmental change.
 Earth’s surface is constantly changing as a result of both natural and human
processes, and humanity’s exposure to natural hazards is increasing. NISAR will
measure these changes, from small movements of the crust up to volcanic
eruptions.
 The NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) Mission will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems,
dynamic surfaces, and ice masses providing information about biomass, natural
hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater, and will support a host of other
applications.
 NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day
regularity on ascending and descending passes, sampling Earth on average every
6 days for a baseline 3-year mission.
 NISAR’s data can help people worldwide better manage natural resources and
hazards, as well as providing information for scientists to better understand the
effects and pace of climate change. It will also add to our understanding of our
planet’s hard outer layer, called its crust.
 NISAR’s global and rapid coverage will provide unprecedented opportunities for
disaster response, providing data to assist in mitigating and assessing damage,
with observations before and after disasters in short time frames.
 NISAR maps will allow initial damage estimates to guide ground inspections for
damage assessment.

Significance from the point of India-US relations:

Space cooperation has usually not featured prominently in discussions between the two
sides.
The joint statement of the third India-U.S. 2+2 strategic dialogue (Oct 2020) noted the
agreement among the four ministers to start cooperation on a specific agenda within the
broad space domain – Space Situational Awareness (SSA).The importance of SSA cannot be
overemphasized given its utility in ensuring safe, secure, and sustainable use of outer space.
There are good reasons for India and the United States to develop a collaborative mechanism
to start sharing SSA data.
Both are major spacefaring nations with significant investment in space; their societies and
militaries are dependent on space for a number of critical functions. Therefore, any
disruptions of their space assets would result not only in social and economic disruption but
interference in the effectiveness of their militaries as well.
Beyond space launches, India and the US have started cooperating in the area of Satellite
Navigation (SatNav).
The “stellar” partnership between the two nations will be a very useful tool to address the
matters pertaining to disaster preparedness while it will also cater to the need for
management of natural resources across the world.
The U.S. and India also have a deep, cooperative relationship in weather systems and
applications, which rely heavily on space technologies

GAGANYAN
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the first uncrewed
mission in December, as part of the human spaceflight programme ‘Gaganyaan’. It is facing
challenges due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19-induced lockdowns that has disrupted
hardware delivery schedules.
As part of the mandate of Gaganyaan, two uncrewed flights are planned to test the end-to-
end capacity for the manned mission.
When was it announced?
Formal announcement of the Gaganyaan programme was made by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi during his Independence Day address on August 15, 2018.
The initial target was to launch the human spaceflight before the 75th anniversary of India’s
independence on August 15, 2022.

Objectives:
The objective of the Gaganyaan programme is to demonstrate the capability to send humans
to low earth orbit on board an Indian launch vehicle and bring them back to earth safely.

Preparation and launch:

Four Indian astronaut-candidates have already undergone generic space flight training in
Russia as part of the Gaganyaan programme.
ISRO’s heavy-lift launcher GSLV Mk III has been identified for the mission.

Relevance of a Manned Space Mission for India:

 Boost to industries: The Indian industry will find large opportunities through
participation in the highly demanding Space missions. Gaganyaan Mission is
expected to source nearly 60% of its equipment from the Indian private sector.
 Employment: According to the ISRO chief, the Gaganyaan mission would create
15,000 new employment opportunities, 13,000 of them in private industry and
the space organisation would need an additional manpower of 900.
 Spurs research and development: It will thrust significant research in areas such
as materials processing, astro-biology, resources mining, planetary chemistry,
planetary orbital calculus and many other areas.
  Motivation: Human space flight will provide that inspiration to the youth and
also the national public mainstream. It would inspire the young generation into
notable achievements and enable them to play their legitimate role in
challenging future activities.
 Prestige: India could potentially become the fourth country to launch a human
space mission. The Gaganyaan will not only bring about prestige to the nation
but also establish India’s role as a key player in the space industry.

Project NETRA
An early warning system in space to detect debris and other hazards to Indian satellites.
What is Project NETRA (Network for space object Tracking and Analysis)?
Under the project, the ISRO plans to put up many observational facilities: connected radars,
telescopes; data processing units and a control centre.
They can, among others, spot, track and catalogue objects as small as 10 cm, up to a range of
3,400 km and equal to a space orbit of around 2,000 km.

Significance of the project:

 The project will give India its own capability in space situational awareness (SSA)
like the other space powers — which is used to ‘predict’ threats from debris to
Indian satellites.
 NETRA’s eventual goal is to capture the GEO, or geostationary orbit, scene at
36,000 km where communication satellites operate.
 The effort would make India a part of international efforts towards tracking,
warning about and mitigating space debris.

BHUVAN 3.0
About Bhuvan Panchayat Version 3.0:
Bhuvan Panchayat is part of ISRO’s Space-based Information Support for Decentralised
Planning Update project.
Aim: For better planning and monitoring of government projects.
Services: This version of the portal will provide database visualisation and services for the
benefit of panchayat members, among others.
The targeted audiences for this portal are Public, PRIs and different stakeholders belonging
to the gram panchayats.

Features:
Using Bhuvan satellite imagery, a hi-resolution database at 1:10,000 scale is applied to
identify land use, land cover, settlements, road and rail network etc. The portal offers
database visualization, data analytics, generation of automatic reports, model-based
products and services for Gram Panchayat members and other stake-holders.
Implementation:
In the project that will last for at least two years, ISRO will collaborate with the gram
panchayat members and stakeholders to understand their data requirements.

MASS ORBITER MISSION

Mangalyaan, 2014
a) India joined an exclusive global club when it successfully launched the Mars Orbiter
Mission
b) Budget that was at least 10 times lower than a similar project by the US
c) The Rs 450-crore project revolved round the Red Planet and to collect data on
Mars’atmosphere and mineral composition

Mission Shakti
Mission Shakti is a joint programme of the Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
As part of the mission, an anti-satellite (A-SAT) weapon was launched and targeted an Indian
satellite which had been decommissioned. Mission Shakti was carried out from DRDO’s
testing range in Odisha’s Balasore.

Significance:
India is only the 4th country to acquire such a specialised and modern capability, and Entire
effort is indigenous. Till now, only the US, Russia and China had the capability to hit a live
target in space.

Seven mega missions by ISRO

Chandrayaan-2, XPoSat (to study cosmic radiation in 2020) and Aditya-L1(to the Sun in
2021).
Undefined Missions – which include missions which are still in planning stage
namely Mangalyaan-2 (or Mars Orbiter Mission-2 in 2022), Lunar Polar Exploration (or
Chandrayaan-3 in 2024), Venus mission (in 2023), Exoworlds (exploration outside the solar
system in 2028).

About Xposat:
The X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (or Xposat), is ISRO’s dedicated mission to study polarization.
It will launch in 2020.
It will be a five-year mission and will study cosmic radiation.
It will be carrying a payload named ‘polarimeter instrument in X-rays’ (POLIX) made by
Raman Research Institute. POLIX will study the degree and angle of polarisation of bright X-
ray sources in the energy range 5-30 keV.
The spacecraft will be placed in a circular 500-700km orbit.

About Aditya- L1 mission:

What is it? It is India’s first solar mission.
Objectives: It will study the sun’s outermost layers, the corona and the chromospheres and
collect data about coronal mass ejection, which will also yield information for space weather
prediction.
Significance of the mission: The data from Aditya mission will be immensely helpful in
discriminating between different models for the origin of solar storms and also for
constraining how the storms evolve and what path they take through the interplanetary
space from the Sun to the Earth.
Position of the satellite: In order to get the best science from the sun, continuous viewing of
the sun is preferred without any occultation/ eclipses and hence, Aditya- L1 satellite will be
placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the sun-earth system.

Central bank digital currency (CBDC)

Context:
The Reserve Bank of India is likely to soon kick off pilot projects to assess the viability of
using digital currency to make wholesale and retail payments to help calibrate its strategy
for introducing a full-scale central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Need for :

1. An official digital currency would reduce the cost of currency management while
enabling real-time payments without any inter-bank settlement.
2. India’s fairly high currency-to-GDP ratio holds out another benefit of CBDC — to
the extent large cash usage can be replaced by CBDC, the cost of printing,
transporting and storing paper currency can be substantially reduced.
3. The need for inter-bank settlement would disappear as it would be a central
bank liability handed over from one person to another.

What is the CBDC or National Digital currency?

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), or national digital currency, is simply the digital form
of a country’s fiat currency. Instead of printing paper currency or minting coins, the central
bank issues electronic tokens. This token value is backed by the full faith and credit of the
government.

SC Garg Committee recommendations (2019):

1. Ban anybody who mines, hold, transact or deal with cryptocurrencies in any
form.
2. It recommend a jail term of one to 10 years for exchange or trading in digital
currency.
3. It proposed a monetary penalty of up to three times the loss caused to the
exchequer or gains made by the cryptocurrency user whichever is higher.
4. However, the panel said that the government should keep an open mind on the
potential issuance of cryptocurrencies by the Reserve Bank of India.

Challenges in rolling out National Digital Currency:

 1. Potential cybersecurity threat.
2. Lack of digital literacy of population.
3. Introduction of digital currency also creates various associated challenges in
regulation, tracking investment and purchase, taxing individuals, etc.
4. Threat to Privacy: The digital currency must collect certain basic information of
an individual so that the person can prove that he’s the holder of that digital
currency.

Space Technology‐ Indian space programs.

Application of Satellites for different purposes

Despite being a developing economy with its attendant problems, India has effectively
developed space technology and has applied it successfully for its rapid development
and today is offering a variety of space services globally.

Indian Space Program:

During the formative decade of 1960s, space research was conducted by India mainly with
the help of sounding rockets. The Indian Space Research Organisation ﴾ISRO﴿ was formed in
1969. Space research activities were provided additional fillip with the formation of the
Space Commission and the Department of Space by the government of India in 1972. And,
ISRO was brought under the Department of Space in the same year.

In the history of the Indian space programme, 70s were the era of Experimentation
during which experimental satellite programmes like Aryabhatta, Bhaskara, Rohini and Apple
were conducted. The success of those programmes, led to era of operationalisation in 80s
during which operational satellite programmes like INSAT and IRS came into being. Today,
INSAT and IRS are the major programmes of ISRO.
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For launching its spacecraft indigenously, India is having a robust launch vehicle programme,
which has matured to the state of offering launch services to the outside world. Antrix, the
commercial arm of the Department of Space, is marketing India’s space services globally.
Fruitful co‐operation with other space faring nations, international bodies and the developing
world is one of the main characteristics of India’s space programme.

The most significant milestone of the Indian Space Programme during the year 2005‐
2006 was the successful launch of PSLV‐C6. On 5 May 2005, the ninth flight of Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle ﴾PSLV‐C6﴿ from Satish Dhawan Space Centre ﴾SDSC﴿ SHAR,
Sriharikota successfully placed two satellites – the 1560 kg CARTOSTAR‐1 and 42 kg
HAMSAT – into a predetermined polar Sun Synchronous Orbit ﴾SSO﴿. Coming after
seven launch successes in a row, the success of PSLV‐C6 further demonstrated the
reliability of PSLV and its capability to place payloads weighing up to 1600 kg satellites
into a 600 km high polar SSO.
The successful launch of INSAT‐4A, the heaviest and most powerful satellite built by India so
far; on 22 December 2005 was the other major event of the year 2005‐ 06. INSAT‐4A is
capable of providing Direct‐To‐Home ﴾DTH﴿ television broadcasting services.
Besides, the setting up of the second cluster of nine Village Resource Centres ﴾VRCs﴿ was an
important on-going initiative of the Department of Space during the year.

VRC concept integrates the capabilities of communications and earth observation satellites
to provide a variety of information emanating from space systems and other IT tools to
address the changing and critical needs of rural communities.

In October 2008, the first lunar mission launched by ISRO. The spacecraft, Chandrayaan took
off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and it operated till August 2009. The project was
announced by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as part of his independence day speech in
2003. The greatest achievement of this lunar project was the discovery of a large number of
water molecules in moon. ISRO plans to launch its second lunar ission, Chandrayaan 2 by
2018.

In 2014, Mangalyaan, India’s first interplanetary mission was launched, making ISRO the
fourth space agency to reach Mars. Mangalyaan gained worldwide repute as being the
least expensive Mars mission till date.

Recently India has launched 104 staellites at one go, which is a world record. The previous
world record is with the Russian space agency with 37 satellites at one go.

India has been launching heavy satellites on its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle
﴾GSLV﴿ but so far it has only been used for domestic satellites.

In recent months though, there have been queries from foreign companies for launches on
the GSLV.

Application of satellites for different purposes:

Satellites based on application can be categorized as follows:

Earth Observation satellite‐>

Starting with IRS‐1A in 1988, ISRO has launched many operational remote sensing satellites.
Today, India has one of the largest constellations of remote sensing satellites in operation.
Currently, *thirteen* operational satellites are in Sun‐synchronous orbit – RESOURCESAT‐1,
2, 2A CARTOSAT‐1, 2, 2A, 2B, RISAT‐1 and 2, OCEANSAT‐2, Megha‐
Tropiques, SARAL and SCATSAT‐1, and *four* in Geostationary orbit‐ INSAT‐3D, Kalpana
& INSAT 3A, INSAT ‐3DR.

Varieties of instruments have been flown onboard these satellites to provide necessary data
in a diversified spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions to cater to different user
requirements in the country and for global usage.

The data from these satellites are used for several applications covering agriculture, water
resources, urban planning, rural development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry,
ocean resources and disaster management.
Communication satellite‐>
The Indian National Satellite ﴾INSAT﴿ system is one of the largest domestic communication
satellite systems in Asia‐Pacific region with nine operational communication satellites placed
in Geo‐stationary orbit. Established in 1983 with commissioning of INSAT‐1B, it initiated a
major revolution in India’s communications sector and sustained the same later. GSAT‐18
joins the constellation of INSAT System consisting 14 operational satellites, namely – INSAT‐
3A, 3C, 4A, 4B, 4CR, 3DR and GSAT‐ 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15 and 16.

The INSAT system with more than 200 transponders in the C, Extended C and Ku‐bands
provides services to telecommunications, television broadcasting, satellite newsgathering,
societal applications, weather forecasting, disaster warning and Search and Rescue
operations.

Navigation satellite‐>
Satellite Navigation service is an emerging satellite based system with commercial and
strategic applications. ISRO is committed to provide the satellite based Navigation services to
meet the emerging demands of the Civil Aviation requirements and to meet the user
requirements of the positioning, navigation and timing based on the independent satellite
navigation system. To meet the Civil Aviation requirements, ISRO is working jointly with
Airport Authority of India ﴾AAI﴿ in establishing the GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation
﴾GAGAN﴿ system.

To meet the user requirements of the positioning, navigation and timing services based on
the indigenous system, ISRO is establishing a regional satellite navigation system called
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System ﴾IRNSS﴿.

﴾a﴿ GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation ﴾GAGAN﴿:

This is a Satellite Based Augmentation System ﴾SBAS﴿ implemented jointly with Airport
Authority of India ﴾AAI﴿. The main objectives of GAGAN are to provide Satellite‐based
Navigation services with accuracy and integrity required for civil aviation applications
and to provide better Air Traffic Management over Indian Airspace. The system will be
interoperable with other international SBAS systems and provide seamless navigation
across regional boundaries. The GAGAN Signal‐In‐Space ﴾SIS﴿ is available through GSAT‐8 and
GSAT‐10.

﴾b﴿ Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System ﴾IRNSS﴿ : NavIC

This is an independent Indian Satellite based positioning system for critical National
applications. The main objective is to provide Reliable Position, Navigation and Timing
services over India and its neighbourhood, to provide fairly good accuracy to the user.

The IRNSS will provide basically two types of services Standard Positioning Service ﴾SPS﴿
Restricted Service ﴾RS﴿ Space Segment consists of seven satellites, three satellites in GEO
stationary orbit ﴾GEO﴿ and four satellites in Geo Synchronous Orbit ﴾GSO﴿ orbit with
inclination of 29° to the equatorial plane. This constellation of seven satellites was named as
“NavIC” ﴾Navigation Indian Constellation﴿ by the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Mr.
Narendra Modi and dedicated to the Nation on the occasion of successful launch of IRNSS‐
1G, the seventh and last satellite of NavIC. All the satellites will be visible at all times in the
Indian region. All the seven Satellites of NavIC, namely, IRNSS‐1A, 1B, 1C, ID,1E, 1F and 1G
were successfully launched on July 02, 2013, Apr 04, 2014, Oct 16, 2014, Mar 28, 2015, Jan
20, 2016, Mar 10, 2016 and Apr 28, 2016 respectively and all are functioning satisfactorily
from their designated orbital positions.

Ground Segment is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the IRNSS
constellation. It provides the monitoring of the constellation status, computation of the
orbital and clock parameters and navigation data uploading. The Ground segment comprises
of TTC & Uplinking Stations, Spacecraft Control Centre, IRNSS Timing Centre, CDMA Ranging
Stations, Navigation Control Centre and Data Communication Links. Space segment is
compatible with single frequency receiver for Standard Positioning Service ﴾SPS﴿, dual
frequency receiver for both SPS & RS service and a multi mode receiver compatible with
other GNSS providers.

Experimental satellite‐>
ISRO has launched many small satellites mainly for the experimental purposes. This
experiment include Remote Sensing, Atmospheric Studies, Payload Development, Orbit
Controls, recovery technology etc. Example‐ INS‐1A, INS‐1B, YOUTHSAT, APPLE

Small satellite‐>
The small satellite project is envisaged to provide platform for stand‐alone payloads for earth
imaging and science missions within a quick turn around time. For making the versatile
platform for different kinds of payloads, two kinds of buses have been configured and
developed.

Indian Mini Satellite ‐1 ﴾IMS‐1﴿: IMS‐1 bus has been developed as a versatile bus of 100 kg
class which includes a payload capability of around 30 kg. The bus has been developed using
various miniaturization techniques. The first mission of the IMS‐1 series was launched
successfully on April 28th 2008 as a co‐passenger along with Cartosat 2A.

Youthsat is second mission in this series and was launched successfully along with
Resourcesat 2 on 20th April 2011.

Indian Mini Satellite ‐2 ﴾IMS‐2﴿ Bus: IMS‐2 Bus is evolved as a standard bus of 400 kg
class which includes a payload capability of around 200kg. IMS‐2 development is an
important milestone as it is envisaged to be a work horse for different types of remote
sensing applications. The first mission of IMS‐2 is SARAL. SARAL is a co‐operative mission
between ISRO and CNES with payloads from CNES and spacecraft bus from ISRO.

Student/Academic satellite‐>
ISRO has influenced educational institutions by its activities like making satellites for
communication, remote sensing and astronomy. The launch of Chandrayaan‐1 increased the
interest of universities and institutions towards making experimental student satellites.
Contributions made by Indians to Space Technology
It has been hailed as one the most successful programmes. From India’s first satellite
Aryabhatta (1975) to the development of indigenous cryogenic engine India has made
significant advances with little help and no technology sharing from developed countries.
With the multi dimensional applications space technology ensures, India is moving in the
right direction.
Over the last few years, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) took giant leaps
forward, one success after the other.

 Chandrayaan 2: India successfully launched its second lunar mission

Chandrayaan-2 a week after it halted the scheduled blast-off due to a technical
snag. India hopes the $145m (£116m) mission will be the first to land on the
Moon’s South Pole.
 INSAT: The system is a network of satellites that facilitates communication and
broadcasting across the south Asian region. It ushered in a revolution in India’s
television and radio broadcasting, telecommunications and meteorological
sector.
 Created Polarized Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to make cost effective launch
system. This has also increased international space collaboration by launching
satellites of other nations at low costs.
 Chandrayaan 1: It has launched Chandrayaan 1 lunar probe mission in 2008.
 Mangalyan: ISRO has launched Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013 and created history
by launching Mangalyan (mission spacecraft) into the Mars orbit in maiden
attempt.
 ASTROSAT: It has launched first space observatory in 2015 to become fourth
agency to do so after NASA, Roscosmos and ESA.
 Scramjet: Supersonic Combusting Ramjet has been launched by ISRO. This system
works on Air-breathing Propulsion System which uses atmospheric oxygen to
burn the fuel in the rocket.
 RLV-TD: ISRO demonstrated its Reusable Launch vehicle space shuttle RLV -TD to
launch satellites around earth orbit and re-enter into the atmosphere.
 104 satellites: ISRO has created history by launching 104 satellites in one go.
 Crew Escape module: ISRO has test-launched Crew Escape Module paving the
way for manned space mission Gaganyaan.

Besides, NAVIC (Indian Regional navigation satellites system) and South Asia Satellite are
other missions which are a remarkable example of international coordination in the space
arena. ISRO is preparing for its missions of Aditya (Solar Mission) and Gaganyaan (Manned
Space Mission).

Seven mega missions by ISRO

Chandrayaan-2, XPoSat (to study cosmic radiation in 2020) and Aditya-L1(to the Sun in
2021).
 Undefined Missions – which include missions which are still in planning stage
namely Mangalyaan-2 (or Mars Orbiter Mission-2 in 2022), Lunar Polar Exploration (or
Chandrayaan-3 in 2024), Venus mission (in 2023), Exoworlds (exploration outside the solar
system in 2028).

About Xposat:
The X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (or Xposat), is ISRO’s dedicated mission to study polarization.
It will launch in 2020.
It will be a five-year mission and will study cosmic radiation.
It will be carrying a payload named ‘polarimeter instrument in X-rays’ (POLIX) made by
Raman Research Institute. POLIX will study the degree and angle of polarisation of bright X-
ray sources in the energy range 5-30 keV.
The spacecraft will be placed in a circular 500-700km orbit.

About Aditya- L1 mission:

What is it? It is India’s first solar mission.
Objectives: It will study the sun’s outermost layers, the corona and the chromospheres and
collect data about coronal mass ejection, which will also yield information for space weather
prediction.
Significance of the mission: The data from Aditya mission will be immensely helpful in
discriminating between different models for the origin of solar storms and also for
constraining how the storms evolve and what path they take through the interplanetary
space from the Sun to the Earth.
Position of the satellite: In order to get the best science from the sun, continuous viewing of
the sun is preferred without any occultation/ eclipses and hence, Aditya- L1 satellite will be
placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the sun-earth system.

SPACE TECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE SECTOR

KISAN Project:
 The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare had launched KISAN
[C(K)rop Insurance using Space technology and geoiNformatcs] project during 2015.

 The project envisaged use of high-resolution remote sensing data for optimum crop cutting
experiment planning and improving yield estimation.

 Under this project, pilot studies were conducted in 4 districts of 4 States viz. Haryana,
Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

 The study provided many useful inputs [for smart sampling, yield estimation, optimum
number of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) etc.], in the revised guidelines of Pradhan Mantri
 Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY).

Other Measures taken to introduce Space Technology in Agriculture Sector:

 The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, since early 80s has been funding various
projects, under which Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) developed methodologies
for Crop Production Forecasting.

 The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare established a Centre,

called Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre, in 2012, for operationalisation of the
space technology developed in the ISRO, for crop production forecasting.

 The Department has another centre called Soil and Land Use Survey of India, which uses
satellite data for soil resources mapping.

 Currently, the Department is using space technology for its various programmes/ areas, such
as,
o Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based
Observations (FASAL) project,

o Coordinated programme on Horticulture Assessment and Management using

geoiNformatics (CHAMAN) project,

o National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS),

o Geo tagging of infrastructure and assets created under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

Benefits:
 The space technology helps getting fast and unbiased information about the crop situation in
the country.

 It provides digital data, which is amenable to various analysis. Because of its synoptic view, it
provides images of the whole country in a very short duration.

 Hence, this data can be used for various programmes, which need information on crop type,
crop area estimates, crop condition, crop damages, crop growth etc.

Discuss India’s achievements in the field of Space Science and Technology. How the
application of this technology has helped India in its socio-economic development?

India has become a significant global player in space science and technological (S&T). From a
modest beginning in the 1960s, India’s space programme has grown steadily, achieving
significant milestones. These include fabrication of satellites, space-launch vehicles, and a
range of associated capabilities.
Achievements in Space S&T:
1. Telecommunication: The first area of achievement was satellite communication, with INSAT
and GSAT as the backbones. This cater to the national needs for telecommunication,
 broadcasting and broadband infrastructure. Gradually, bigger satellites have been built
carrying a larger array of transponders. About 200 transponders on Indian satellites provide
services linked to areas like telecommunication, television, broadband, radio, disaster
management and search and rescue services.
2. Satellite Based Navigation Applications: With the satellite constellation established, NavIC
system is now fully available for position, navigation and timing solution and for derived
location-based services. NavIC signal can be extensively used in a variety of civil and
commercial activities related to land transportation, aviation, maritime, scientific research
etc.
3. Remote Sensing and National Natural Resource Management System: The Indian Remote
Sensing Satellites (IRS) System, with currently 11 satellites in orbit, is one of the largest
constellations of remote sensing satellites in operation in the world today. It provides inputs
for management of natural resources and various developmental projects across the country
using space based imagery.
4. Mars Orbiter Mission: India’s first interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was
successfully launched on PSLV-C25. It made India become one of the four nations in the
world to send a space mission to Planet Mars. Mars Orbiter Mission is mainly intended to
establish the Indian technological capability to reach Martian orbit and to explore Mars
surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere by indigenous scientific
instruments.
5. Lunar mission: India’s maiden moon exploration mission ‘Chandrayaan-1’ was launched in
2008 for mapping the lunar surface with high resolution remote sensing and study the
chemical and mineralogical composition. This mission has led tothe detection of the
presence of water molecules on the lunar surface, which has set new directions of lunar
explorations in the global community. Recently Chandrayaan 2 successfully put an orbiterin
the moon’s
6. Cryogenic technology: India has successfully achieved flight testing of indigenous cryogenic
stage. Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is capable of placing 2 Tonne class
communication satellite into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) and India is one among
six countries in the world to demonstrate such launch capability to GTO with the use of
complex cryogenic technology.
7. Space Capsule Recovery: A leap-frog in Indian Launch Vehicle Technology was achieved in
2007 through the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment Mission which established India’s
technological capability to recover an orbiting satellite with precise re-entry trajectories.
Socio-economic development through application of space technology:
1. Economic growth: Satellite communications, navigation systems, earth observation missions,
space science and technology research all create employment, boost economic growth and
help make industries more competitive in an intense global market.
2. Telemedicine: The Telemedicine programme connects remote/rural hospitals through the
Indian satellites to major specialty hospitals in cities and towns. The telemedicine technology
utilises Information & Communication Technology (ICT) based system consisting of
customised medical software integrated with computer hardware along with medical
diagnostic instruments connected to VSATs. Presently, around 165 Telemedicine nodes are
operational across the country.
3. Tele-education: Under Tele-education programme, the teaching sessions conducted from
customised studio are telecast through satellite to schools and colleges. It has manifold
 benefits by imparting effective teacher training, providing access to experienced resource
persons, and thus resulting in effective delivery of quality education to the nook and corners.
4. Resource mapping: Survey of various mineral and natural resources have been made
possible through remote sensing. Management of these resources, their development
conservation and formulation of various policies through remote sensing has helped
economic growth.
5. Rural development: Bhuvan based application (GeoMNREGA), is being employed for
monitoring of rural development activities under major schemes of the Ministry of Rural
Development. Geo-MGNREGA has entered the second Phase wherein asset implementation
is monitored using Bhuvan app for site selection, during asset creation and also after the
creation of the asset.
6. Agricultural services: Various meteorological services including information about monsoon,
climate flood, cyclonic activities etc. are provided through the technologies. Green revolution
had been made possible through this technology. Coordinated programme on Horticulture
Assessment & Management (CHAMAN) has been completed using geoinformatics for faster
and efficient collection of ground information, as well as in building up a geodatabase
through Bhuvan platform.
7. Environmental conservation: They have helped in environment conservation programmes
estimation of agricultural production and water resources information. Monitoring &
Assessment of Ecosystem Processes in North-West Himalayas is done to understand various
processes related to mountain ecosystem, & climate change induced impacts.
8. Water conservation: Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) is a flagship
programme of the Department of Land Resources. Using multi-temporal IRS high resolution
(Cartosat-2 and Resourcesat) data, the monitoring of IWMP Projects is being carried out at
National level. Bhuvan based GIS tool, called SRISHTI is used for monitoring and evaluation of
the watersheds.
Today, ISRO’s abilities have increased multifold. However, demand for space-based services
in India is far greater than what ISRO can supply. Private sector investment is critical, for
which a suitable policy environment needs to be created. There is growing realisation that
national legislation is needed to ensure overall growth of the space sector. The government
has an opportunity to give priority to the private sector and the start-ups.

What are the applications of space technologies in rural development?

A web based application named Srishti enables the monitoring and evaluation of IWMP
Watersheds using satellite remote sensing and sample field data.

GOI is implementing activities realigned to water conservation based on ridge to valley

principles and has made role of remote sensing, GIS and GPS technologies central to their
planning, implementing and monitoring.

Geo-MGNREGA, developed by ISRO is a geo information enabled web service/portal that

assists the planning and management of activities of MGNREGA ranging from support
functions to the delivery of work to the end users.
MGNREGA is monitored through Bhuvan Geoportal involving geotagging of completed assets
through Smartphone applications across the country.

A dedicated Bhuvan portal was also developed for the Agricultural produce mapping, in
which the assets are geo-tagged which are used for the easy maintenance of the land
records, crop mapping, pesticide usage, etc.

Facilities are made using Geo informatics in rural road projects to assess the conditions and
vehicular traffic of the rural roads.

Space based information is being utilized for support decentralized planning by empowering
the local bodies to prepare developmental plans.

Crop Insurance Decision Support System (CIDSS) - A web based integrated package for
implementing Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

What are the benefits of Geo Spatial Solutions ?

Enhanced ease of governance with improved monitoring and evaluation for integrated
development activity.

The Geo Spatial solutions are transparent and efØcient compared to traditional approach
with manual surveys in the field.

Linking management information system to geo spatial visualization. Comprehensive

planning and development at local level as it provides an opportunity to spatially analyze the
impact of having assets by combining the data from multiple projects.

Also aids in qualifying the need for having an asset at particular location and knowing if there
is any damage caused to the assets due to human or natural causes.

What is Bhuvan portal?

ISRO’s Geo-portal, Bhuvan is providing visualization services and Earth observation data to
users in public domain. Besides, the portal also services several users for their remote
sensing application needs.

The Government agencies use this platform to share and host their data as per their
requirements, enabling specific applications of their choice.

The crowd sourcing services are very popular for field data collection of various government
programmes.

As per the recent direction from the Government on the most effective use of space
technology by user ministries, more than 20 ministry portals are unveiled and have been
discussed during the National meet on the use of space technologies, chaired by Hon’ble
Prime minister of India.
Many of the Ministries/Departments have linked their web portals to Bhuvan for online
services.

Bhuvan has become a popular platform that hosts one of the largest repositories of GIS map
and services in the country.

Bhuvan is also acting as a clearinghouse for satellite data and value added products. The
information in Bhuvan Portal can be effectively used for scientific studies and help students,
researchers and organizations to take up the scientific projects for applied

The information in Bhuvan Portal can be effectively used for scientific studies and help
students, researchers and organizations to take up the scientific projects for applied
research. 3.6 lakh products have been downloaded by users in the last three years and the
NRSC Open EO Data Archive, as clearing house, has become widely popular.

Space Tech: New Vistas

ISRO got its first success of 2019 by launching Microsat R, a military application satellite, and
Kalamsat, a 10cm cubesat made by students, on January 24, 2019. The satellites were
launched through a new variant of PSLV (46th flight) called PSLV-DL.

ISRO’s Upcoming Projects

 Chandrayaan-2 Mission:
o ISRO has planned 32 missions including the most complex Chandrayaan- 2 during
the year 2019.
o India’s second lunar mission, for the first time, ISRO will attempt to land a rover on
the moon’s south pole. Till now, only the U.S., Russia, China has been able to soft-
land Spacecraft on the Moon’s Surface.
o The complex mission will comprise of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover.
o The Chandrayaan-2 Spacecraft will be launched by GSLV MK III.
o Mission will encourage new experiments by the use and testing of new
technologies.
o The mission costing around Rs. 800 Crore, is an advanced version of the previous
Chandrayaan-1 Mission, launched in 2008.
o It will be launched in the window from January to February 2019.
 Launch of GSAT-20 to meet a high output bounded requirement of Digital India and Infra
Connectivity.
 ISRO is also planning to launch a channel called ISRO TV to reach out to the masses.
 ISRO has planned to send two unmanned missions into space in December 2020 and in
July 2021.
 Gaganyaan:
 o ISRO is preparing to send an astronaut into space in the year 2022 on board the
Gaganyaan.
o Gaganyaan is an Indian Crewed Orbital Spacecraft, intended to be the basis of the
Indian Human Spaceflight Program.
o The Spacecraft is being designed to carry 2-3 people.
o Gaganyaan will be launched on ISRO’s biggest rocket the GSLV MK III from
Sriharikota.
 ISRO is also aiming to reinstate its microwave remote sensing capabilities through the
radar image satellites series and attain operational geo imaging capability through GSAT
or a Geo Imaging Satellite Series.
 ISRO has also planned to progressively improve the payload capability of GSLV and its
modules.
 On the application side, the crop production estimation will be enhanced to cover 10
additional crops and ISRO will also provide vital inputs for water and energy security.
Achievements

Year Achievement

1975 India’s first satellite ‘Aryabhata’ was launched

1979
Bhaskara-1 Satellites under Mission Rohini were launched

Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment (APPLE) - ISRO’s first indigenous,

1981
experimental communication satellite.

Commissioning of the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system: One of the

1983
largest domestic communication satellite systems in the Asia Pacific Region.

Rakesh Sharma made history by becoming first and only Indian to travel to
1984
Space in Soviet Rocket.

1988 Launch of first remote sensing mission IRS-1A.

1992 First multi-purpose satellite INSAT-2A was successfully operationalized.

 1997 Launched first fully operational satellite aboard a locally developed rocket PSLV.

2002 Kalpana-1: first dedicated meteorological satellite

EDUSAT (GSAT-3): 1st Indian Satellite built exclusively to serve the educational
2004
sector.

Launch of INSAT-4A from European Launch Vehicle: the first satellite to meet
2005
the requirement of DTH Television Services.

2008 Launch of Chandrayaan-1: Beginning of ISRO’s Historic Moon Mission

IRNSS-1A Navigation satellite

2013
MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission): India is the first nation to succeed on its first
attempt to reach Mars.

Made World Record by launching 104 satellites simultaneously through the

2017 PSLV C-37 (38th successful mission of PSLV in a row)

GSLV Mark-III (the heaviest rocket ever made by India)

2018 Launch of India’s Heaviest Communication Satellite GSAT-11

Indian Space & ISRO

 Space Exploration in India began in 1960s. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was physicist and
industrialist who initiated space research and helped in developing nuclear power in
India. He is also popularly known as Father of India’s Space Program.
 Sarabhai was instrumental in establishing the Physical Research Laboratory in
Ahmedabad after returning from Cambridge in 1947.
 India launched its first sounding rocket from Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram in
Kerala on 21 November 1963.
 In 1962, an Indian National Committee for Space Research was set up. It laid the
foundation of ISRO in 1969.
 Indian Government established the Department of Space in June, 1972 and brought
ISRO under it in September, 1972.
Recent Initiatives

For Youth:
 The Young Scientist Program (YSP):
o ISRO describes this program as the most important in their efforts to reach out to
students.
o Under the YSP, 3 students; eight standard pass will be selected from each of the 29
states and 7 UTs and they will spend one month at ISRO, during which they will be
given lectures, access to Research and Development Lab and practical experience in
building a small satellite. Dr. Sivan has underscored if the satellite is good, ISRO will
launch it. Launch of Kalamsat is an example.
o This Program is similar to NASA’s Student Outreach.
 Incubation Centres:
o ISRO is to set up 6 incubation centres across the country to attract young talent
having interest in Space Science.
o An Incubation Centre has already been developed at Tripura for young scientists
who can contribute in Space Science.
o Navigation, Payload and Communication are the fields where students can
contribute. Any model or technology developed by these students will be bought by
ISRO.
 ISRO has tied up with National Institute of Technology (NIT) of Jaipur, Kurukshetra,
Varanasi, Patna, Kanyakumari and Jammu. Young Scientists will be encouraged to
develop not only satellites but also upgradation in technology as well.
 UNNATI (UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training by ISRO):
o The program provides an opportunity for the participant countries to strengthen
their capabilities in assembling, integrating and testing nano-satellites.
o It will be conducted for three years by the U.R. Satellite Centre at ISRO in three
batches.
o It may benefit officials of 45 countries. The first batch which started on 17th January
has 30 delegates from 17 countries participating.
 SAMVAD Program:
o In order to inculcate or nurture space research further in young minds, ISRO, this
year has launched a Student Outreach Program called Samvad with the students at
its facility in Bengaluru.
o The first event saw 40 students and 10 teachers from selected schools interacted
with ISRO’s Chairman, Dr. K Sivan.
For Border Management:

The Home Ministry has accepted the recommendations made by a Task Force on the use of
Space Technology. The Report compiled by the Task Force has identified the following areas
for use the use of Space Technology :

 to Strengthen Island Development,

 Border Security,
 Communication and Navigation (Air Force and Navy Force already have the Satellite for
the Communication Purpose)
 facilitate the development of Infrastructure at border and island areas.
To execute the project in time bound manner, a short, medium and long term plan has
been proposed for implementation in 5 years in close coordination with ISRO and MoD.

In short term, immediate need of Border Guarding Forces (BGFs) will be met by procurement
of High Resolution Imagery and the hiring of bandwidth for communications.

In the mid term, one satellite (all weather satellite) will be used by ISRO for the exclusive
use of Ministry of Home Affairs.

Over the long term, MHA will develop ground segment and network infrastructure to share
satellite resources with user agencies, will also develop a central archival facility for storing
various imagery resources and dissemination of the same to user agencies.

 Deployment of central forces in the remote areas will be coordinated through ‘Satellite
Communication’.
 The Indian Regional Navigation System based GPS will be used to provide navigation
facilities for operational parties in high altitude, remote, difficult borders and Naxal
areas.
Despite undertaking various initiatives and launching several missions successfully, ISRO
continues to explore the Space Technology, itself and its use in different fields like in Disaster
Management, Infrastructure Development and so on.

Remote sensing‐ GIS and its application

Remote Sensing
Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without
making physical contact with the object and thus in contrast to on‐site observation.

In current usage, the term “remote sensing” generally refers to the use of satellite‐ or
aircraft‐based sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth, including on the
surface and in the atmosphere and oceans, based on propagated signals.

Remote sensing is used in numerous fields, including geography, land surveying and most
Earth Science disciplines for example, hydrology, ecology, oceanography, glaciology,
geology.It also has military, intelligence, commercial, economic, planning, and humanitarian
applications.

GIS
Geographic Information System ﴾GIS﴿ is a computer based application of technology involving
spatial and attributes information to act as a decision support tool.
It keeps information in different layers and generates various combinations pertaining to the
requirement of the decision‐making.

In the recent times, GIS has emerged as an effective tool in management of disasters since,
geo‐spatial data and socio‐economic information need to be amalgamated for the better
decision making in handling a disaster or to plan for tackling a disaster in a better way.
M

Applications:

Disaster Management
The different line departments and agencies who are stakeholders in the disaster
management process could utilize GIS. Some basic hardware like computer system, printer,
network systems, along with GIS software is required to set up the GIS in any organisation.

Objectives:
The prime objectives of developing the GIS database are to help disaster managers at
State, District and Block level for:
1. i﴿ Pre‐disaster planning and preparedness
2. ii﴿ Prediction and early warning

iii﴿ Damage assessment and relief management

GIS combines layers of information on various themes to enable the managers to take the
most appropriate decisions under the given circumstances. For disaster management, a GIS
database could be a useful managerial tool for various reasons, some of which are as under:

1. Disaster Managers could generate maps both at micro and macro level indicating
vulnerability to different extents under different threat perceptions.
2. Locations likely to remain unaffected or remain comparatively safe could be identified.
3. Alternate routes to shelters, camps, and important locations in the event of disruption of
normal surface communication could be worked out.
4. Smooth rescue and evacuation operations could be properly planned.
5. Rehabilitation and post‐disaster reconstruction works could be properly organized.
6. Locations suitable for construction of shelters, godowns, housing colonies, etc. can be
scientifically identified.
7. Areas where no construction should be taken up or existing habitations require
relocation could be identified.

Hydrology
Remote sensing of hydrologic processes can provide information on locations where in situ
sensors may be unavailable or sparse. It also enables observations over large spatial extents.
Many of the variables constituting the terrestrial water balance, for example surface water
storage, soil moisture, precipitation, evapotranspiration, and snow and ice, are measurable
using remote sensing at various spatial‐temporal resolutions and accuracies. Sources of
remote sensing include land‐based sensors, airborne sensors and satellite sensors, which can
capture microwave, thermal and near‐infrared data or use LIDAR
Weather forecasting and Ecology
Many ecological research projects would benefit from the creation of a GIS to explore spatial
relationships within and between the data. In particular, while some projects can be done
without using a GIS, many will be greatly enhanced by using it ﴾click here for some examples
of research projects which have used GIS﴿.

The very act of creating a GIS will make you think about the spatial relationships within your
data, and will help you formulate hypotheses to test or suggest new ones to explore. In
addition, thinking about your data in a spatial manner will help you identify potential spatial
issues and/or biases with your data.

GIS can also be used to make measurements and carry out calculations which would
otherwise be very difficult. For example, a GIS can be used to work out how much of your
study area consists of a specific habitat type, or how much of it is over 1,000m high, or has a
gradient greater than 5º, and so on. Similarly, a GIS can be used to calculate the size of the
home range of an individual or the total area occupied by a specific species or how long your
survey tracks are, or how much survey effort was put into different parts of your study area.

GIS can also be used to link data together in the way that is needed for statistical analysis.
For example, many statistical packages require all your data to be in a single table, with one
line per sample and then information about that sample and the location where it came from
in different columns or fields. A GIS provides you with a way to easily create such tables and
populate it with information, such as the altitude at each location, the gradient of slope and
the direction it faces, from other data sets. This makes preparing your data for statistical
analysis much simpler.

Applications Of Space Technology In India

Applications of Space Technology in India

Agriculture
Information on crop statistics is required for planning and decision making purposes, such
as, distribution and storage of food grains, Govt. policies, pricing, procurement and food
security and so on. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare effectively uses
contemporary techniques of satellite remote sensing in such decision making.

Remote sensing data does provide many advantages over conventional methods,
particularly in terms of timely decision making mechanisms, spatial depiction and coverage
including cost effectiveness. Space data is used in addressing in many critical aspects, such
as, crop area estimation, crop yield & production estimation, crop condition, deriving basic
soil information, cropping system studies, experimental crop insurance, etc.

Crop production forecasts using satellite remote sensing data has been conceptualized
by ISRO in early eighties. This led to the success of CAPE ﴾Crop Acreage and Production
Estimation﴿ project, that was done with active participation of Ministry of Agriculture
and Farmers’ Welfare ﴾MoA&FW﴿, towards forecasting of production of crops in selected
regions. In order to enhance the scope of this project, the FASAL ﴾Forecasting Agricultural
Output using Space, Agro‐meteorology and Land based Observations﴿ programme was
conceptualized, by developing methodology for multiple in‐season forecasts of crops at
national scale.

A centre named Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre ﴾MNCFC﴿ was established by
MoA&FW in New Delhi in April 2012, which operationally uses space‐based observations, at
national level, for pre‐harvest

A centre named Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre ﴾MNCFC﴿ was established by
MoA&FW in New Delhi in April 2012, which operationally uses space‐based observations, at
national level, for pre‐harvest multiple crop production forecasts of nine field crops. Crops
covered are wheat, rice, jute, mustard, cotton, sugarcane, rabi & kharif rice and rabi
sorghum. Remote Sensing based acreage and yield forecasts based on weather parameters
or spectral indices are used to provide production forecasts. The centre is also actively
involved in national level assessment of Horticultural crops and their coverage across the
agro‐climatic regions in the country.

Disaster management
Space technology and GIS applications play a crucial role in mitigation of disasters. Space‐
based technologies such as Earth observation satellites, communication satellites,
meteorological satellites and global navigation satellite systems ﴾GNSS﴿ have played an
important role in risk reduction and disaster management. They are key tools for
comprehensive hazard and risk assessments, response, relief and disaster impact
assessment. Space‐derived and in‐situ geographic information and geospatial data are
extremely useful during times of emergency response and reconstruction, especially after
the occurrence of major events such as earthquakes or floods.

Space technologies have an essential role to play in monitoring and providing early warning
to vulnerable communities at risk. They can also facilitate the transmission of warnings
across continents using satellite communications and help in the identifying the location of
critical infrastructure such as hospital, bridges and schools. Lack of early warning and
monitoring along with poor urban planning and preparedness, can increase the magnitude
of casualties and damage.

During the recent cyclone Phaillin that hit the state of Orissa in India, in October 2013, the
Indian authorities were applauded for making effective use of early warning systems that
helped in early evacuation and thus saving many precious lives. Almost 1 million people
were successfully evacuated from the state of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh following the
warning of the cyclone by disaster management authorities. Thus, space based technologies,
through timely provision of reliable data can help in minimizing the economic losses and
damages.
Hazard mapping and damage assessment are crucial to mitigate the risk from natural
disasters such as earthquakes which are almost impossible to forecast. The Asia‐Pacific
Region has constantly suffered from catastrophic earthquakes due to the geological
structure of this region. Many countries in this region, lie close to the tectonic fault lines and
hence are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. Post‐disaster assessments can play a crucial
role during relief operations and can also help in preventing secondary disasters by
identifying hazardous zones. These tools are slowly becoming more effective at setting
recovery agendas to reduce the risks people face from future disasters.

Remote sensing technology is increasingly recognized as a valuable post-earthquake

damage assessment tool.

Space technology in india in education

Satellite communications technology offers unique capability of being able to
simultaneously reach out to very large numbers spread over large distances even in the
most remote corners of the country. The Indian Space Programme has always aimed to
be second to none in the applications of space technology to deal with the problems of
development in our society. ISRO has continuously pursued the utilization of space
technology for education and development. This article highlights the projects
undertaken and lessons learnt in the use of satellite communication to meet the challenge of
education and development.

The SITE ﴾Satellite Instruction Television Experiment﴿ project carried out in 1975‐76 provided
instructions in the fields of family planning, agriculture, national integration, school
education and teacher training. The ground hardware consisted of Direct Reception Systems
﴾DRS﴿, for community viewing of the TV programmes. They were installed in six States of the
country in “clusters” of about 400 each for a total of over 2400 DRSs. The instructional
programmes ﴾some prepared by ISRO﴿ were broadcast for 4 hours every day covering
science education programmes production, various school programmes and teachers
training programme ﴾by the ministry of Education﴿. The programme re‐trained over 50000
teachers was in two 2‐week sessions

The Indian national satellite ﴾INSAT﴿ System has been the major catalyst in the rapid
expansion of terrestrial television coverage in India. INSAT is being used to provide
Education TV ﴾ETV﴿ Services for primary school children in six states. University Grants
Commission ﴾UGC﴿ is using this for its countrywide classroom programme on higher
education ﴾college sector﴿. INSAT is being used by the Indira Gandhi National Open
University ﴾IGNOU﴿ for distance education progammes and Doordarshan for Science
Channel programmes.

In Gramsat Programme ﴾GP﴿ TDCC networks were upgraded and all activities related to
satellite ased development communication, education, training, health-cares were
grouped into a GP thereby connecting each village, providing computer connectivity,
data broadcasting, and TV broadcasting facilities for applications like e‐ Governance,
NRIS, teleconferencing, and rural education/ education broadcasting etc.
 Disaster management, telemedicine, and recently Village Resource Centre were added to
the Gramsat networks. Gramsat networks are operational in Gujarat, Karnataka, M.P. Orissa
and Rajasthan ﴾pilot﴿, Andaman Nicobar, Goa, H.P., Orissa, Chhattisgarh.

EDUSAT for education While the education institutions of the country have continuously
endeavoured to use the latest technology to support the process of education, the
demands have been increasing, with the challenge of the day being to stay updated
with the changing trends.

To help meet this challenge, ISRO has taken up the ‘Tele‐Education’ by launching EDUSAT, a
satellite totally dedicated to the nation’s need for education. It has a C‐band national beam,
a Ku‐band national beam, and five Ku‐band regional beams facilitating imparting of
education in regional languages.

EDUSAT will strengthen education efforts by augmenting curriculum based teaching,

providing effective teachers’ training, and community participation. Networks based on
EDUSAT consist of either receive only ﴾one way communication﴿ terminals or interactive ﴾two
way communication﴿ terminals or both in national as well as in regional networks.

The networks are capable of facilitating live lectures/ power point presentations with student
interaction, web based learning, interactive training, virtual laboratory, video conferencing,
data/videobroadcast, database access for reference material/library/recorded lectures etc.,
on line examination and admissions, distribution of administrative information, etc.

The Network is IP based and doesnot need expensive studio facility end or hub as shown in
the figure,consist of two cameras, two PCs, proper lighting, and DVD player ﴾if needed﴿ in
addition to the indoor and outdoor units of the hub hardware.

The equipment needed at the interactive classroom end, consist of webcam, PC, LCD
projector, speakers, microphone, UPS in addition to the satellite terminal. The classroom
consisting of receive only terminal requires a PC, projector, speakers, UPS in addition to the
satellite terminal. EDUSAT utilisation is divided into three distinct phases: Pilot phase, Semi
operational phase, and Operational phase. Networks for education prior EDUSAT Prior to the
availability of EDUSAT, as a part of Pilot Phase, networks for education were.

At the beginning of a class session, relevant data is broadcast using EDUSAT to all the
classrooms which print out these data in Braille format using Braille printer. These are
distributed to the students. The teacher then commences his lecture to the students who
already have the Braille print out of the lecture in their hands. These two put together makes
the learning for the blind students a much more effective and faster.

The EDUSAT based networks of many state governments, universities and other institutions
are in various stages of implementation. In the operational phase, overall management, day
to day operation, and network upgradation etc. will be the responsibility of a selected nodal
agency and the role of ISRO will be in the advisory capacity. Acknowledgements The author
wishes to thank Mr. B.S. Bhatia, Director, DECU/ISRO for his help in providing material for
this paper and Dr. K.S. Dasgupta, Group Director, ADCTG/SAC/ISRO for encouragement.

Applications of space technology in india in climate change

Climate change is one of the complex problems facing mankind today. The overriding
complexity of the problem is attributed to its deeper global ramifications on a vast range of
issues impacting the very survival of life on Earth. Understanding such a complex issue with
vast and varied dimensions and implications, assumes greater significance for all
stakeholders, especially for our policy makers. There are varieties of perceptions regarding
the exact size and consequences of climate change.

India is spread across the warmer regions of the planet as compared to the developed
countries in North America or Europe, which are in relatively cooler regions. If we look at
data from Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, it shows that much of India is warming.
The mean annual surface‐air temperature has risen by an average of 0.4°C in the last 50
years. India is a large country which extends from 8° to 33°N.

The variety in terrain, from the high mountains of the Himalayas in the north to tropical
coastlands in the south, makes for a wide range of climatic conditions. In the northern
mountain regions, winters are cool at lower levels, and increasingly cold at higher altitudes.
In the summer, intermediate levels around 2000 m above sea level are pleasantly cool, but it
can get quite hot at lower levels.

Space based remote sensing data helps in mapping earth resources, monitoring their
changes and deriving bio‐geophysical parameters. All this information helps in identifying
the indicators and agents of climate change. The space‐based inputs can also be integrated
with physical simulation models to predict the impact of climate change. It provides
information related to three aspects .

The indicators of climate change Assessment of agents of climate change, their sources and
distribution pattern and Modeling the impact of climate change in various fields and natural
resources that would be of help in planning towards adaptation measures and
Preparedness The programme on Climate change Research In Terrestrial environment
﴾PRACRITI﴿ ‐ Phase programme presently consists of climate change/ climate based
modelling and characterization studies of diverse habitats ranging from vital/ critical habitats
like Indian coral reefs and mangrove swamps to high altitude Himalayan alpine ecosystems,
Indian eco‐hydrology and investigations on Indian monsoon teleconnection with the
polar environment processes. The studies are carried out with synergistic use of ground
measurements, space inputs and climate projection data. The detailed objectives of
different projects are:

1. Modeling Eco‐hydrology of India and Impact of Climate Change

This study emphasizes on development of cell based integrated hydrological system model
for National water balance. Water balance analysis and impact of climate change over major
and medium rivers basins of India, snow melt from Indian Himalayan, hilly regions etc.

2. Alpine ecosystem dynamics and impact of climate change in Indian Himalaya.

This study is about experiment and modeling for the establishment of long term ecological
records in alpine ecosystems of Indian Himalaya. Other objective includes development of
seamless geospatial database, climate change impact on alpine landscape, understanding
alpine eco‐system response etc.

3. Bio‐physical Characterization and Site Suitability Analysis for Indian Mangroves

Major goal of this study is to characterize mangrove ecosystems of India using remote
sensing data. Modelling of biophysical parameters, Estimation of gross primary productivity,
Identification of mangrove afforestation/plantation conducive areas etc. will also be studied.

4. Impact of Global Changes on Marine Ecosystems with special emphasis on Coral Reefs
This study highlights on developing region specific coral bleaching systems for five major
Indian Reef regions of India. Study aims for Micro‐habitat zonation of reefs, approach for
reef substrate signatures, impact of climate change on coral reef ecosystem etc.

5.Investigations of Indian monsoon tele-connection with the polar environment processes

The major objective of this study is to develop models for understanding of tele-connection
between the polar environment and Indian monsoon using satellite derived data and
indices.