TrueSpirit
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Waiting for it to be operational. Having tried GPS & GLONASS, would switch to it immediately.
ISRO General News and Updates
- Thread starter rahulrds1
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At present Indian vehicle operators use GPS tracking system which cost much, I would like to know how much our own navigational system will make it cheaper. I'll love to locate myself with our own IRNSS reciever when it becomes operational :thumb: another query is will it affect the reciever prices?@arnabamit . Currently you may get a GPS reciever at 2000-4000 rs. and at higher prices.
All the seven satellites will be launched by 2015. Do not know if the present GPS could somehow be reprogrammed to receive IRNSS signals. If so, it would be a cheaper alternative to buying new ones.
Whats important is the military application of the network because India will not be using GPS for navigation during times of conflict.
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It must be a stripped down version like those one can download form Nokia OVI store or iPhone store or the Android version.My Micromax Ninja 3.5 is a GPS receiver too via Google Maps
Without any extra paid.
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Well, AFAIK, Nav signals are free. What you pay for are the one time license to use the signals which is bundled with the hardware. The firmware in the GPS receiver can be modified to catch any other signals. Since Indian license would definitely cost less, Initial Cost of Ownership would go down as well.
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Adroid smartphones are now usually bundled with activated GPS receiver via Google Maps, but I was talking about stand alone receivers, which truck owners/ travel agencies/taxi owners use, which is not cheap, e.g. MapmyIndia devices, Buy Vehicle Tracking from MapmyIndia Store and http://www.mapmyindia.com/trackingMy Micromax Ninja 3.5 is a GPS receiver too via Google Maps
Without any extra paid.
This is exactly what I am expecting
IRNSS will not only be usefull for military but for civilian use too.
mahesh
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After slotting its nine-day-old navigation satellite, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) now turns full steam on its next and high-stakes test, the flight of the Geo Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) medium-lift satellite launcher.
ISRO Chairman and Department of Space Secretary K. Radhakrishnan on Monday said the launcher, numbered GSLV-D5, was planned for launch in the second week of next month but not before August 6.
After two-and-half years
The GSLV, which is so crucial for the country's space programme, is being resumed after two-and-half years. Two consecutive launchers flown in 2010 failed, setting back the programme and putting the vehicle and the indigenous cryogenic stage through rigorous checks and tests.
It will be also the second outing of the homemade cryogenic stage, in place of the Russian stages that powered six of the seven previously flown GSLVs.
Dr. Radhakrishnan said the cryogenic stage had been modified since the April 2010 failure, tested many times and now integrated as the third and upper stage of the rocket at the Sriharikota launch site. He spoke after launching a new programme at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium.
The GSLV, flown first in 2001, has been a partial success. ISRO urgently needs to ready the launcher for putting its communication satellites in earth-fixed or geosynchronous slots in space — or it must pay and use foreign (which have been mostly European Ariane) launch vehicles.
Its older and light-lift launcher, the PSLV, has a neat record after flying 22 times.
The space agency has spared no test or modification on this launcher, which will take up the 2,000-kg GSAT-14 communication satellite: this will replace the experimental Edusat/GSAT-3 which was flown in 2004.
Mars vehicle
The PSLV vehicle that will carry the Mars orbiter in October will be taken up for integration on July 29. It will be an upgraded XL version. Two of the five payloads or devices going on the orbiter have been received.
ISRO gets busy with GSLV launch - The Hindu
ISRO Chairman and Department of Space Secretary K. Radhakrishnan on Monday said the launcher, numbered GSLV-D5, was planned for launch in the second week of next month but not before August 6.
After two-and-half years
The GSLV, which is so crucial for the country's space programme, is being resumed after two-and-half years. Two consecutive launchers flown in 2010 failed, setting back the programme and putting the vehicle and the indigenous cryogenic stage through rigorous checks and tests.
It will be also the second outing of the homemade cryogenic stage, in place of the Russian stages that powered six of the seven previously flown GSLVs.
Dr. Radhakrishnan said the cryogenic stage had been modified since the April 2010 failure, tested many times and now integrated as the third and upper stage of the rocket at the Sriharikota launch site. He spoke after launching a new programme at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium.
The GSLV, flown first in 2001, has been a partial success. ISRO urgently needs to ready the launcher for putting its communication satellites in earth-fixed or geosynchronous slots in space — or it must pay and use foreign (which have been mostly European Ariane) launch vehicles.
Its older and light-lift launcher, the PSLV, has a neat record after flying 22 times.
The space agency has spared no test or modification on this launcher, which will take up the 2,000-kg GSAT-14 communication satellite: this will replace the experimental Edusat/GSAT-3 which was flown in 2004.
Mars vehicle
The PSLV vehicle that will carry the Mars orbiter in October will be taken up for integration on July 29. It will be an upgraded XL version. Two of the five payloads or devices going on the orbiter have been received.
ISRO gets busy with GSLV launch - The Hindu
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ISRO's Very Own GPS is Ready
Isro is sending up its own set of satellites, which will co-exist with GPS
Image: Getty Images and Illustration: Sameer Pawar
Speeding down a highway or steering through the city lanes, if you tap your smartphone or in-car navigation device to locate a fuelling station, ATM, McDonald's, or the good old dhaba, the one service you rely on is the global positioning system (GPS). This stable clock in space is a set of satellites that beam radio signals to receivers on earth. Without it, flights cannot operate, communication networks won't function, drones can't fly, nor can bombs be dropped. In short, this dual-use technology is the global utility that the world has come to rely upon.
To ease India's dependence on America's GPS and even to some extent on Russia's Glonass, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has built its own geo-spatial positioning system, a regional one at that, and called it Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). If all goes according to plan, the first satellite in this series will go up on July 1. By early 2015, all seven satellites in this constellation will be up there, 35,000 km above the earth, to make the system fully operational. It will provide an all-weather absolute position over the Indian landmass and 1,500 km beyond its geo-political boundary.
With 32 satellites in orbit, GPS pretty much serves as the global reference. The US doesn't share military grade signals with countries but civilian signals, in L1 (1575.4 MHz) and L2 (1227.6 MHz) frequencies, is free for all. But as is true with all innovators, it's believed the US practises 'selective denial'. In times of war, and sometimes even otherwise, the signals can be corrupted. Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan says, "During the Gulf War, signals from some satellites were interrupted."
Amid such uncertainties, when the default control and navigation systems in defence projects are equipped with GPS devices, a country's security rides on these radio signals whose control lies elsewhere. For this reason, in its upgraded BrahMos missile, India has added Glonass receivers to the standard GPS receivers because Russia, unlike US, gives access to military signals.
"India's IRNSS is a regional system, not meant for offensive but defensive purposes," says Wing Commander Ajay Lele at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. Military use is important but essentially, says Lele, 95 percent of the data one gets is for civilian use.
India had initially planned to participate in the European satellite navigation programme Galileo, which has run into delays and cost overruns. Moreover, India wasn't able to secure military grade signals from the European programme. So the choice finally rests in building its own system. At a modest cost of Rs 1,420 crore, IRNSS has turned out a programme that the world is keenly watching.
From the time the project was sanctioned in July 2006 to July 2013, when the first launch will take place, it's been an exploration. "From defining the signal structure to fixing ground infrastructure to determining the measurement system, everything had to be done ab initio. We didn't know how to do this," says AS Ganeshan, programme director for satellite navigation at Isro. While other global systems have their satellites placed in middle earth, at a height of about 20,000 km, Isro chose to go up another 15,000 km. In that orbit, choosing how to place a minimum number of satellites at what degrees so as to cover the entire Indian region was a challenge, says Ganeshan. The team went through about 100,000 combinations, he says.
One of the hallmarks of Isro programmes is their cost effectiveness. Its most-trusted rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is being used to launch these satellites. All seven satellites are identical and need to be launched in an orbit which has traditionally required a different class of rocket, one that launches its heavier communication satellites. "We worked with very compact designs which allowed us to use PSLV and this has kept the cost very low," says N Prahlad Rao, director, Satellite Communication & Navigation.
But the heart of IRNSS lies in the master clock. "The Americans, the Europeans"¦ all have their standard time. We also had to establish our own standard time," says Ganeshan. A master clock provides the timing reference for the generation of the navigation signal. This atomic clock maintains accuracy of better than 20 nano-seconds with respect to any universal time. It provides stability of 0.4 or 0.5 nanoseconds variation in a day. "Tomorrow this becomes the reference for providing service to the user," says Ganeshan.
It's Users All the Way
Google and Apple may have killed the portable or standalone GPS devices, making the phone the always-on location finder, but the service itself is poised for rapid growth. The worldwide market for navigation and location-based services is estimated to grow to $13.4 billion in 2014. There's no precise number for the Indian market, which is estimated to be less than $500 million, but its acceptance is increasing. Unlike the West, which started with GPS tracking devices and then moved to smartphones, India is taking the reverse route. Every smartphone is a GPS receiver today and by the end of 2013, nearly 67 million people will be its users in India. The sheer size of the potential market is impressive but the usage is not.
In India, there's been quite a revolution in the use of digital maps, but commercial value has not been created, says Rakesh Verma, managing director of MapmyIndia, a GPS navigation solutions and digital maps company. His company has mapped almost the entire ecosystem—from geographic information system solutions to navigable maps, navigation devices to phone and tablet apps to the last mile connectivity with house level maps.
One reason for less-than-expected growth, says Verma, is that some companies have created the "perception that location-based service is free, which it is not, and that has hindered its expansion". "These companies make location-based services free by subsidising it by other accounts," he argues. (Without naming Google, he's taking a dig at it.) Still, the question to ask is: Will having an Indian positioning system in orbit help?
Industry would want to watch the stability of IRNSS before influencing manufacturers to incorporate its signals. While service providers like MapmyIndia will have no issues running their solution on one signal or the other, it's the manufacturers of devices, be it phone or receivers, who need to take a call whether they want to add IRNSS with GPS and Glonass.
Some of them are already looking ahead to it. "We have developed receivers compatible with all existing systems, so we are certainly keen to add our IRNSS signal to the existing solution," says Vyasaraj, senior manager at Accord Software & Systems, a Bangalore-based company that makes GPS receivers and other solutions for Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
One of the advantages, he says, is that IRNSS supports two signals in L5 and S frequency bands, which correct the error that creeps in due to the ionosphere. It is a region in the upper atmosphere with a high concentration of free electrons due to solar radiation and impacts radio wave transmission. All other global systems operate in L1 and L2 frequencies. Because of this, says Vyasaraj, reliance on the civilian signal will be better than other existing operational systems during "disturbed times".
Reliability is also ensured in times of cosmic events like solar flares that are common in the 11-year solar cycle and sometimes damage the satellites.
Vyasaraj rules out manufacturers having any hesitation in making their devices compatible with IRNSS signals. From the design and global competition perspective, he says, receiver makers follow "all-in-view" feature, which means, all good devices should be able to work with all the signals that come from the satellites in orbit, irrespective of their nationality.
All this doesn't mean Isro's task ends with the satellite launches. Verma says it should create awareness and support the industry through seminars and technology symposiums. "It will create both pull and push effect." On the technological front, challenges may arise in miniaturising the receiver antenna for S-band, a frequency never used for this purpose before.
Engineers also fear that since Indian satellites will be at a pretty high elevation, they may not lend themselves for indoor applications.
These can at best be termed teething issues, which Isro would perhaps be keen to address in its own interest. In the US, GPS is under attack: Not only are its satellites aging but even next-generation mobile broadband services are vying for a piece of the electromagnetic spectrum that GPS uses. "The fear with other systems is that any day they may be switched off, but with IRNSS, we don't expect it to be switched off," says Vyasaraj.
India should also attract other countries in the region to use IRNSS. GPS is a success because the whole world uses it; even China is making its system, Compass, commercially available, says Lele. "At some point India needs to use its space faring abilities as soft power."
Image: Getty Images and Illustration: Sameer Pawar
Speeding down a highway or steering through the city lanes, if you tap your smartphone or in-car navigation device to locate a fuelling station, ATM, McDonald's, or the good old dhaba, the one service you rely on is the global positioning system (GPS). This stable clock in space is a set of satellites that beam radio signals to receivers on earth. Without it, flights cannot operate, communication networks won't function, drones can't fly, nor can bombs be dropped. In short, this dual-use technology is the global utility that the world has come to rely upon.
To ease India's dependence on America's GPS and even to some extent on Russia's Glonass, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has built its own geo-spatial positioning system, a regional one at that, and called it Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). If all goes according to plan, the first satellite in this series will go up on July 1. By early 2015, all seven satellites in this constellation will be up there, 35,000 km above the earth, to make the system fully operational. It will provide an all-weather absolute position over the Indian landmass and 1,500 km beyond its geo-political boundary.
With 32 satellites in orbit, GPS pretty much serves as the global reference. The US doesn't share military grade signals with countries but civilian signals, in L1 (1575.4 MHz) and L2 (1227.6 MHz) frequencies, is free for all. But as is true with all innovators, it's believed the US practises 'selective denial'. In times of war, and sometimes even otherwise, the signals can be corrupted. Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan says, "During the Gulf War, signals from some satellites were interrupted."
Amid such uncertainties, when the default control and navigation systems in defence projects are equipped with GPS devices, a country's security rides on these radio signals whose control lies elsewhere. For this reason, in its upgraded BrahMos missile, India has added Glonass receivers to the standard GPS receivers because Russia, unlike US, gives access to military signals.
"India's IRNSS is a regional system, not meant for offensive but defensive purposes," says Wing Commander Ajay Lele at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. Military use is important but essentially, says Lele, 95 percent of the data one gets is for civilian use.
India had initially planned to participate in the European satellite navigation programme Galileo, which has run into delays and cost overruns. Moreover, India wasn't able to secure military grade signals from the European programme. So the choice finally rests in building its own system. At a modest cost of Rs 1,420 crore, IRNSS has turned out a programme that the world is keenly watching.
From the time the project was sanctioned in July 2006 to July 2013, when the first launch will take place, it's been an exploration. "From defining the signal structure to fixing ground infrastructure to determining the measurement system, everything had to be done ab initio. We didn't know how to do this," says AS Ganeshan, programme director for satellite navigation at Isro. While other global systems have their satellites placed in middle earth, at a height of about 20,000 km, Isro chose to go up another 15,000 km. In that orbit, choosing how to place a minimum number of satellites at what degrees so as to cover the entire Indian region was a challenge, says Ganeshan. The team went through about 100,000 combinations, he says.
One of the hallmarks of Isro programmes is their cost effectiveness. Its most-trusted rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is being used to launch these satellites. All seven satellites are identical and need to be launched in an orbit which has traditionally required a different class of rocket, one that launches its heavier communication satellites. "We worked with very compact designs which allowed us to use PSLV and this has kept the cost very low," says N Prahlad Rao, director, Satellite Communication & Navigation.
But the heart of IRNSS lies in the master clock. "The Americans, the Europeans"¦ all have their standard time. We also had to establish our own standard time," says Ganeshan. A master clock provides the timing reference for the generation of the navigation signal. This atomic clock maintains accuracy of better than 20 nano-seconds with respect to any universal time. It provides stability of 0.4 or 0.5 nanoseconds variation in a day. "Tomorrow this becomes the reference for providing service to the user," says Ganeshan.
It's Users All the Way
Google and Apple may have killed the portable or standalone GPS devices, making the phone the always-on location finder, but the service itself is poised for rapid growth. The worldwide market for navigation and location-based services is estimated to grow to $13.4 billion in 2014. There's no precise number for the Indian market, which is estimated to be less than $500 million, but its acceptance is increasing. Unlike the West, which started with GPS tracking devices and then moved to smartphones, India is taking the reverse route. Every smartphone is a GPS receiver today and by the end of 2013, nearly 67 million people will be its users in India. The sheer size of the potential market is impressive but the usage is not.
In India, there's been quite a revolution in the use of digital maps, but commercial value has not been created, says Rakesh Verma, managing director of MapmyIndia, a GPS navigation solutions and digital maps company. His company has mapped almost the entire ecosystem—from geographic information system solutions to navigable maps, navigation devices to phone and tablet apps to the last mile connectivity with house level maps.
One reason for less-than-expected growth, says Verma, is that some companies have created the "perception that location-based service is free, which it is not, and that has hindered its expansion". "These companies make location-based services free by subsidising it by other accounts," he argues. (Without naming Google, he's taking a dig at it.) Still, the question to ask is: Will having an Indian positioning system in orbit help?
Industry would want to watch the stability of IRNSS before influencing manufacturers to incorporate its signals. While service providers like MapmyIndia will have no issues running their solution on one signal or the other, it's the manufacturers of devices, be it phone or receivers, who need to take a call whether they want to add IRNSS with GPS and Glonass.
Some of them are already looking ahead to it. "We have developed receivers compatible with all existing systems, so we are certainly keen to add our IRNSS signal to the existing solution," says Vyasaraj, senior manager at Accord Software & Systems, a Bangalore-based company that makes GPS receivers and other solutions for Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
One of the advantages, he says, is that IRNSS supports two signals in L5 and S frequency bands, which correct the error that creeps in due to the ionosphere. It is a region in the upper atmosphere with a high concentration of free electrons due to solar radiation and impacts radio wave transmission. All other global systems operate in L1 and L2 frequencies. Because of this, says Vyasaraj, reliance on the civilian signal will be better than other existing operational systems during "disturbed times".
Reliability is also ensured in times of cosmic events like solar flares that are common in the 11-year solar cycle and sometimes damage the satellites.
Vyasaraj rules out manufacturers having any hesitation in making their devices compatible with IRNSS signals. From the design and global competition perspective, he says, receiver makers follow "all-in-view" feature, which means, all good devices should be able to work with all the signals that come from the satellites in orbit, irrespective of their nationality.
All this doesn't mean Isro's task ends with the satellite launches. Verma says it should create awareness and support the industry through seminars and technology symposiums. "It will create both pull and push effect." On the technological front, challenges may arise in miniaturising the receiver antenna for S-band, a frequency never used for this purpose before.
Engineers also fear that since Indian satellites will be at a pretty high elevation, they may not lend themselves for indoor applications.
These can at best be termed teething issues, which Isro would perhaps be keen to address in its own interest. In the US, GPS is under attack: Not only are its satellites aging but even next-generation mobile broadband services are vying for a piece of the electromagnetic spectrum that GPS uses. "The fear with other systems is that any day they may be switched off, but with IRNSS, we don't expect it to be switched off," says Vyasaraj.
India should also attract other countries in the region to use IRNSS. GPS is a success because the whole world uses it; even China is making its system, Compass, commercially available, says Lele. "At some point India needs to use its space faring abilities as soft power."
Forbes India Magazine - ISRO's Very Own GPS is Ready
Isro is sending up its own set of satellites, which will co-exist with GPS
Image: Getty Images and Illustration: Sameer Pawar
Speeding down a highway or steering through the city lanes, if you tap your smartphone or in-car navigation device to locate a fuelling station, ATM, McDonald's, or the good old dhaba, the one service you rely on is the global positioning system (GPS). This stable clock in space is a set of satellites that beam radio signals to receivers on earth. Without it, flights cannot operate, communication networks won't function, drones can't fly, nor can bombs be dropped. In short, this dual-use technology is the global utility that the world has come to rely upon.
To ease India's dependence on America's GPS and even to some extent on Russia's Glonass, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has built its own geo-spatial positioning system, a regional one at that, and called it Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). If all goes according to plan, the first satellite in this series will go up on July 1. By early 2015, all seven satellites in this constellation will be up there, 35,000 km above the earth, to make the system fully operational. It will provide an all-weather absolute position over the Indian landmass and 1,500 km beyond its geo-political boundary.
With 32 satellites in orbit, GPS pretty much serves as the global reference. The US doesn't share military grade signals with countries but civilian signals, in L1 (1575.4 MHz) and L2 (1227.6 MHz) frequencies, is free for all. But as is true with all innovators, it's believed the US practises 'selective denial'. In times of war, and sometimes even otherwise, the signals can be corrupted. Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan says, "During the Gulf War, signals from some satellites were interrupted."
Amid such uncertainties, when the default control and navigation systems in defence projects are equipped with GPS devices, a country's security rides on these radio signals whose control lies elsewhere. For this reason, in its upgraded BrahMos missile, India has added Glonass receivers to the standard GPS receivers because Russia, unlike US, gives access to military signals.
"India's IRNSS is a regional system, not meant for offensive but defensive purposes," says Wing Commander Ajay Lele at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. Military use is important but essentially, says Lele, 95 percent of the data one gets is for civilian use.
India had initially planned to participate in the European satellite navigation programme Galileo, which has run into delays and cost overruns. Moreover, India wasn't able to secure military grade signals from the European programme. So the choice finally rests in building its own system. At a modest cost of Rs 1,420 crore, IRNSS has turned out a programme that the world is keenly watching.
From the time the project was sanctioned in July 2006 to July 2013, when the first launch will take place, it's been an exploration. "From defining the signal structure to fixing ground infrastructure to determining the measurement system, everything had to be done ab initio. We didn't know how to do this," says AS Ganeshan, programme director for satellite navigation at Isro. While other global systems have their satellites placed in middle earth, at a height of about 20,000 km, Isro chose to go up another 15,000 km. In that orbit, choosing how to place a minimum number of satellites at what degrees so as to cover the entire Indian region was a challenge, says Ganeshan. The team went through about 100,000 combinations, he says.
One of the hallmarks of Isro programmes is their cost effectiveness. Its most-trusted rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is being used to launch these satellites. All seven satellites are identical and need to be launched in an orbit which has traditionally required a different class of rocket, one that launches its heavier communication satellites. "We worked with very compact designs which allowed us to use PSLV and this has kept the cost very low," says N Prahlad Rao, director, Satellite Communication & Navigation.
But the heart of IRNSS lies in the master clock. "The Americans, the Europeans"¦ all have their standard time. We also had to establish our own standard time," says Ganeshan. A master clock provides the timing reference for the generation of the navigation signal. This atomic clock maintains accuracy of better than 20 nano-seconds with respect to any universal time. It provides stability of 0.4 or 0.5 nanoseconds variation in a day. "Tomorrow this becomes the reference for providing service to the user," says Ganeshan.
It's Users All the Way
Google and Apple may have killed the portable or standalone GPS devices, making the phone the always-on location finder, but the service itself is poised for rapid growth. The worldwide market for navigation and location-based services is estimated to grow to $13.4 billion in 2014. There's no precise number for the Indian market, which is estimated to be less than $500 million, but its acceptance is increasing. Unlike the West, which started with GPS tracking devices and then moved to smartphones, India is taking the reverse route. Every smartphone is a GPS receiver today and by the end of 2013, nearly 67 million people will be its users in India. The sheer size of the potential market is impressive but the usage is not.
In India, there's been quite a revolution in the use of digital maps, but commercial value has not been created, says Rakesh Verma, managing director of MapmyIndia, a GPS navigation solutions and digital maps company. His company has mapped almost the entire ecosystem—from geographic information system solutions to navigable maps, navigation devices to phone and tablet apps to the last mile connectivity with house level maps.
One reason for less-than-expected growth, says Verma, is that some companies have created the "perception that location-based service is free, which it is not, and that has hindered its expansion". "These companies make location-based services free by subsidising it by other accounts," he argues. (Without naming Google, he's taking a dig at it.) Still, the question to ask is: Will having an Indian positioning system in orbit help?
Industry would want to watch the stability of IRNSS before influencing manufacturers to incorporate its signals. While service providers like MapmyIndia will have no issues running their solution on one signal or the other, it's the manufacturers of devices, be it phone or receivers, who need to take a call whether they want to add IRNSS with GPS and Glonass.
Some of them are already looking ahead to it. "We have developed receivers compatible with all existing systems, so we are certainly keen to add our IRNSS signal to the existing solution," says Vyasaraj, senior manager at Accord Software & Systems, a Bangalore-based company that makes GPS receivers and other solutions for Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
One of the advantages, he says, is that IRNSS supports two signals in L5 and S frequency bands, which correct the error that creeps in due to the ionosphere. It is a region in the upper atmosphere with a high concentration of free electrons due to solar radiation and impacts radio wave transmission. All other global systems operate in L1 and L2 frequencies. Because of this, says Vyasaraj, reliance on the civilian signal will be better than other existing operational systems during "disturbed times".
Reliability is also ensured in times of cosmic events like solar flares that are common in the 11-year solar cycle and sometimes damage the satellites.
Vyasaraj rules out manufacturers having any hesitation in making their devices compatible with IRNSS signals. From the design and global competition perspective, he says, receiver makers follow "all-in-view" feature, which means, all good devices should be able to work with all the signals that come from the satellites in orbit, irrespective of their nationality.
All this doesn't mean Isro's task ends with the satellite launches. Verma says it should create awareness and support the industry through seminars and technology symposiums. "It will create both pull and push effect." On the technological front, challenges may arise in miniaturising the receiver antenna for S-band, a frequency never used for this purpose before.
Engineers also fear that since Indian satellites will be at a pretty high elevation, they may not lend themselves for indoor applications.
These can at best be termed teething issues, which Isro would perhaps be keen to address in its own interest. In the US, GPS is under attack: Not only are its satellites aging but even next-generation mobile broadband services are vying for a piece of the electromagnetic spectrum that GPS uses. "The fear with other systems is that any day they may be switched off, but with IRNSS, we don't expect it to be switched off," says Vyasaraj.
India should also attract other countries in the region to use IRNSS. GPS is a success because the whole world uses it; even China is making its system, Compass, commercially available, says Lele. "At some point India needs to use its space faring abilities as soft power."
Image: Getty Images and Illustration: Sameer Pawar
Speeding down a highway or steering through the city lanes, if you tap your smartphone or in-car navigation device to locate a fuelling station, ATM, McDonald's, or the good old dhaba, the one service you rely on is the global positioning system (GPS). This stable clock in space is a set of satellites that beam radio signals to receivers on earth. Without it, flights cannot operate, communication networks won't function, drones can't fly, nor can bombs be dropped. In short, this dual-use technology is the global utility that the world has come to rely upon.
To ease India's dependence on America's GPS and even to some extent on Russia's Glonass, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has built its own geo-spatial positioning system, a regional one at that, and called it Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). If all goes according to plan, the first satellite in this series will go up on July 1. By early 2015, all seven satellites in this constellation will be up there, 35,000 km above the earth, to make the system fully operational. It will provide an all-weather absolute position over the Indian landmass and 1,500 km beyond its geo-political boundary.
With 32 satellites in orbit, GPS pretty much serves as the global reference. The US doesn't share military grade signals with countries but civilian signals, in L1 (1575.4 MHz) and L2 (1227.6 MHz) frequencies, is free for all. But as is true with all innovators, it's believed the US practises 'selective denial'. In times of war, and sometimes even otherwise, the signals can be corrupted. Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan says, "During the Gulf War, signals from some satellites were interrupted."
Amid such uncertainties, when the default control and navigation systems in defence projects are equipped with GPS devices, a country's security rides on these radio signals whose control lies elsewhere. For this reason, in its upgraded BrahMos missile, India has added Glonass receivers to the standard GPS receivers because Russia, unlike US, gives access to military signals.
"India's IRNSS is a regional system, not meant for offensive but defensive purposes," says Wing Commander Ajay Lele at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. Military use is important but essentially, says Lele, 95 percent of the data one gets is for civilian use.
India had initially planned to participate in the European satellite navigation programme Galileo, which has run into delays and cost overruns. Moreover, India wasn't able to secure military grade signals from the European programme. So the choice finally rests in building its own system. At a modest cost of Rs 1,420 crore, IRNSS has turned out a programme that the world is keenly watching.
From the time the project was sanctioned in July 2006 to July 2013, when the first launch will take place, it's been an exploration. "From defining the signal structure to fixing ground infrastructure to determining the measurement system, everything had to be done ab initio. We didn't know how to do this," says AS Ganeshan, programme director for satellite navigation at Isro. While other global systems have their satellites placed in middle earth, at a height of about 20,000 km, Isro chose to go up another 15,000 km. In that orbit, choosing how to place a minimum number of satellites at what degrees so as to cover the entire Indian region was a challenge, says Ganeshan. The team went through about 100,000 combinations, he says.
One of the hallmarks of Isro programmes is their cost effectiveness. Its most-trusted rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is being used to launch these satellites. All seven satellites are identical and need to be launched in an orbit which has traditionally required a different class of rocket, one that launches its heavier communication satellites. "We worked with very compact designs which allowed us to use PSLV and this has kept the cost very low," says N Prahlad Rao, director, Satellite Communication & Navigation.
But the heart of IRNSS lies in the master clock. "The Americans, the Europeans"¦ all have their standard time. We also had to establish our own standard time," says Ganeshan. A master clock provides the timing reference for the generation of the navigation signal. This atomic clock maintains accuracy of better than 20 nano-seconds with respect to any universal time. It provides stability of 0.4 or 0.5 nanoseconds variation in a day. "Tomorrow this becomes the reference for providing service to the user," says Ganeshan.
It's Users All the Way
Google and Apple may have killed the portable or standalone GPS devices, making the phone the always-on location finder, but the service itself is poised for rapid growth. The worldwide market for navigation and location-based services is estimated to grow to $13.4 billion in 2014. There's no precise number for the Indian market, which is estimated to be less than $500 million, but its acceptance is increasing. Unlike the West, which started with GPS tracking devices and then moved to smartphones, India is taking the reverse route. Every smartphone is a GPS receiver today and by the end of 2013, nearly 67 million people will be its users in India. The sheer size of the potential market is impressive but the usage is not.
In India, there's been quite a revolution in the use of digital maps, but commercial value has not been created, says Rakesh Verma, managing director of MapmyIndia, a GPS navigation solutions and digital maps company. His company has mapped almost the entire ecosystem—from geographic information system solutions to navigable maps, navigation devices to phone and tablet apps to the last mile connectivity with house level maps.
One reason for less-than-expected growth, says Verma, is that some companies have created the "perception that location-based service is free, which it is not, and that has hindered its expansion". "These companies make location-based services free by subsidising it by other accounts," he argues. (Without naming Google, he's taking a dig at it.) Still, the question to ask is: Will having an Indian positioning system in orbit help?
Industry would want to watch the stability of IRNSS before influencing manufacturers to incorporate its signals. While service providers like MapmyIndia will have no issues running their solution on one signal or the other, it's the manufacturers of devices, be it phone or receivers, who need to take a call whether they want to add IRNSS with GPS and Glonass.
Some of them are already looking ahead to it. "We have developed receivers compatible with all existing systems, so we are certainly keen to add our IRNSS signal to the existing solution," says Vyasaraj, senior manager at Accord Software & Systems, a Bangalore-based company that makes GPS receivers and other solutions for Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
One of the advantages, he says, is that IRNSS supports two signals in L5 and S frequency bands, which correct the error that creeps in due to the ionosphere. It is a region in the upper atmosphere with a high concentration of free electrons due to solar radiation and impacts radio wave transmission. All other global systems operate in L1 and L2 frequencies. Because of this, says Vyasaraj, reliance on the civilian signal will be better than other existing operational systems during "disturbed times".
Reliability is also ensured in times of cosmic events like solar flares that are common in the 11-year solar cycle and sometimes damage the satellites.
Vyasaraj rules out manufacturers having any hesitation in making their devices compatible with IRNSS signals. From the design and global competition perspective, he says, receiver makers follow "all-in-view" feature, which means, all good devices should be able to work with all the signals that come from the satellites in orbit, irrespective of their nationality.
All this doesn't mean Isro's task ends with the satellite launches. Verma says it should create awareness and support the industry through seminars and technology symposiums. "It will create both pull and push effect." On the technological front, challenges may arise in miniaturising the receiver antenna for S-band, a frequency never used for this purpose before.
Engineers also fear that since Indian satellites will be at a pretty high elevation, they may not lend themselves for indoor applications.
These can at best be termed teething issues, which Isro would perhaps be keen to address in its own interest. In the US, GPS is under attack: Not only are its satellites aging but even next-generation mobile broadband services are vying for a piece of the electromagnetic spectrum that GPS uses. "The fear with other systems is that any day they may be switched off, but with IRNSS, we don't expect it to be switched off," says Vyasaraj.
India should also attract other countries in the region to use IRNSS. GPS is a success because the whole world uses it; even China is making its system, Compass, commercially available, says Lele. "At some point India needs to use its space faring abilities as soft power."
Forbes India Magazine - ISRO's Very Own GPS is Ready
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sesha_maruthi27
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ISRO to flight-test GSLV with indigenous cryo on Aug 19
BANGALORE (PTI): More than three years after the heart-breaking failure on flight testing of the indigenous cryogenic stage in GSLV-D3 mission, Indian Space Research Organisation announced on Tuesday it's ready to undertake the high-stakes venture again on August 19.
A national team of experts on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to ISRO after the Bangalore-headquartered space agency presented it the preparations that it had made after rectifications and qualifications.
The team included Prof U R Rao and Prof Roddam Narasimha and academics associated with ISRO's rocket programme.
"The moment we are talking about is August 19th as a tentative schedule and the time is around 5 PM," ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan told PTI here.
"Vehicle (GSLV or rocket) is already assembled and we have done electrical checks on the vehicle", he said. "We have done nearly 35 ground tests since we had the April 2010 failure, on sub-systems, on the engine and on a similar engine in high altitude conditions".
ISRO designed and developed some components itself and not sourced from outside. GSLV-D5 is now slated for launch, with GSAT-14 satellite on board from Sriharikota spaceport.
India's other operational rocket, PSLV, has limitations up to what mass it can handle, making the success of GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine extremely important as this rocket can carry heavier communication satellites to a much higher orbit.
"Cryogenic route has to be there for the future of the larger communication satellites", Radhakrishnan,also Secretary in the Department of Space, explained, noting that ISRO took up indigenous cryogenic engine programme in 1992.
It was noted that 50 per cent of velocity is provided by the upper cryogenic stage.
He said the August 19 mission is technically and emotionally important as the previous venture was a failure.
"We have to see through. Stakes are very high, seriousness is very high. Entire organisation feels for it. For the last three years, we have been at it".
The failure analysis committee concluded after the unsuccessful April 15, 2010, mission that the thrust build up did not progress as expected due to non-availability of liquid hydrogen supply to the thrust chamber of the main engine.
This failure was attributed to the anomalous stopping of Fuel Booster Turbo Pump (FBTP).
In the last three years, ISRO conducted extensive failure analysis studies and reviews. Cryo stage FBTP was modified as per GSLV-D3 failure analysis committee recommendations and qualification tests carried out,ISRO officials said.
ISRO to flight-test GSLV with indigenous cryo on Aug 19 - Brahmand.com
BANGALORE (PTI): More than three years after the heart-breaking failure on flight testing of the indigenous cryogenic stage in GSLV-D3 mission, Indian Space Research Organisation announced on Tuesday it's ready to undertake the high-stakes venture again on August 19.
A national team of experts on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to ISRO after the Bangalore-headquartered space agency presented it the preparations that it had made after rectifications and qualifications.
The team included Prof U R Rao and Prof Roddam Narasimha and academics associated with ISRO's rocket programme.
"The moment we are talking about is August 19th as a tentative schedule and the time is around 5 PM," ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan told PTI here.
"Vehicle (GSLV or rocket) is already assembled and we have done electrical checks on the vehicle", he said. "We have done nearly 35 ground tests since we had the April 2010 failure, on sub-systems, on the engine and on a similar engine in high altitude conditions".
ISRO designed and developed some components itself and not sourced from outside. GSLV-D5 is now slated for launch, with GSAT-14 satellite on board from Sriharikota spaceport.
India's other operational rocket, PSLV, has limitations up to what mass it can handle, making the success of GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine extremely important as this rocket can carry heavier communication satellites to a much higher orbit.
"Cryogenic route has to be there for the future of the larger communication satellites", Radhakrishnan,also Secretary in the Department of Space, explained, noting that ISRO took up indigenous cryogenic engine programme in 1992.
It was noted that 50 per cent of velocity is provided by the upper cryogenic stage.
He said the August 19 mission is technically and emotionally important as the previous venture was a failure.
"We have to see through. Stakes are very high, seriousness is very high. Entire organisation feels for it. For the last three years, we have been at it".
The failure analysis committee concluded after the unsuccessful April 15, 2010, mission that the thrust build up did not progress as expected due to non-availability of liquid hydrogen supply to the thrust chamber of the main engine.
This failure was attributed to the anomalous stopping of Fuel Booster Turbo Pump (FBTP).
In the last three years, ISRO conducted extensive failure analysis studies and reviews. Cryo stage FBTP was modified as per GSLV-D3 failure analysis committee recommendations and qualification tests carried out,ISRO officials said.
ISRO to flight-test GSLV with indigenous cryo on Aug 19 - Brahmand.com
sesha_maruthi27
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ALL THE BEST for ISRO to launch GSLV successfully...........:thumb:
Ganesh2691
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INSAT-3D all set for tomorrow's launch
India's advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D, with newly developed atmospheric sounding system, is all set to be launched by commercial launch services provider Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana early tomorrow.
"INSAT-3D is essentially for meteorological applications, Chairman of Indian Space research Organisation K Radhakrishnan told PTI.
"INSAT-3D is an advanced satellite in the sense there is imaging system with better spatial resolution. New payload is the 19-channel sounder which is supposed to give information at different levels in the atmosphere. That's the new addition," he said.
European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket would launch the Alphasat and INSAT-3D satellites.
The launch window opens at 1.23 AM and continues until 2.41 AM. Alphasat is Europe's largest telecommunication satellite-ever manufactured and results from a large-scale public-private partnership between the European Space Agency and Inmarsat.
INSAT-3D is designed to provide meteorological observation and monitoring of land and ocean surfaces. In addition to the sounder, the satellite is equipped with a six-channel imager, a data relay transponder (DRT) and a payload for satellite-aided search and rescue operations.
"DRT will take data from various places — land and oceans on the meteorological parameters", Radhakrishnan, also Secretary in the Department of Space, said.
The KALPANA and INSAT-3A satellites of India are operational in geostationary orbit for the past one decade at 74 degree East and 93.5 degree East respectively. These have imaging systems providing images in visible, near-infrared, shortwave infrared, water vapour and thermal infrared bands.
INSAT-3D adds a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, which provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone from surface to top of the atmosphere.
INSAT-3D all set for tomorrow’s launch | idrw.org
India's advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D, with newly developed atmospheric sounding system, is all set to be launched by commercial launch services provider Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana early tomorrow.
"INSAT-3D is essentially for meteorological applications, Chairman of Indian Space research Organisation K Radhakrishnan told PTI.
"INSAT-3D is an advanced satellite in the sense there is imaging system with better spatial resolution. New payload is the 19-channel sounder which is supposed to give information at different levels in the atmosphere. That's the new addition," he said.
European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket would launch the Alphasat and INSAT-3D satellites.
The launch window opens at 1.23 AM and continues until 2.41 AM. Alphasat is Europe's largest telecommunication satellite-ever manufactured and results from a large-scale public-private partnership between the European Space Agency and Inmarsat.
INSAT-3D is designed to provide meteorological observation and monitoring of land and ocean surfaces. In addition to the sounder, the satellite is equipped with a six-channel imager, a data relay transponder (DRT) and a payload for satellite-aided search and rescue operations.
"DRT will take data from various places — land and oceans on the meteorological parameters", Radhakrishnan, also Secretary in the Department of Space, said.
The KALPANA and INSAT-3A satellites of India are operational in geostationary orbit for the past one decade at 74 degree East and 93.5 degree East respectively. These have imaging systems providing images in visible, near-infrared, shortwave infrared, water vapour and thermal infrared bands.
INSAT-3D adds a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, which provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone from surface to top of the atmosphere.
INSAT-3D all set for tomorrow’s launch | idrw.org
Ganesh2691
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Weather satellite INSAT-3D launched successfully
India on Friday successfully launched its advanced meteorological spacecraft INSAT-3D by a European rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana, enhancing the country's capability in weather forecasting and disaster warning fields.
After a smooth countdown lasting 11 hours and 30 minutes, the Ariane-5 launch vehicle of the French commercial space transportation company Arianespace lifted off on schedule at the opening of the launch window at 1.24 a.m. IST.
The rocket, after a flight of 32 minutes and 48 seconds, placed INSAT-3D in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), very close to the intended one.
Soon after the separation of INSAT-3D from Ariane-5's upper cryogenic stage, the satellite's solar panel automatically got deployed and ISRO's Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka took over the control of the spacecraft.
Ariane-5 rocket also launched Alphasat, a co-passenger of INSAT-3D and Europe's largest telecommunication satellite-ever manufactured.
In the coming days, orbit raising manoeuvres will be performed on INSAT-3D using the satellite's own propulsion system to place it in the 36,000 km high Geostationary Orbit, the Bangalore-headquartered ISRO said.
"Preliminary health checks of all the subsystems of INSAT-3D bus were performed and the satellite's health is satisfactory," it said.
After placing the satellite at 82 deg East orbital slot, it is planned to turn on the meteorological payloads of INSAT-3D in the second week of next month to extensively test them.
INSAT-3D will add a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, which provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone from surface to top of the atmosphere.
"I am happy to inform you that the MCF has already received signals from INSAT-3D," Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K. Radhakrishnan said minutes after the launch.
"We are looking forward to an excellent operational performance of INSAT-3D for the next seven years making a difference for the weather forecasting and disaster warning systems for the country," said Mr. Radhakrishnan, also Secretary in the Department of Space.
Mr. Radhakrishnan did not travel to Kourou for the launch of INSAT-3D, designed to provide meteorological observation and monitoring of land and ocean surfaces.
However, senior ISRO officials including INSAT-3D Project Director S.C. Rastogi and Director of ISRO Satellite Centre S.K. Shivakumar were among those present at the Kourou spaceport.
With a lift-off mass of 2060 kg, INSAT-3D carried four payloads — Imager, Sounder, Data Relay Transponder (DRT) and Satellite Aided Search & Rescue payload.
The six channel imager can take weather pictures of the earth and has improved features compared to the payloads in KALPANA-1 and INSAT-3A, the two Indian Geostationary Satellites providing weather services for the past one decade.
The 19 channel sounder payload of INSAT-3D adds a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, and provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone.
The DRT will be used for receiving meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic data from remote, uninhabited locations over the coverage area from Data Collection Platforms (DCPs) like Automatic Weather Station, Automatic Rain Gauge and Agro Met Stations.
India Meteorological Department and ISRO have established more than 1800 DCPs.
INSAT-3D is equipped with a search and rescue payload that picks up and relays alert signals originating from the distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land based users and relays them to the mission control centre to facilitate speedy search and rescue operations.
The major users of Satellite Aided Search and Rescue service in India are the Indian Coast Guard, Airports Authority of India, Directorate General of Shipping, Defence Services and fishermen.
The Indian service region includes a large part of the Indian Ocean region covering India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Tanzania for rendering distress alert services.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...successfully/article4954410.ece?homepage=true
India on Friday successfully launched its advanced meteorological spacecraft INSAT-3D by a European rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana, enhancing the country's capability in weather forecasting and disaster warning fields.
After a smooth countdown lasting 11 hours and 30 minutes, the Ariane-5 launch vehicle of the French commercial space transportation company Arianespace lifted off on schedule at the opening of the launch window at 1.24 a.m. IST.
The rocket, after a flight of 32 minutes and 48 seconds, placed INSAT-3D in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), very close to the intended one.
Soon after the separation of INSAT-3D from Ariane-5's upper cryogenic stage, the satellite's solar panel automatically got deployed and ISRO's Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka took over the control of the spacecraft.
Ariane-5 rocket also launched Alphasat, a co-passenger of INSAT-3D and Europe's largest telecommunication satellite-ever manufactured.
In the coming days, orbit raising manoeuvres will be performed on INSAT-3D using the satellite's own propulsion system to place it in the 36,000 km high Geostationary Orbit, the Bangalore-headquartered ISRO said.
"Preliminary health checks of all the subsystems of INSAT-3D bus were performed and the satellite's health is satisfactory," it said.
After placing the satellite at 82 deg East orbital slot, it is planned to turn on the meteorological payloads of INSAT-3D in the second week of next month to extensively test them.
INSAT-3D will add a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, which provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone from surface to top of the atmosphere.
"I am happy to inform you that the MCF has already received signals from INSAT-3D," Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K. Radhakrishnan said minutes after the launch.
"We are looking forward to an excellent operational performance of INSAT-3D for the next seven years making a difference for the weather forecasting and disaster warning systems for the country," said Mr. Radhakrishnan, also Secretary in the Department of Space.
Mr. Radhakrishnan did not travel to Kourou for the launch of INSAT-3D, designed to provide meteorological observation and monitoring of land and ocean surfaces.
However, senior ISRO officials including INSAT-3D Project Director S.C. Rastogi and Director of ISRO Satellite Centre S.K. Shivakumar were among those present at the Kourou spaceport.
With a lift-off mass of 2060 kg, INSAT-3D carried four payloads — Imager, Sounder, Data Relay Transponder (DRT) and Satellite Aided Search & Rescue payload.
The six channel imager can take weather pictures of the earth and has improved features compared to the payloads in KALPANA-1 and INSAT-3A, the two Indian Geostationary Satellites providing weather services for the past one decade.
The 19 channel sounder payload of INSAT-3D adds a new dimension to weather monitoring through its atmospheric sounding system, and provides vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone.
The DRT will be used for receiving meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic data from remote, uninhabited locations over the coverage area from Data Collection Platforms (DCPs) like Automatic Weather Station, Automatic Rain Gauge and Agro Met Stations.
India Meteorological Department and ISRO have established more than 1800 DCPs.
INSAT-3D is equipped with a search and rescue payload that picks up and relays alert signals originating from the distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land based users and relays them to the mission control centre to facilitate speedy search and rescue operations.
The major users of Satellite Aided Search and Rescue service in India are the Indian Coast Guard, Airports Authority of India, Directorate General of Shipping, Defence Services and fishermen.
The Indian service region includes a large part of the Indian Ocean region covering India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Tanzania for rendering distress alert services.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...successfully/article4954410.ece?homepage=true
Abhijeet Dey
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India should establish another spaceport facility & fast track development of GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle so that we don't have to waste money on launching satellites (such as Insat-3D) from other countries.
Though Ariane 5 is powerful than GSLV Mk-III, the latter would have carried Insat-3D towards its destination.
Though Ariane 5 is powerful than GSLV Mk-III, the latter would have carried Insat-3D towards its destination.
Abhijeet Dey
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NASA, ISRO in talks for developing satellite jointly
Press Trust of India, July 29, 2013
Bangalore: US space agency NASA and India's premier space agency ISRO are in talks for jointly building a satellite for the first time. "Now, there is a feasibility study going on whether we can jointly make a satellite, with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payloads working on two frequency bands - L-band and S-band", said Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K Radhakrishnan.
Charles F Bolden Jr., Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of United States, visited the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO in Ahmedabad on June 25. He had a meeting with Radhakrishnan, also Secretary, Department of Space, along with senior officials of ISRO to discuss the ongoing cooperative activities between ISRO and NASA and also the potential areas of future cooperation.
"...the joint satellite mission is an important step. It's not making an instrument and plugging it actually. It's working together. That's what we are discussing. It (working together) should happen in the next few months", Radhakrishnan said. "Both organisations are coming together and saying let's develop it together...use your strength, use my strength. That's a good way of working", he said. "It (the proposed satellite) is interesting from scientific point of view, it's interesting from normal resource management point of view," he said.
Radhakrishnan said NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory would make the radar system "if it (in case of NASA, ISRO deciding to work together on the mission) is getting through". On ISRO's role, he said, "We will be working together. Some will be built by us, some will be built by them. So, this (work-sharing) has to be finalised", adding, data generated by the mission would be used by both ISRO and NASA.
Radhakrishnan hinted at the possibility of ISRO making the satellite for the joint mission, with launch from Indian soil. In this context, he pointed to the Indo-French joint satellite missions Megha-Tropiques and Saral, with Paris opting for Indian satellites for the ventures with 'desi' rockets.
India's 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission had two instruments from USA. Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) was from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory and Naval Air Warfare Centre, USA through NASA. MiniSAR was mainly intended for detecting water ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles up to a depth of a few meters.
Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an imaging spectrometer from Brown University and JPL through NASA, was intended to assess and map lunar mineral resources at high spatial and spectral resolution. M3 aboard Chandrayaan-1 helped to find the existence of water molecules on the lunar surface. "They (NASA) had two instruments (on Chandrayaan-1). It worked and they got good return out of it", Radhakrishnan said, noting the finding.
He also hinted that ISRO might contribute to NASA's new asteroid initiative, which includes work to identify and characterise asteroids of all types and a mission to capture and redirect an asteroid into an orbit closer to Earth so that astronauts can visit it. Radhakrishnan said NASA is looking at international space community regarding its perception on the subject (asteroids). "Maybe some joint work will emerge at a later stage. But it's in a very nascent stage", he hastened to add. "NASA has a plan to see how they can manage asteroids, and whether they can do some manipulation of its orbit, etc".
ISRO officials noted that India and United States pursue active civil space cooperation mainly in the areas of earth sciences, space exploration, satellite navigation and professional exchange. Last month's visit was the first by Charles F. Bolden Jr. to any ISRO Centre after he took over as NASA Administrator in July 2009. Bolden is only the third NASA chief to visit ISRO in the past four decades.
Press Trust of India, July 29, 2013
Bangalore: US space agency NASA and India's premier space agency ISRO are in talks for jointly building a satellite for the first time. "Now, there is a feasibility study going on whether we can jointly make a satellite, with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payloads working on two frequency bands - L-band and S-band", said Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K Radhakrishnan.
Charles F Bolden Jr., Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of United States, visited the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO in Ahmedabad on June 25. He had a meeting with Radhakrishnan, also Secretary, Department of Space, along with senior officials of ISRO to discuss the ongoing cooperative activities between ISRO and NASA and also the potential areas of future cooperation.
"...the joint satellite mission is an important step. It's not making an instrument and plugging it actually. It's working together. That's what we are discussing. It (working together) should happen in the next few months", Radhakrishnan said. "Both organisations are coming together and saying let's develop it together...use your strength, use my strength. That's a good way of working", he said. "It (the proposed satellite) is interesting from scientific point of view, it's interesting from normal resource management point of view," he said.
Radhakrishnan said NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory would make the radar system "if it (in case of NASA, ISRO deciding to work together on the mission) is getting through". On ISRO's role, he said, "We will be working together. Some will be built by us, some will be built by them. So, this (work-sharing) has to be finalised", adding, data generated by the mission would be used by both ISRO and NASA.
Radhakrishnan hinted at the possibility of ISRO making the satellite for the joint mission, with launch from Indian soil. In this context, he pointed to the Indo-French joint satellite missions Megha-Tropiques and Saral, with Paris opting for Indian satellites for the ventures with 'desi' rockets.
India's 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission had two instruments from USA. Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) was from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory and Naval Air Warfare Centre, USA through NASA. MiniSAR was mainly intended for detecting water ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles up to a depth of a few meters.
Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an imaging spectrometer from Brown University and JPL through NASA, was intended to assess and map lunar mineral resources at high spatial and spectral resolution. M3 aboard Chandrayaan-1 helped to find the existence of water molecules on the lunar surface. "They (NASA) had two instruments (on Chandrayaan-1). It worked and they got good return out of it", Radhakrishnan said, noting the finding.
He also hinted that ISRO might contribute to NASA's new asteroid initiative, which includes work to identify and characterise asteroids of all types and a mission to capture and redirect an asteroid into an orbit closer to Earth so that astronauts can visit it. Radhakrishnan said NASA is looking at international space community regarding its perception on the subject (asteroids). "Maybe some joint work will emerge at a later stage. But it's in a very nascent stage", he hastened to add. "NASA has a plan to see how they can manage asteroids, and whether they can do some manipulation of its orbit, etc".
ISRO officials noted that India and United States pursue active civil space cooperation mainly in the areas of earth sciences, space exploration, satellite navigation and professional exchange. Last month's visit was the first by Charles F. Bolden Jr. to any ISRO Centre after he took over as NASA Administrator in July 2009. Bolden is only the third NASA chief to visit ISRO in the past four decades.
