Indian
in Space: Year End Review of ISRO’s Achievements in 2015
From positive news of Mars Orbiter
Mission completing its task successfully and enhancing it lifespan for few more
years, ISRO has made every Indian smile with pride in 2015. Hardwork,
dedication and team spirit still dominate the sprawling ISRO campus in
Bangalore and their efforts towards socially beneficial projects has equally
taken centre-stage in 2015.
At a glance what ISRO
achieved in 2015:
1. MARS Orbiter Mission has successfully completed its objective as planned
and has completed one year around Mars orbit on September 24, 2015 and it
withstood the test of scientific challenge by successfully coming out of the
solar conjunction (a phase of communication blackout) in July 2015 using the
On-board autonomy built in the spacecraft.
The Spacecraft is in good health and
all the five scientific payloads are providing valuable data about the Martian
atmosphere. A book titled ‘From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet’, India’s space
Journey, with series of articles from luminaries from ISRO, was released on
November 05, 2015, on the second anniversary of Mars Orbiter spacecraft launch.
Mars Orbiter Mission has been
awarded “Space Pioneer Award” for science and engineering category for the year
2015 by the US based National Space Society. The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace,
Disarmament and Development has been awarded to ISRO in recognition of its
path-breaking.
2. Successful launch of GSLV:
On Aug 27, 2015, Geo-Synchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D6), equipped with the indigenous Cryogenic
Upper Stage (CUS), successfully launched GSAT-6, the country’s advanced
communication satellite, into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). This was
the second consecutively successful flight of GSLV with the indigenous CUS,
which is testimony to ISRO’s expertise in mastering the highly complex
cryogenic rocket propulsion technology. It also signifies self reliance in
launching 2 Ton class communication satellites into GTO.
3. Next Generation Geo-Synchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III:
The first experimental flight of
heavy lift next generation launch vehicle, GSLV-Mk III, was successfully
conducted on December 18, 2014 to vlidate the Integrity of design of GSLV Mk
III. It has also successfully tested the unmanned Crew module Atmospheric
Re-entry Experiment (CARE) as the crew module splashed down over Andaman Sea
with the help of its parachutes and was recovered from the sea.
Endurance hot test of High Thrust cryogenic engine (CE20) of
GSLV-Mk III was successfully conducted on July 20, 2015 for 800 seconds as
compared to its nominal burn duration of 635 seconds during flight. This engine
is useful for powering the Cryogenic stage (C25) of GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle.
Another short duration (5.7 s) hot test on the CE20 engine was conducted on Aug
10, 2015 to test engine ignition with tank pressure conditions as in flight.
GSLV Mk III is designed to launch 3.5 to 4 Ton class communication satellites
to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
4. Navigational Satellite System called Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System
(IRNSS) consisting of a total of seven satellites to provide satellite-based
navigational services in the country was carried out as planned in 2015.
IRNSS-1D, the fourth satellite in this series was successfully launched on-board
PSLV-C27 on March 28, 2015.
With four navigational satellites in
orbit, it is now possible to provide Position, Navigation and Timing services.
The IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is expected to be completed by
2016. Once completed, the IRNSS System will benefit the country by providing
positioning services over Indian Land Mass and a region extending to the about
1500 Kms around India.
In addition, GAGAN (GPS
Aided GEO Augmented Navigation), which is primarily being used in aviation
sector for precise position information services, has been certified by DGCA
for Navigation Performance level of Approach with Vertical Guidance (APV-1)
over India.
With this, India becomes the Third
country in the world, after USA and European Union, to offer Global
Navigational Satellite System (GNSS) based precision approach services to civil
aviation sector. The GAGAN System jointly developed by ISRO and AAI is a giant
leap forward in the development of GNSS services in India and will redefine
navigation in both aviation and non-aviation application areas.
5. Augmenting the Satellite
Communications infrastructure:
GSAT-15, a 3 ton class communication
satellite (carrying 24 Ku band transponders & GAGAN payload) was launched
on November 11, 2015 at 3.04 hrs IST to augment the INSAT/GSAT system capacity
for DTH, TV broadcasting, Digital Satellite News Gathering and VSAT services
and other societal benefits.
GSAT-6, the country’s Advanced
Communication Satellite (carrying S-Band payload with 5 spot beams & C-Band
Payload with one beam) was successfully launched on Aug 27, 2015 into a
Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. S-Band Unfurlable Antenna of 6 meter diameter
was successfully deployed on August 30, 2015. The satellite has now been
positioned in its designated orbital slot of 83 degree East longitude. GSAT-6
is intended to be used for mobile communication with hand held terminals for
defence applications.
6. India’s first multi-wavelength
Observatory in Space:
ASTROSAT satellite, India’s first dedicated astronomy satellite
was successfully launched by PSLV-C30 on September 28, 2015. ASTROSAT enables
simultaneous Ultraviolet to X-Ray observations to study Stars and Galaxies. It
is a unique mission with combination of scientific instruments covering near
ultra-violet, far ultra-violet and x-ray bands for multi wavelength
observations. The ultra-violet imaging telescope of ASTROSAT has a best
resolution of 1.8 arc second combined with large field of view.
7. Commercial Launch of PSLV:
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
has launched 17 foreign satellites from seven countries (Canada, Indonesia,
Singapore, UK, and USA) during 2015 bringing the total number of foreign
satellites launched by ISRO to 57.
(a) India’s Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle, PSLV-C28, successfully launched five satellites from United Kingdom
viz. DMC3-1, DMC3-2, DMC3-3, CBNT-1 and De-orbitsail from Satish Dhawan Space
Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota on July 10, 2015 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre
SHAR, Sriharikota.
(b) PSLV-C30, along with ASTROSAT
has successfully launched six co-passenger satellites, 4 LEMUR Satellites
(USA), Lapan-A2 (Indonesia) ; NLS-14 (Canada) on September 28, 2015.
(c) PSLV-C29 lofted off six
satellites of Singapore in to their designated orbit this year. TeLEOS-1 is the
primary satellite whereas the other five are co-passenger satellites which
include two microsatellites (VELOX-CI, Kent Ridge-1) and three nano satellites
(VELOX-II, Athenoxat-1, Galassia).
8. Satellite for SAARC Region:
ISRO/DOS, with active support from Ministry of External
Affairs (MEA), hosted a Conference on “Satellite for the SAARC region and Space
Technology Applications” on June 22, 2015 at New Delhi to study configuration
and ground Infrastructure requirements for the proposed ‘Satellite for the
SAARC region’ and representatives from all SAARC member countries participated.
9. Conservation
of heritage sites:
ISRO has prepared a systematic
database of heritage sites using space technology for mapping and
identification of vulnerability of each monument and preparation of plans to
track and mitigate environmental or weather changes that may have an adverse
impact on fragile monuments.
10. Addressing unmanned level
crossings:
Pilot studies for automatic warnings
at unmanned level crossings have been carried out using GAGAN, Rail-Navigator
tools; MSS based tracking system and Bhuvan. It comprises of a geospatial
database on the accurate locations (geographical coordinates) of unmanned level
crossings and GAGAN enabled devices mounted on the train engine. A train
mounted with such a device would know the location of unmanned level crossing
and train’s hooter will automatically start when it approaches near to an
unmanned crossing.
