ISROs strides

An antenna with

FROM a modest beginning in the mid-1970s, building satellites in the Bangalore suburb of Peenya to a world-renowned space organisation that has done the country proud. This is the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indias national space agency.

Currently ISRO launches domestic and international payloads using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). In all, ISRO has built 43 sophisticated satellites ranging from multipurpose (telecommunications, television broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue) to remote sensing to scientific ones. It has launched 20 satellites.

The space agency works under the Department of Space (DoS). It has tried to ensure that India is a global power in space. Chairman G. Madhavan Nair put it succinctly when he said: Our presence in space is required. It is a low-cost access to space. He added that for humankind, the next frontier is exploring the nearby planets and even beyond these planets.

Madhavan Nair should know. He heads an organisation that has over 20,000 employees and a budget very close to Rs.4,000 crore. ISROs mandate, he added, is the development of technologies relating to space and their application to Indias development.

Promoting and marketing ISROs products and services is the Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the DoS. Antrix has marketed impressively the data from Indian remote-sensing satellites, offered launch services to international customers and provided satellite capacity to more than 70 private sector customers. Antrix recorded revenues of Rs.664 crore in 2006-07, earning a profit of Rs.105 crore. Seven foreign satellites have so far been launched; satellites from Singapore, Canada and the Netherlands are waiting to be launched.

Commenting on ISROs Chandrayaan-1, the First Indian Lunar Mission, which will carry sophisticated instruments developed in India and guest instruments from the United States and Europe, Madhavan Nair said that the launch was scheduled for June 2008. The unmanned lunar mission, which includes a lunar orbiter and an impactor, will be launched by a modified version of the PSLV. Post-launch, a rocket will be fired to enable the satellite to be captured by the gravity of the moon. It will then become an artificial satellite of the moon, orbiting it at a distance of around 100 km and for a two-year period. For ISRO, manned missions are still in the study phase.

K.R. Sridhara Murthi, Executive Director, Antrix Corporation said: The Chandrayaan satellite will carry high-resolution remote-sensing equipment for visible, near-infrared, soft and hard X-ray frequencies. It will survey the lunar landscape to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and three-dimensional topography. The polar regions are also of interest since they might contain water ice. This launch is the first step in ISROs long-term planetary exploration programme.

The space agency is also building two deep-space communication network antennae of 18 and 32 metres in diameter that will receive weak signals from spacecraft in the vicinity of distant bodies such as the moon and beyond, even Mars.

For ISRO, Bangalore is a key centre. Sridhara Murthi said: It is here that ISRO conceives, designs and develops Indias most sophisticated satellites. Right now, two communication satellites are being manufactured at ISROs satellite centre for delivery to European customers. This contract was won by Antrix Corporation through an alliance with the European space giant EADS Astrium.

Sridhara Murthi said that ISRO was developing applications that bring large-scale social benefits. Data from the remote-sensing satellites are effectively applied for mapping agricultural areas, predicting yields, developing fisheries, identifying groundwater tables and supporting disaster relief operations. Commenting on ISROs future plans, he said it would be developing a regional navigational satellite system, large launch vehicles and advanced satellite systems that can support mobile communications.

Ravi Sharma