The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is going to launch the smaller version of its planned Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) equipped with a micro-satellite ANUSAT from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota on Monday.
Weighing 330 kg, this is India’s first RISAT and has been scheduled to be taken off at 6.45am on Monday for which the countdown will begin from 48 hours before the launch on Saturday morning.
Just after 17 minutes of the take off, the satellite will be put in an orbit above 550 km north of Chennai while the micro-satellite ANUSAT will be placed into low earth orbit, said the spokesperson of ISRO.
The launching would be performed from ISRO’s workhorse ‘Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)’s – an expandable launch system used for launching Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into sun synchronous orbits – C12 variant of SDSC, Sriharikota.
“Everything is progressing smoothly. Currently checks are done on the integration of the stages of the rocket as well as the satellites. The countdown will start 48 hours before take-off (Saturday morning). As of now, everything is going on fine. RISAT, which can penetrate clouds and observe earth under all climatic conditions, will be extremely useful in disaster management,” said the ISRO spokesperson S Satish.
Specifying RISAT, a versatile satellite compared to previous ones those used optical imaging, it uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology, equipped with several antennas to receive greater signals to be processed into high-resolution pictures, the spokesperson added, ‘RISAT will be used for primarily monitoring the human movements in and around the country's borders while mapping and managing natural disasters, such as floods and landslides in civil areas.’
RISAT is capable of working in cloudy weather and at night that can be proved extremely vital for India in disaster management, said ISRO official and added that the 1,780-kg planned RISAT would be launched later after evolving the performance of smaller RISAT.’
The smaller version of RISAT has been developed in collaboration with Israeli Space Agency (ISA), while ANUSAT is the first satellite developed by an Indian university (Anna University) after a six-year marathon effort. It will be used for storing and forwarding communication that will help in transferring of confidential academic materials, including exam question papers, preventing question paper leakages, and many more. It will also help in monitoring drought and wasteland, urban planning and other studies.
With the launch of 230 tonne rocket carrying lighter weight RISAT and 50 kg ANUSAT, the ISRO will register its 15th flight of PSLV.
|
|
Comments:
