Space Related Facts and Data

Indian Space Program

• Started in 2^ndFive Year Plan.
• Vikram Sarabhai is the architect of the INDIAN SPACE PROGRAM.
• Space program is run byDepartment of Space, PMO.

Quick Facts

• PSLV-C51/Amazonia-1 is the first dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Government of India company under the Department of Space.
• Notable payloads launched by PSLV include India's first lunar probe Chandrayaan-1, India's first interplanetary mission, Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) and India's first space observatory, Astrosat.
• PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India with 39 consecutively successful missions.
• PSLV-C37 successfully carried and deployed a record 104 satellites in sun-synchronous orbits.
• Mangalyaan, 2014- India joined club of USA, Russia, EUwhen it successfully launched the Mars Orbiter Mission. Budget was at least 10 times lower than a similar project by the US, Perseverance.
• Reusable Launch Vehicle, 2016 -Isro successfully tested the Reusable Launch Vehicle -Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD). It will bring down the overall payload delivery cost drastically by almost 80%.
• GSLV-Mk III: Launching humans into space. It will make India only the 4^th nation in the world after Russia, US and China to have the ability to send humans into space.
• CARE (Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment)will host up to three Indian astronauts for orbital missions.

Initial satellites

• Aryabhatta launched in 1975to conduct experiments in X-ray astronomy, economics, and solar physics.
• Bhaskara-I to collect data on telemetry, oceanography and hydrology.
• Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to Moon, performed the chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the Moon.
• AstroSat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray and UV spectral bands simultaneously.

International launch vehicles used

• Intercosmos and Vostok of USSR
• Ariane, Europe
• Delta, USA

Important Institutions related to Space

• Vikram Sarabhai Space Center- Thiruvananthapuram
• Indian Institute of Space ScienceTechnology- country's only Institute on Space Science, Thiruvananthapuram.
• Liquid Propulsion Test Facilities- at three places in India: Thiruvananthapuram, Mahendragiri and Bangalore.
• Thumba- 1^stsatellite launch pad by ISRO, launched meteorological rockets.
• Satellite Tracking and Ranging Station- at two places in India Shadnagar, Kavalur.
• Cryogenic technology- Mahendragiri
• Ammonium Percolate Experimental Plant- Alappuzha
• Indian Deep Space Network- Bylalu, Karnataka
• SDSC,SHAR Center- on pulicat Lake, Sriharikota
• Launch pads- at three places in the country-Thumba, Sriharikota, Balasoreand New one in 2020 at Kulasekarapatnam(for SSLV)-TUTICORIN.
• APJ Abdul KalamIsland,Balasore- Meteorological Rocket Launching Station, Missile Testing Site of DRDO.
• Ahmedabad - Physical Research Laboratory, Space Application Center.
• Space Application Center- at two places Ahmedabad and Shillong
• Bangalore:
  • Space Commission,
  • ISRO Headquarters,
  • Department of Space,
  • INSAT program office.
• National Remote Sensing Agency- Hyderabad.
• Master Control Facility for CHANDRAYAAN, MOM- Shadnagar.
• Indian Institute Of Remote Sensing- Chandigarh.
• Antrix Corporation Limited (ACL) is a Marketing arm of ISRO for promotion and commercial exploitation of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of technologies developed by ISRO.

Major Milestones in India’s Space Programme (D.R.Khullar)

• 1962 : Department of Atomic Energy forms the Indian National Committee for Space Research Work on Establishing Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS).
• November 21, 1963 : India launches first sounding rocket from TERLS.
• August 15, 1969 : Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) formed under Department of Atomic Energy
• June 1, 1972 : Space Commission and Department of Space (DOS) set-up. ISRO brought under DOS.
• April 19, 1975 ISRO launches first Indian satellite Aryabhatta.
• Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment (APPLE)’ became the forerunner for future communication satellite system.

Planned Missions of ISRO in the coming years

1. Chandrayan-3:
   1. It is expected to launch in 2021 and is a successor to the Chandrayan-2 mission.
   2. Chandrayaan-3 mission will only send lander and rover. It will not have an orbiter as ISRO scientists will use Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter.
   3. Focus is on specific points like the place of landing, correct navigation, sensors and engineering etc.
2. Gaganyaan:
   1. India’s first human spaceflight mission is expected to launch in the year 2021.
   2. The Gaganyaan orbital vehicle will carry three Indian astronauts to the low earth orbit for a seven-day journey into space — an orbit of 2,000km or less.
   3. The spacecraft is jointly made by ISRO and HAL.
   4. The Indian Air Force (IAF) team is coordinating with ISRO and looking at aspects of spacecraft design such as life support systems, capsule design, as well as aviation medical cell.
3. LUPEX:
   1. ISRO’s Lunar Polar Exploration Mission in collaboration with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) will be launched 2024.
   2. The mission aims at obtaining the actual data related to the quantity and forms of water present on the surface of the Moon to determine the feasibility of utilizing such resources for sustainable space exploration activities in the future.
4. Aditya-L1:
   1. It is India’s first solar mission and was expected to launch in 2022.
   2. The mission aims at studying solar corona in visible and near IR bands.
   3. Carry 400 kg of the payload called Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC).
   4. Earlier, this mission was planned to launch in an 800 km low earth orbit.
   5. But, it was found that a satellite placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian Point 1 (L1) can give a big advantage of viewing Sun. Thus, this mission was renamed Aditya L-1 Mission.
5. RISAT-1A:
   1. It is expected to launch in the year 2021 by ISRO.
   2. It is a radar-imaging satellite and will be similar to RISAT-1 satellite in terms of configuration.
   3. It is a land-based mission for terrain mapping and analysis of land, ocean and water surface for soil moisture.
6. NISAR:
   1. NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is expected to be launched in the year 2022 by ISRO in collaboration with NASA (US Space Agency).
   2. It aims at studying global environmental change and natural disasters and will be the first dual-band (L & S) radar imaging satellite.
   3. NISAR satellite is likely to be the world’s most expensive Earth-imaging satellite to date with an expected cost of $1.5 billion.
7. Mangalyaan-2:
   1. MOM-2is expected to launch in 2024.
   2. ISRO’s 2^ndinterplanetary mission to Mars by India and France.
   3. It will consist of an orbiteronly itwill use aerobraking to enter into an orbit more suitable for observations.
8. Shukrayaan-1:
   1. The inter-planetary mission is expected to launch in the year 2025 by ISRO in collaboration with CNES (National Centre for Space Studies; French Space Agency).
   2. It is a proposed mission to study the atmosphere of the planet Venus—the second planet from Sun and the hottest planet of our solar system.
   3. In the year 2018, India and France issued a ‘Joint Vision for Space Cooperation’.

Types of Orbit

• Geostationary orbit (GEO)- Satellites in this orbit (GEO) circle Earth above the equator from west to east following Earth’s rotation.
• Satellites take 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds – by travelling at exactly the same rate as Earth making satellites in GEO appear to be ‘stationary’ over a fixed position.
• The orbit is at an altitude 32000 km above earth surface in exosphere.
• Low Earth orbit (LEO) is, an orbit that is relatively close to Earth’s surface. As low as 100 km above Earth to 1000 km– which is low compared to other orbits, but still very far above Earth’s surface.
• Polar orbit and Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO)- These orbits are a type of low Earth orbit, usually travel past Earth from north to south, passing roughly over Earth’s poles.
• Sun-synchronous are at altitudes between 600 to 1000 km
• Polar orbits are a type of low Earth orbit, as they are at low altitudes between 200 to 1000 km.
• Transfer orbits and geostationary transfer orbit (GTO)-Special kind of orbit used to get from one orbit to another.
• Lagrange points (L-points)- 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.

Supercomputers in India

Space Debris Issue and Technologies that can tackle the problem:

• Nasa’s Space Debris Sensor orbits the Earth on the International Space Station. It will detect millimetre- sized pieces of debris for at least two years, determining whether the impacting object is from space or a man-made piece of space debris.
• REMOVE debris, satellite contain two cubesats that will release simulated space debris so that it can then demonstrate several ways of retrieving them.
• Deorbit mission: Deorbit is a planned European Space Agency active space debris removal mission developed as a part of their Clean Space initiative.
• Other technologies include moving objects with a powerful laser beam.

India’s Anti Satellite(ASAT) Missile

• Mission Shakti is a joint programme of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• An anti-satellite (A-SAT) weapon was launched and targeted an Indian satellite which had been decommissioned. India is only the 4th country to acquire such a specialised and modern capability, after US, Russia and China. Signifying its ability to intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Planets and Their Natural Satellites

Telescopes to Study Universe

Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)

• Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is an astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT). India is a partner in the construction.
• Funded by scientific organisations of Canada, China, India, Japan and USA.
• Planned location: Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii in the US state of Hawaii.
• The TMT is designed for near-ultraviolet to mid-infrared observations, featuring adaptive optics to assist in correcting image blur.

Spitzer space telescope

• Spitzer space telescope of NASA, Launched into solar orbit in 2003 retired in 2020. Spitzer exploring the cosmos in infrared light.

Kepler Space Telescope

• Space telescope launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets

TESS

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a new planetary system called TESS Object of Interest (TOI). TOI 270 is about 73 light years away from Earth, and is located in the constellation Pictor.
• TESS, however, will focus on stars that are 30 to 100 times brighter than those Kepler examined.

Copernicus Programme

• Copernicus is the new name for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme, previously known as GMES.
• It will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.

GROWTH

• India's first robotic telescope, to observe dynamic or transient events in the universe. The telescope is located at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) at Hanle in Ladakh. It’s a joint project of the Bangalore based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and the Indian Institute of Technology
• Bombay (IITB).
• Fully funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• It's highest astronomical observatories at 4,500 meters. The 70 cm robotic telescope Joins other larger facilities at IAO in Hanle- the Himalayan Chandra Telescope, the gamma ray array telescope (HAGAR), and the imaging Cherenkov telescope (MACE).

WORLD MISSIONS to different PLANETS and STARS