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In News
- Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up for a number of missions in 2022.
Missions Planned
- Venus Mission:
- The Shukrayaan-1 could launch in December 2024 as an orbiter headed towards neighbouring planet Venus.
- This will be the Indian space agency’s first mission to Venus, and is expected to have a mission life of 4 years.
- During this time, multiple instruments will carry out studies on the planet.
- If it misses the 2024 deadline, then the next window for launch will be in mid-2026 when Venus and Earth realign. This is important for spacecraft fuel efficiency when visiting other planets.
- The Venus orbiter will be launched on the rockets made by ISRO.
- DISHA (Disturbed and quiet-type System at High Altitude):
- It is a twin-satellite system that will study Earth’s aeronomy, the uppermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere.
- It will involve twin satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 450km.
- TRISHNA (Thermal infraRed Imaging Satellite for High resolution Natural resource Assessment):
- ISRO and CNES have completed the feasibility study to realise the earth observation satellite mission with thermal infrared imager, TRISHNA.
- It is meant for accurate mapping of land surface temperatures.
- It will acquire imagery of Earth’s surface in the thermal infrared with a resolution and revisit frequency never seen before.
- Expected launch: in 2024
- India and France are working on their third joint satellite mission.
- ISRO and French space agency CNES (Centre National dEtudes Spatiales) have undertaken two joint missions ‘Megha-Tropiques‘, which was launched in 2011, and ‘Saral-Altika‘ in 2013.
- Chandrayaan-3:
- It could be set for a launch date by the middle of 2023 with huge progress in incorporating design and testing.
- It is the third Moon mission of the ISRO and successor of Chandrayaan-2 mission.
- It involves various processes, including finalisation of configuration, subsystems realisation, integration, spacecraft level detailed testing and a number of special tests to evaluate the system performance on earth.
- Progress was hampered due to Covid-19 pandemic.
- Gaganyaan
- India’s first human spaceflight mission.
- It is expected in 2023.
- The spacecraft is jointly made by ISRO and HAL.
- It will carry three Indian astronauts to low earth orbit (of 2000 km or less) for a period of five to seven days.
- Other Missions: XpoSat, IRNSS
Significance
- These missions are critical for ISRO as it will demonstrate India’s capabilities to make landings for further interplanetary missions.
- These missions will be the benchmark for temperature data at best resolution and repeatability globally.
- These will be technology demonstration missions with advanced indigenously developed technologies.
Challenges
- Constraints: ISRO has scientific, technological, infrastructure and budgetary constraints in launching significantly more satellites to meet civilian, commercial needs and military requirements.
- Deficit: ISRO has deficit issues both in technical capacity and manpower placing constraints on its production strength.
- Foreign competition: Particularly for the launch of small satellites, which is an expanding market. The Elon Musk owned SpaceX Falcon 9 is widely considered a serious potential threat to ISRO’s workhorse the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Way Ahead
- India is advantaged by its comparatively low operating costs. Removing regulatory blockages will pave the way for increased FDI into the sector.
- ISRO can pave the way for commercialization of small satellites by the private sector.
Source: TH
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