While India was not a fervent participant of the heated Space Race between the superpowers in the early days, since the beginning of the 21st Century, it has become a country which has set records in the field of space technology, most notably and recently the cheapest Mars mission in the history. It is not a surprise, then, to discover that recently, India successfully launched (in a single mission, no less) a rocket containing 20 satellites, the third highest number of satellites carried in a single mission in history and the highest ever for our country.
Called a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, the rocket blasted off on Wednesday, 22nd June, 2016, (9:26 AM in local time) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India’s primary spaceport located on Sriharikota Island on the eastern coastline of the subcontinent.
The rocket was carrying cargo for the Indian government, domestic universities, institutions and companies from Indonesia, Canada, Germany and the US, along with a pathfinder satellite for Google Terra Bella Earth observation division.
Most of these satellites will enter the orbit to observe Earth’s atmosphere. Some will make measurements and one is intended to provide service for amateur radio operators. The Terra Bella Earth satellite harnesses “some of the world’s most advanced deep learning and computing resources, combined with a vast array of geospatial and web information streams to uncover signals that drive the global economy”, according to the official website.
The prime payload, however, was a Cartosat2 series imaging craft which will be used to provide high resolution cartographic data to the military of India. The Cartosat 2 craft has the sharpest visual sensors in Indian history and is able to successfully resolve (that is, able to differentiate between two minuscule objects very close together) objects as small as 60 centimeters in diameter from such a great distance.
In order to avoid Sri Lankan airspace, the trajectory of the rocket was deliberately unusual. In a maneuver called the ‘dog leg’, the rocket first climbed straight up into the Indian sky, veered southeast and then finally turned south once over the Bay of Bengal.
The mission facing the rocket is indeed a tricky one, to say the least. Pallava Bagla, science editor at NDTV, put forward an interesting analogy: “It’s like dropping off, one by one, school children from a bus travelling at a high velocity. It’s a tricky maneuver because you don’t want the mothership and the ‘babies’ to collide with each other.”
He also mentioned that India offers launch costs which are stunningly cheaper than what many other firms around the world, such as SpaceX, NASA or Arianespace, offer: almost 50% of the cost demanded by these organisations. India has begun to compete with these international players for a share in the commercial launch market and has become renowned for it’s low cost space programs, epitomised by the $73 billion Mars orbiter mission in 2013.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the launch a “monumental accomplishment” for the government-run ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).
This mission was the 35th consecutively successful PSLV mission.
This launch is a matter of pride for India. ISRO has lately made great leaps in the field of space research and rocket science, and with accomplishments like these, we can be rest assured that ISRO is only going to make greater and greater progress and may even surpass some of the best space research organisations of the world.
By Kartikey Sharma
