Indian space era dawned when the first two-stage sounding rocket was launched from Thumba in 1963. However even before this epoch making event, noteworthy contributions were made by the Indian scientists in the following areas of space science research:
- Cosmic rays and high energy astronomy using both ground based as well as balloon borne experiments/studies such as neutron/meson monitors, Geiger Muller particle detectors/counters etc.
- Ionospheric research using ground based radio propagation techniques such as ionosonde, VLF/HF/VHF radio probing, a chain of magnetometer stations etc.
- Upper atmospheric research using ground based optical techniques such as Dobson spectrometers for measurement of total ozone content, air glow photometers etc.
- Indian astronomers have been carrying out major investigations using a number of ground based optical and radio telescopes with varying sophistication.
With the advent of the Indian space program, emphasis was laid on indigenous, self-reliant and state-of-the-art development of technology for immediate practical applications in the fields of space science research activities in the country.
There is a national balloon launching facility at Hyderabad jointly supported by TIFR and ISRO. This facility has been extensively used for carrying out research in high energy (i.e., x- and gamma ray) astronomy, IR astronomy, middle atmospheric trace constituents including CFCs & aerosols, ionisation, electric conductivity and electric fields.
The flux of secondary particles and X-ray and gamma-rays of atmospheric origin produced by the interaction of the cosmic rays is very low. This low background, in the presence of which one has to detect the feeble signal from cosmic sources is a major advantage in conducting hard X-ray observations from India. The second advantage is that many bright sources like Cyg X-1, Crab Nebula, Scorpius X-1 and Galactic Centre sources are observable from Hyderabad due to their favourable declination. With these considerations, an X-Ray astronomy group was formed at TIFR in 1967 and development of an instrument with an orientable X-Ray telescope for hard X-Ray observations was undertaken. The first balloon flight with the new instrument was made on 28, April 1968 in which observations of Scorpius X-1 were successfully carried out. In a succession of balloon flights made with this instrument between 1968 and 1974 a number of binary X-ray sources including Scorpious X-1, Cyg X-1, Her X-1 etc. and the diffuse cosmic X-ray background were studied. Many new and astrophysically important results were obtained from these observations.
One of most important achievements of ISRO in this field was the discovery of three species of bacteria in the upper stratosphere at an altitude of between 20–40 km. The bacteria, highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, are not found elsewhere on Earth, leading to speculation on whether they are extraterrestrial in origin. These three bacteria can be considered to be extremophiles. Until then, the upper stratosphere was believed to be inhospitable because of the high doses of Ultra-violet radiation. The bacteria were named as Bacillus isronensis in recognition of ISRO's contribution in the balloon experiments, which led to its discovery, Bacillus aryabhata after India's celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata and Janibacter Hoylei after the distinguished Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle.
Vision for the future
ISRO plans to launch a number of new-generation Earth Observation Satellites in the near future. It will also undertake the development of new launch vehicles and spacecraft. ISRO has stated that it will send unmanned missions to Mars and Near-Earth Objects.
Indian lunar exploration programme
- Following the success of Chandrayaan-1, the country's first moon mission, ISRO is planning a series of further lunar missions in the next decade, including a manned mission which is stated to take place in 2020 – approximately the same time as the China National Space Administration (CNSA) manned lunar mission and NASA's Project Constellation plans to return to the moon with its Orion-Altair project.
- Chandrayaan-2 (Sanskrit: चंद्रयान-२) is the second unmanned lunar exploration mission proposed by ISRO at a projected cost of Rs. 425 crore (US$ 90 million). The mission includes a lunar orbiter as well as a lander/rover. The wheeled rover will move on the lunar surface and pick up soil or rock samples for on-site chemical analysis. The data will be sent to Earth via the orbiter.
Space exploration
- ISRO plans to carry out an unmanned mission to Mars in this decade. According to ISRO, the Mars mission remains at a conceptual stage but is expected to be finalised shortly. The current version of India's geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle will be used to loft the new craft into space.
- ISRO is designing a solar probe named Aditya. This is a mini-satellite designed to study the coupling between the sun and the earth. It is planned to be launched in 2012.
IRNSS
The Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system being developed by Indian Space Research Organisation which would be under total control of Indian government. The requirement of such a navigation system is driven by the fact that access to Global Navigation Satellite Systems like GPS are not guaranteed in hostile situations. ISRO plans to launch the constellation of satellites between 2010 and 2012.
Development of new launch vehicles
ISRO is currently developing two new-generation launch vehicles, the GSLV-Mk III and the AVATAR RLV. These launch vehicles will increase ISRO's present launch capability and provide India with a greater share of the global satellite launch market.
Applications
India uses its satellites communication network – one of the largest in the world – for applications such as land management, water resources management, natural disaster forecasting, radio networking, weather forecasting, meteorological imaging and computer communication. Business, administrative services, and schemes such as the National Informatics Centre (NICNET) are direct beneficiaries of applied satellite technology.Dinshaw Mistry—on the subject of practical applications of the Indian space program—writes:
| The INSAT-2 satellites also provide telephone links to remote areas; data transmission for organizations such as the National Stock Exchange; mobile satellite service communications for private operators, railways, and road transport; and broadcast satellite services, used by India’s state-owned television agency as well as commercial television channels. India’s Edusat (Educational Satellite), launched aboard the GSLV in 2004, was intended for adult literacy and distance learning applications in rural areas. It augmented and would eventually replace such capabilities already provided by INSAT-3B. The IRS satellites have found applications with the Indian Natural Resource Management program, with regional Remote Sensing Service Centers in five Indian cities, and with Remote Sensing Application Centers in twenty Indian states that use IRS images for economic development applications. These include environmental monitoring, analyzing soil erosion and the impact of soil conservation measures, forestry management, determining land cover for wildlife sanctuaries, delineating groundwater potential zones, flood inundation mapping, drought monitoring, estimating crop acreage and deriving agricultural production estimates, fisheries monitoring, mining and geological applications such as surveying metal and mineral deposits, and urban planning. India’s satellites and satellite launch vehicles have had military spin-offs. While India’s 93–124 mile (150–250 km) range Prithvi missile is not derived from the Indian space program, the intermediate range Agni missile is drawn from the Indian space program’s SLV-3. In its early years, when headed by Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan, ISRO opposed military applications for its dual-use projects such as the SLV-3. Eventually, however, the Defence Research and Development (DRDO)–based missile program borrowed human resources and technology from ISRO. Missile scientist A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (elected president of India in 2002), who had headed the SLV-3 project at ISRO, moved to DRDO to direct India’s missile program. About a dozen scientists accompanied Abdul Kalam from ISRO to DRDO, where Abdul Kalam designed the Agni missile using the SLV-3’s solidfuel first stage and a liquid-fuel (Prithvi-missile-derived) second stage. The IRS and INSAT satellites were primarily intended and used for civilian-economic applications, but they also offered military spin-offs. In 1996 New Delhi’s Ministry of Defence temporarily blocked the use of IRS-1C by India’s environmental and agricultural ministries in order to monitor ballistic missiles near India’s borders. In 1997 the Indian air force’s “Airpower Doctrine” aspired to use space assets for surveillance and battle management.[33] |
Institutions like the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the Indian Institute of Technology use satellites for scholarly applications.Between 1975 and 1976, India conducted its largest sociological program using space technology, reaching 2400 villages through video programming in local languages aimed at educational development via ATS-6 technology developed by NASA.This experiment—named Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)—conducted large scale video broadcasts resulting in significant improvement in rural education.
ISRO has applied its technology to "telemedicine", directly connecting patients in rural areas to medical professionals in urban locations via satellites. Since high-quality healthcare is not universally available in some of the remote areas of India, the patients in remote areas are diagnosed and analyzed by doctors in urban centres in real time via video conferencing. The patient is then advised medicine and treatment.The patient is then treated by the staff at one of the 'super-specialty hospitals' under instructions from the doctor. Mobile telemedicine vans are also deployed to visit locations in far-flung areas and provide diagnosis and support to patients.
ISRO has also helped implement India's Biodiversity Information System, completed in October 2002.Nirupa Sen details the program: "Based on intensive field sampling and mapping using satellite remote sensing and geospatial modelling tools, maps have been made of vegetation cover on a 1 : 250,000 scale. This has been put together in a web-enabled database which links gene-level information of plant species with spatial information in a BIOSPEC database of the ecological hot spot regions, namely northeastern India, Western Ghats, Western Himalayas and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This has been made possible with collaboration between the Department of Biotechnology and ISRO."
The Indian IRS-P5 (CARTOSAT-1) was equipped with high-resolution panchromatic equipment to enable it for cartographic purposes. IRS-P5 (CARTOSAT-1) was followed by a more advanced model named IRS-P6 developed also for agricultural applications. The CARTOSAT-2 project, equipped with single panchromatic camera which supported scene-specific on-spot images, succeed the CARTOSAT-1 project.
Global cooperation
ISRO has had the benefit of International cooperation since inception.
- Establishment of TERLS, conduct of SITE & STEP, launches of Aryabhata, Bhaskara, APPLE, IRS-IA and IRS-IB/ satellites, manned space mission, etc. involved international cooperation.
- ISRO operates LUT/MCC under the international COSPAS/SARSAT Programme for Search and Rescue.
- India has established a Center for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTE-AP) that is sponsored by the United Nations.
- India hosted the Second UN-ESCAP Ministerial Conference on Space Applications for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific in November 1999.
- India is a member of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Cospas-Sarsat, International Astronautical Federation, Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), International Space University, and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellite (CEOS).[39]
- Chandrayaan-1 carried scientific payloads from NASA, ESA and the Bulgarian Space Agency.
- The Russian Space Agency is cooperating with India in developing the rover for Chandrayaan-2 and also in the Indian manned mission.
ISRO and the Department of Space have signed formal Memorandum of Understanding agreements with a number of foreign political entities.
India carries out joint operations with foreign space agencies, such as the Indo-French Megha-Tropiques Mission. On 25 June 2002 India and the European Union agreed to bilateral cooperation in the field of science and technology. A joint EU-India group of scholars was formed on 23 November, 2001 to further promote joint research and development. India holds observer status at CERN while a joint India-EU Software Education and Development Center is due at Bangalore.
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