The Hindu : India, Israel yet to work out specifics of space cooperation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003

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India, Israel yet to work out specifics of space cooperation

By N. Gopal Raj

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Sept. 9. India and Israel have yet to work out the specifics of how to cooperate in space, say officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation.

The two countries had signed an ``umbrella agreement'' to cooperate in the peaceful uses of outer space when K. Kasturirangan, who was chairman of the ISRO till recently, visited Israel last year. Again when Dr. Kasturirangan visited Israel last month, various ideas for cooperation were discussed. An Israeli ultra-violet astronomy telescope being flown on one of the India's GSAT satellites was one of the suggestions.

The issue of collaborating on micro-satellites too had been discussed. But these discussions are still in the preliminary stages and nothing specific has been agreed upon, a knowledgeable ISRO source told The Hindu.

Unlike in defence, the Indian space programme does not need Israeli systems or technology. ``We have better capabilities than Israel in space,'' a senior ISRO official said.

India's space programme is one of the country's success stories and covers a wide range of activities in launch vehicles, satellites and space applications. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) are much more powerful than Israel's Shavit rocket. India builds a wide variety of remote sensing, meteorological and communications satellites and launches many of them on its own rockets.

Leaving apart the early experimental launchers and satellites, the PSLV has been successfully flown six times and the GSLV twice. The country has launched eight remote-sensing satellites to fulfil a wide range of requirements, nine communication satellites and one meteorological satellite.

Israel's space efforts have focused around its high-resolution imaging capabilities and five Ofeq reconnaissance satellites have already been launched. Israel has also used its imaging capabilities to build the Eros-A1 satellite, which provides one-metre resolution images on a commercial basis. The Eros-B will have even better resolution. In addition, Israel Aircraft Industries built the AMOS-1 communication satellite.

Although ISRO's Technology Experiment Satellite (TES), launched by the PSLV in 2001, also provides one-metre resolution imageries, access to the data is reportedly currently limited to the security agencies. The Cartosat-1 to be launched by next year will have 2.5 metre resolution and Cartosat-2 would have less than one metre resolution.

Many applications of remote sensing, such as crop estimation, land use, watershed development, and ocean studies do not need high resolution, points out George Joseph, now Satish Dhawan Distinguished Professor at the ISRO, who has played a key role in developing remote sensing capabilities.

To match the Shavit's launch capabilities, Israel has had to optimise the Ofeq satellites. Ofeq-5, launched a year ago, is said to weigh just 300 kg. With more powerful rockets at its disposal, the ISRO has opted to build heavier satellites. The PSLV can currently launch a 1,500 kg remote sensing satellite.

Consequently, the ISRO has not so far seen small and micro-satellites as part of its core activities. It is, however, supporting the development of a 60 kg micro-satellite at the Anna University in Chennai.

If India is looking for collaboration in the area of small and micro-satellites, it should perhaps be looking at the U.K.-based Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). In fact, initiating the micro-satellite work at Anna University is probably an emulation of SSTL, the world leaders in small satellite applications and technology.

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