The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ISRO signs agreement for collimator

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 23, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

ISRO signs agreement for collimator

Staff Reporter

Collimator is used for testing lenses in cameras on board remote sensing satellites

PACT: Ram Rattan, Deputy Director, Sensor Department Area, Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad (left) and Jean-Pierre Chisogne, Sales and Marketing Manager of AMOS, Belgium (right) after signing an agreement for a collimator in Bangalore on Wednesday . — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Bangalore: Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems (AMOS) on Wednesday signed a agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation-Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad, to supply a collimator used for testing lenses in cameras on board remote sensing satellites.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Jean-Claude Marcourt, Minister of Economy, Employment and Foreign Trade of the Walloon Region, Belgium.

Technology exchange

He said the future of the globalised world would be based on technology exchange partnerships and cooperation between companies and research centres of the emerging sectors.

He said delegates were here to produce and install the collimator for ground testing of satellites. "The partnership is a priority for the Walloon Government as it has decided to launch a plan dedicated to the creation and development of competitive clusters based on the reservoir of knowledge, research and innovation," Mr. Marcourt said. Collimators are optical instruments similar to the telescope, but work in the opposite way.

When an object is placed in the focal plane of a collimator, it appears far away, virtually at infinity.

These instruments are used to test spacecraft instruments either astronomical or aiming at earth observations.

The signing of the agreement is facilitated by the Flanders Investment and Trade agency, and under the contract AMOS will design, manufacture, test and supply the collimator as per the requirements of ISRO.

According to Ram Rattan, Deputy Director, Sensor Department Area, Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad, besides the collimator, the company is also engaged in designing, manufacturing and installing a space simulator (a vacuum chamber 6.5 metre in diameter and 10 metre long along with thermal panel) for ISRO in Bangalore.

Jean Louis Van Belle, a senior diplomat of Belgium in India, said that the fourth leading member of the European Space Agency was keen to have a formal inter-governmental tie-up for joint space programmes.

Belgian satellite

A Belgian experimental satellite, Proba, was already flown by PSLV.

A general inter-governmental framework was likely to be formalised in May this year with a high-level Belgium delegation, expected to visit India later this year, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail