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Navigation satellite system to be ready by 2012

— Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

SOUVENIR RELEASE: ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair (second from left) releasing a souvenir at the inaugural function of an international conference at the VIT University in Vellore on Wednesday. G. Viswanathan, VITU Chancellor, receives the first copy. Sekar Viswanathan (left) and G.V. Selvam (right), pro-chancellors, are in the picture.

VELLORE: The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Bangalore, to ensure continuous earth observation of India and to facilitate continuous flow of scientific information about the various geographical regions, will be ready by 2012, according to G. Madhavan Nair, ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space.

Inaugurating an international conference on Sensors and Related Networks (SENNET 07), organised by the School of Electrical Sciences, VIT University, Indian Nuclear Society, Kalpakkam Chapter, and Karisruhe University of Applied Sciences (UASK), Germany, here on Wednesday, he said that at present the ISRO was dependent on the global positioning system, the U.S. satellite and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the navigational satellite of Russia, for obtaining images and information about the Indian earth. “For our own applications, we need accurate positioning of the satellite to obtain reliable information about the various geographical regions. But the GPS and the GLONASS do not always have an accurate positioning. They do not continuously feed information. Therefore, our country should have self-sufficiency in this area. We have completed the design for the IRNSS, and the work is progressing on schedule so that we can have the indigenous system by 2012.”

Under the system, India would be divided into seven regions, and each would have an indigenous navigational satellite orbiting over it to pick up and send images and information.

Dr. Nair said that under the Indian Space Programme, the ISRO would take up focussed activities for the next decade, beginning with Chandrayaan-I, the first Indian mission to moon, next year. The 500-kg satellite would have six primary payloads from India, two from the U.S. and four from Europe. Chandrayaan-I would collect information about the geometry of the moon from a distance of 100 km. India would send an orbiter to the Mars in 2015 and an asteroid orbiter in 2020.

With the indigenous capacity to launch its own satellites, the ISRO completed 48 missions for India and seven for other countries. “We must be serious about the new applications of advanced technologies for finding solution to real problems of man and society,” he said.

Dr. Madhavan Nair said the ISRO developed a variety of sensors for satellite launch vehicles and spacecraft systems.

Sensor technology had invaded every walk of life, right from the bread toaster to automobiles and space technology. There was no better sensor system than the human body, where the brain processed the signals picked up and sent by the other organs and performed the functions dictated by the mind. “If you can emulate the human system, that is the ultimate in sensor technology, and we are progressing towards it.”

G. Viswanathan, VITU Chancellor, said sensor technology would play a major role in future. It was a rapidly growing area of research. Many products incorporating sensor technology were in the market, and the technology impacted health care and food processing.

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