The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ISRO ready with report, says Nair

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Sunday, Apr 06, 2008
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ISRO ready with report, says Nair

Staff Reporter

It assesses the facilities needed for manned space mission

Department of Science gets higher budget allocation
ISRO will launch Cartosat-2A at the end of April

Bangalore: The Indian Space Research Organisation’s report on the manned space mission is ready, and it will be submitted to the Centre in a few days, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair has said.

The report assesses the technologies involved and the facilities to be established, he said, adding that the Space Commission, which was scheduled to meet next week, would recommend the total cost of the project.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a workshop on telemedicine here on Friday, Dr. Nair said that the manned mission, slated for a 2015 launch, would be among 70 missions scheduled for the 11th Plan period (2007-12). “This is nearly three times the number of missions undertaken between 2002 and 2007.”

Increased budget

The Central budget allocation to the Department of Science for 2008-09, at Rs. 4000 crore, a 25 per cent increase from the previous year, he said. “Future developments will include the manned mission, re-usable satellites and Ka-band satellites,” he said. The India-French collaborative project Megha-Tropiques to study the tropical atmosphere would be launched in 2009, he said.

ISRO would launch its advanced remote sensing satellite, Cartosat-2A, at the end of the month, he said. A news agency report, quoting ISRO sources, specified the launch date as April 28.

ISRO spokesman S. Satish told The Hindu that “the Cartosat-2A weighs 680 kg and has as its payload a panchromatic camera, which will take black-and-white pictures of the earth in various bands of the electromagnetic spectrum — infrared, ultraviolet, and near infrared — with a resolution better than a metre. The satellite will be identical to the Cartosat-2 launched in January 2007 and will provide continuity of services to users.” In its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), Cartosat-2A will have as its co-passengers eight nano-satellites and a Third World Satellite, which is an experimental remote sensing satellite. It will “provide data to developing countries for various applications such as forest cover mapping and water resources mapping,” Mr. Satish added.

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