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PSLV-C-12 to put two satellites in orbit

T.S. Subramanian

— Photo: ISRO

PSLV-C12 coming out of the Vehicle Assembly Building in Sriharikota. It is scheduled to lift off at 6.45 a.m. on Monday.

CHENNAI: The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C-12) carrying two satellites will soar into the sky at 6.45 a.m. on Monday from the spaceport at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

It will put in orbit a radar imaging satellite called RISAT-2 and Anusat, a 38-kg. experimental mini communication satellite built by Anna University, Chennai.

S. Satish, spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said the 48-hour countdown for the lift-off began at 6.45 a.m. on Saturday and filling the fourth stage of the vehicle with liquid propellants was under way. “Everything is proceeding smoothly,” he said.

Mr. Satish said RISAT-2 was a remote-sensing satellite and would enhance India’s capability in the management of disasters such as floods, cyclones and landslips. It weighed 300 kg. and had an all-weather, 24-hour capability for imaging the earth. The satellite would be put in orbit at an altitude of 550 km. and had a life-span of three years.

Anusat had provided the students of Anna University with a first-hand experience in building a satellite. It would help them in understanding the complexities of the hostile environment in which a satellite functioned, Mr. Satish said.

The mini-satellite carries a “store and forward payload.” Its secondary payloads are micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS), a MEMS gyroscope, a MEMS magnetometer and a satellite positioning system. The primary payload will enable its receiver to receive the information and its transmitter to read the information to the ground station when it is passing over an intended area.

Anusat will last a year. Its users will be the Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai; College of Engineering, Chennai; and Pune University.

RISAT-2 was procured from Israel and the heart of the satellite is the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). This would work in X-band, used for military applications, informed sources said.

The PSLV-C12 would use new avionics. “The on-board computer has been changed. They are using advanced, high-level language,” the sources said.

The current launch vehicle is a core-alone version – without the six strap-on booster motors that form part of the standard PSLV. The core-alone vehicle, which looks sleek and elegant, weighs 230 tonnes while a normal PSLV weighs 295 tonnes. The rocket is 44 metres tall. It is a four-stage vehicle, with alternate stages powered by solid and liquid propellants.

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