CHAPTER XXX
SPACE PROGRAMME
T
he first successful satellite launch by the
technologies, like space, to solve the real problems of
Soviets in 1957 ushered in the space era. At
humanity and society. In 1972, the Indian Space
initial stages, critical military applications,
Programme was formally organized with the setting
national prestige and enabling space
up of the Space Commission and the government
exploration were the main drives for the development
funding it through the Department of Space.
of satellites and satellite launch vehicles. In later years,
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION
many civilian applications of satellites have been
he potential of space technology for mass educaidentified and extensively developed. Dominated by
tion, especially in terms of immediacy, potency,
satellite communications, these civilian applications
visual power and outreach was recognized in the early
have now become the main motivating forces for the
70s. Keeping in view the larger aspects of education,
space programmes pursued by many other countries.
especially rural education, India launched the Satellite
As for the future, the new frontiers of space research
Instructional Television Experpromise the establishing of
iment (SITE) in 1975-76 to telespace colonies and intercast a series of educational TV
planetary
travel,
and
HE INDIAN SPACE
programmes on health, family
increasing our understanding
PROGRAMME
IS
ONE
OF
planning, agriculture, and
of the evolution of the
adult education covering 2,500
universe. In the field of space
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
Indian villages via the US satelapplications, space-borne obAND COST-EFFECTIVE
lite, ATS-6. It was the largest
servations are looked upon as
ENDEAVOURS
GIVING
WIDE
sociological experiment ever
a very powerful and unique
carried out in the world. The
technique for a variety of appliRANGE OF BENEFITS TO
Satellite Telecommunication
cations ranging from weather
THE NATION AND SOCIETY.
Experiment Project (STEP),
forecasting to generation of an
conducted using Francoinformation base relevant to
German SYMPHONIE satellite during 1977-79, was
sustainable development of natural resources.
another major demonstration of long-distance satellite
India is amongst the first few countries to realize
telecommunication application of space. India also
the potential of space technology and its applications.
launched its own APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload
The pioneer of the Indian space programme, Vikram
Experiment), an experimental communication satelSarabhai, under whose chairmanship, the Indian
lite, in June 1981, using the opportunity offered by the
National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR)
European Space Agency (ESA) to put this satellite on
was formed in 1962, had cherished a dream that India
board the third developmental flight of Ariane.
should be second to none in the application of advanced
T
T
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A major development took place during 1980s,
through the establishment of the operational Indian
National Satellite (INSAT) system, for providing
indigenous services in telecommunications, TV
broadcasting, meteorology and disaster warning.
The INSAT series, commissioned in 1983, has today
become one of the largest domestic satellite systems
in the world, comprising five satellites. The last
satellite of the second generation INSAT-2 series,
INSAT-2E, was launched from Kourou, French
Guyana, on April 3, 1999.
Work on INSAT-3 series of satellites has already
begun. Five satellites in the INSAT-3 series have
been planned and the first satellite, INSAT-3B, has
already been launched in March 2000. The INSAT
system has a unique design, combining telecommunication, television/radio broadcasting and
meteorological services upon a single platform. The
involvement of various users like the Department
of Telecommunication, Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting, Indian Meteorological Department,
has enabled proper tuning of INSAT system
towards identified national developmental needs.
The demonstrated space applications in SITE and
STEP of the 1970 were transformed to practical and
operational systems through INSAT. Today, INSAT
links about 450 earth stations set up in the country,
including those located in inaccessible regions and offshore islands. Besides, there are about 8,500 Very Small
Aperture Terminals (VSATs), including those installed
by the National Informatics Centre and private
networks, catering to corporate houses.
Television in India now reaches about 85 per
cent of its population through over 1,000 TV
transmitters linked via INSAT. Educational
programmes of over 100 hours are telecast every
week. The INSAT system has become a powerful
tool for training and developmental education and
is used by various agencies to provide continuing
education, conduct in-situ training for industrial
employees, social welfare personnel and training of
Panchayat Raj (village governance) workers.
India continues to emphasize the use of INSAT
for rural upliftment. A pilot project that started in
November 1996, in a tribal district of Madhya
Pradesh in Central India is now in progress to
educate the indigenous community on various
aspects of health, hygiene, family planning and
women's rights. This project is being expanded to
cover more villages and is expected to lead to a
unique space-based system that will be dedicated
to the development of rural society. Similar projects
are being initiated in several other states.
WEATHER FORECAST AND
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
I
ndian agriculture predominantly depends on the
monsoons and precise forecasting of weather
assumes a great significance. Large populations living on the eastern and western coasts face devastating cyclones very frequently. Thus, precise weather
forecasting and warnings on impending disasters is
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305
very important. This is the reason why India included meteorological instruments on its INSAT, making
it a unique multipurpose satellite system. The cloud
imageries collected by the satellites and over a hundred meteorological data-collection platforms
installed all over the country that relay local weather
parameters via the INSAT, have contributed greatly
to improved meteorological services. The twin capability of communication and meteorological imaging
of INSAT is effectively used not only to predict
cyclone tracks but also to issue warnings to the population likely to be affected. About 250 disaster warning receivers have been installed for this purpose
along the cyclone-prone east and west-coast of India.
Several thousand lives have been saved by the INSAT
disaster warning system through timely evacuation.
MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
ndia has 3.3 million km2 land area with varied physical features ranging from the snow-covered
Himalayas in the north to tropical forests in the south
and from regions in the east receiving highest rainfall
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in the world to the arid deserts of Rajasthan in the
west. India is also blessed with a vast natural wealth,
yet to be exploited fully. A coastal belt of 7,500 km has
a store of rich aquatic resources. What better way can
be there to monitor and manage the natural resources
for a large country like India than through the use of
the powerful tool of space-based observation systems?
India not only demonstrated the potential of spacebased remote sensing in the 1970s using data received
from the US satellite, LANDSAT, but also went on to
build its own experimental satellites, BHASKARA-1
and BHASKARA-2, which were launched in June 1979
and November 1981, respectively. India became one of
the few countries to develop its own operational
Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1A) in March
1988, and now has the largest constellation of five
remote sensing satellites, IRS-1B, IRS-1C, IRS-1D, IRSP3, and IRS-P4 in operation. Of these, IRS-1C and IRS1D, are the best civilian remote sensing satellites in the
world. IRS-P4 (OCEANSAT-1) launched in May 1999
is used for monitoring ocean resources and for understanding the atmosphere over the oceans. Two more
satellites, IRS-P5 for cartographic applications and
IRS-P6 for resources survey, are planned for launch in
the coming years.
The IRS system has brought in a sea change in
India's resources monitoring and management
techniques. Data from IRS is used for estimation of
acreage and yield of important crops, like wheat, rice,
sorghum, oil seeds and sugarcane, and other
applications such as forest survey, forecasting drought
conditions, flood mapping and demarcation of floodrisk zones, land use and land cover mapping for agroclimatic planning, waste land mapping and their
classification for possible reclamation, preparation of
hydro-geomorphological maps for locating sites for
borewells, monitoring and development of
irrigation command areas, snow-cover and snowmelt run-off estimation of Himalayan rivers for
optimal use of water. Data from IRS are also used
in urban planning, alignment of roads and
pipelines, detection of underground fires in
collieries, marine resources survey, mineral
prospecting, and so on. A unique application of
data from IRS is in the Integrated Mission for
Sustainable Development (IMSD) which is aimed
at the generating locale-specific prescriptions for
development at micro-level. The impact of IMSD
is already being felt in areas where prescriptions
generated have been actually implemented. The
figure on the right shows various aspects of IRS
satellite system, data and its applications related
to sustainable development.
INDIGENOUS LAUNCH VEHICLE PROGRAMME
I
ndia realised quite early that sustaining the space
programme in the long run would depend on
indigenous technological capabilities. Keeping this
in view, besides building satellites, India embarked
on satellite launch vehicle development in the early
1970s. The first experimental launch vehicle SLV-3
was carried out in 1980. An augmented version of
this vehicle, ASLV, was launched successfully in
1992. India has now acquired a significant capability in the launch vehicle area with the successful
development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV), capable of putting a 1,000-1200 kg class satellite into 820 km polar sun-synchronous orbit. PSLV is
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307
being offered to launch the satellites of other countries and has launched two small satellites, one for
Korea and another for Germany along with India's
IRS-P4 in May 1999. More space agencies are
expected to use PSLV for placing their satellites in
orbit; a European satellite PROBA is scheduled for
launch as a piggy back on board next PSLV.
The Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV-D1) had its maiden successful flight
on April 18, 2001, from Sriharikota injecting the
G-SAT 1 satellite into ~180 x 32,155 km geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The adjoining
figure shows different types of sounding rockets
and satellite launch vehicles developed and
launched by ISRO.
SPACE SCIENCE RESEARCH
T
he initial thrust for Indian space programme
came from the requirement of scientists to
carry out investigations in aeronomy as well as in
astronomy by conducting space-based experiments. Apart from developing technologies for
sounding rockets and balloon borne instrumentation, ISRO has established complementary ground
-based facilities, particularly for scientists from universities and academic institutions. The major
areas of investigation in space sciences have been
high-energy cosmic ray variability using neutron/
meson/Cerenkov monitors, equatorial electrojet
and spread-F ionization irregularities, ozone,
aerosol and cloud phenomena, middle atmospheric radiation, dynamics and electrodynamics, solar
physics, IR astronomy, neutron star and black hole
astrophysics, planetary science and origin/evolution of life and so on. Also, India has recently
launched scientific payloads to study celestial
gamma ray bursts and X-ray sources. For conducting atmospheric research with high resolution, the
Mesosphere, Stratosphere and Troposphere (MST)
radar has been established at Gadanki near
Tirupati. The ISRO has enabled participation of
scientists in major international science campaigns,
like monsoon experiment (MONEX), middle
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atmospheric programme (MAP), ISTEP, and
INDOEX by providing the financial, technological
and other assistance.
Based on the interest shown by a large number
of space scientists in India and their suggestions,
several new proposals and activities have been
initiated by ISRO. Some of the major ones include
(a) ASTROSAT: a multi-wavelength dedicated
satellite mission for high-energy astronomy. The
satellite is likely to carry soft and hard X-ray
detectors and imaging payloads, all sky X-ray
monitors and a UV/optical telescope system, (b)
SOXS: The Solar X-ray Spectrometers payload
development on board GSAT, for studying solar
activity and flaring phenomena, (c) CRABEX: The
Coherent Radio Beacon Experiment payload on
board geo-stationary satellite and a ground-based
chain of receivers located at various universities and
research institutions for developing ionospheric
tomography or 3-D models of ionization and their
structure, (d) Planetary exploration/science:
competence building in planetary science studies
and also development of sensors for planetary
probes/missions to the moon or to asteroids or
nearby planets, and (e) Microgravity science/
exploration programme: National workshops and
meetings have been held to define novel scientific
experiments for such a programme and proposals
selected with potentials for space-borne
experiments either in a balloon drop system or in a
space recovery capsule.
INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION
T
he national investment to sustain the space programme not only provides a significant and
profitable domestic market for Indian industry, but
also helps it to acquire technological muscle to
enlarge its capability for increasing the value-added
component in other areas and eventually capture a
part of the growing international market in high
technology applications. Hence India has encouraged active participation of industry in its space programme which in turn has led the industry to
upgrade its own technological skills. Also, as a spinoff, a large number of technologies developed under
the space programme have been transferred to
industries for commercial applications. A number of
major industries have now set up exclusive fabrication divisions to meet the demands of the national
space programme. A large number of systems
required on ground, such as remote sensing data
processing equipment, communication earth stations
and terminal equipment, have opened up a fairly
large market for industry.
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
A
constant induction of human power to carry on
the task of continuous research and development is another vital element that sustains the space
programme. Towards this end, Indian space
programme has established a strong interface with
academia, for example, the scheme of Research
Sponsored by ISRO (RESPOND) under which grants
for undertaking research projects on subjects
relevant to the space programme are financially
supported at universities, academic and research
institutions by ISRO.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
I
nternational cooperation has been pursued from
the inception of the Indian space programme. The
establishment of the Equatorial Rocket Launching
Station at Thumba, conduct of space application
demonstrations, like SITE and STEP, and launches of
experimental satellites, like Aryabhata, Bhaskara and
APPLE, have involved cooperation with other countries including USA, the former Soviet Union,
France, Germany and international space agencies.
India has cooperative agreements with several countries and has set up two Local User Terminals (LUT)
and the Mission Control Centre (MCC) as part of the
COSPAS-SARSAT network, under the international
satellite-aided search and rescue programme. India
also shares its experience in space applications with
other developing countries by training their personnel under a programme called SHARES. The UNPURSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE
309
affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology
Education in Asia and the Pacific has begun its programme at the postgraduate level in remote sensing
and geographical information system, satellite communications, meteorology and space science for the
benefit of persons from Asia and the Pacific region.
India hosted the second UN-ESCAP Ministerial
Conference on space applications in November 1999.
COMMERCIAL ACCRUALS
E
ven though IndiaÕs space programme is primarily directed towards establishment of space systems for national development, the capability that is
built in the process has started yielding economic
benefits. The setting up of an exclusive commercial
front, the ANTRIX Corporation, under Department
of Space, in 1992, for marketing hardware and services has acted as a catalyst in this endeavour.
Important commercial agreements include worldwide marketing of remote sensing data from Indian
satellites, lease of satellite capacity, launch of small
satellites on board PSLV, supply of satellite hardware, providing tracking support for satellites using
Indian ground stations and training of personnel.
SPACE EXPENDITURE
I
ndia has now established a well-integrated space
programme with end-to-end capabilities for the
development and application of space technology
for national benefit. The execution of the programme
has been well orchestrated -- starting with demonstration of end-use through large-scale experiments,
developing linkages with users, passing through
experimental and developmental phases of system
development and finally, establishing state-of-the-art
operational systems.
With a modest overall expenditure of about US
$ 2,400 million so far, India has built 29 satellites,
developed three types of launch vehicles, conducted
thirteen flights so far, established an elaborate
infrastructure to design, build and test
communication and remote sensing satellites, their
launch, and their in-orbit management as well as
their data processing and application, and has
developed a strong human power base for
undertaking frontline R&D in space. The Indian
space programme has been one of the most
successful and cost-effective endeavours, especially,
when one looks at the wide range of benefits that
have accrued to the nation and society.
As India enters the new millennium, it is
necessary to sustain this programme by
continuously tuning it to the fast changing
requirements and updating the technology that goes
into the making of these sophisticated systems. The
challenges continue to grow but that is what attracts
and sustains the interest of personnel working in
the space programme.
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