1. INTRODUCTION
The
first successful satellite launch by the Soviets in 1957 ushered in
the space era. At initial stages, critical military
applications, national prestige and enabling space
exploration were the main drivers for the
development of satellites and satellite launch
vehicles. In later years, many civilian applications
of satellites have been identified and extensively
developed. Dominated by satellite communications, these
civilian applications have become the main motivating forces for the
present-day indigenous efforts to pursue space programmes of many other
countries. As for the future prospects,this new frontier of space research
promises establishing space colonies and interplanetary travel, and
improving our understanding of the evolution of the universe. In the
field of space applications, space-borne observations are looked upon as a very
powerful and unique technique for a variety of applications
spanning from weather forecasting to generation of information base
relevant to sustainable development of natural
resources.
India is amongst the first few countries to realise the
potential of space technology and its applications. The pioneer of the Indian
space programme, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, under whose chairmanship, the Indian
National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) was formed in
1962, had cherished a dream that India should be second to none in the
application of advanced technologies like space to solve the real problems of
man and society. In 1972, the Indian Space Programme was formally
organised with the setting up of the Space Commission and government
funding through the Department of Space.
2. SATELLITE
COMMUNICATION
The potential of space technology for mass
education, especially in terms of immediacy, omnipotence, visual
power and outreach was recognised in the early 70's. Keeping in view the larger
aspects of education, especially rural education, India undertook in
1975-76, the Satellite Instructional Television
Experiment (SITE) to telecast a series of educational TV programmes on
health, family planning, agriculture, adult education etc., to cover 2,500
Indian villages via the US satellite, ATS-6. It was the largest sociological
experiment ever carried out in the world. The Satellite
Telecommunication Experiment Project (STEP), conducted using Franco-German
SYMPHONIE satellite during 1977-79, was another major
demonstration of long distance satellite telecommunication application of
space. India also launched its own APPLE (Ariane
Passenger Payload Experiment), an experimental communication
satellite, in June, 1981 using the opportunity offered by the European Space
Agency (ESA) to launch this satellite on board the third developmental
flight of ARIANE.
A major development took place during
1980's, through establishment of the operational Indian National Satellite
(INSAT) system, for providing indigenous services in telecommunications, TV
broadcasting, meteorology and disaster warning. 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 atellite, INSAT-3B has already been launched in March,
2000.
INSAT system has a unique design
combining telecommunication, television/radio broadcasting
and meteorological services into a single platform. The involvement
of various users like Department of Telecommunication, Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting, India Meteorological Department
enabled proper tuning of INSAT system towards identified national developmental
needs.
The demonstrated
space applications in SITE and STEP of the 70's 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 off-shore 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 percent of its population
through over 1000 TV transmitters linked via INSAT. Educational programmes for
over100 hours are telecast every week. 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, etc.
India continues to
emphasise 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 tribal community on various aspects of
health, hygiene, family planning, women's rights, etc. 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.
3. WEATHER FORECAST AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Indian
agriculture predominantly depends on the monsoons and precise forecasting of
weather assumes a great significance. A large population of the country living
on the east and west-coast face devastating cyclones very
frequently. Thus, precise weather forecasting and warnings on
impending disasters is 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 vastly
contributed in improved meteorological services in the
country. The twin capability of communication and meteorological imaging
of INSAT is effectively used not only to predict the cyclone tracks
but also to issue warnings to the likely to be affected population. About
250 disaster warning receivers have been installed for this purpose along
the cyclone-prone east and west-coast of India (Fig-1:INSAT based
Disaster Warning System) . Several thousand
lives have been saved by the INSAT disaster warning system by timely evacuation.
4. MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES:
India
has 3.3 million km2 land area with varied physical features
ranging from snow-covered Himalayas in the north to
tropical forests in south and from regions in the east
receiving highest rainfall in the world to deserts of
Rajastan in the west. India is also blessed with vast natural wealth
but 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 using the powerful tool of
space-based observation systems? India not only
demonstrated the potential of space-based remote sensing in the 70's using data
received from the US satellite, LANDSAT, but also built 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. Today,
India has the largest constellation of five remote sensing satellites, IRS-1B,
IRS-1C, IRS-1D, IRS-P3, and IRS-P4 in operation. Among them are IRS-1C
and IRS-1D, which are the best
civilian remote sensing satellites in the
world. IRS-P4 (OCEANSAT-1) launched in May 1999 is used for Ocean
Resources monitoring 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.
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
flood-risk zones, land use and land cover mapping for agro-climatic planning,
waste land mapping and their classification for possible reclamation,
preparation of hydro-geo-morphological maps for locating sites for borewells,
monitoring and development of irrigation command areas, snow-cover and
snow-melt run-off estimation of Himalayan rivers for optimal use
of water, etc. Data from IRS is also used in urban planning,
alignment of roads and pipelines, detection of
underground fires in collieries, marine resources survey, mineral
prospecting, etc. A unique application of data from IRS is in the Integrated
Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD) which is aimed at
generating locale-specific prescriptions for development at micro-level.
The impact of IMSD is already seen in areas where
prescriptions generated have been actually implemented. Fig-2: Integrated Mission for Sustainable
Development (IMSD) and IRS series of satellites developed and launched (both
procured and indigenous) by ISRO.
5. INDIGENOUS
LAUNCH VEHICLE PROGRAMME
India realised quite early that
sustaining the space program 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 70s. The first experimental launch vehicle SLV-3
was launched by India 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
1,000-1200 kg class satellite into 820 km polar sun-synchronous orbit.
PSLV is being offered to launch satellites of other countries. It launched
two small satellites, one of Korea and another of 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
geo-synchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Fig-3: Different types of sounding
rockets and launch vehicles developed by ISRO.
Fig-4: List of satellites launched by ISRO so
far
6. SPACE SCIENCE RESEARCH
The
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 rocket 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 ionisation 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 etc. 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. ISRO has enabled participation of scientists in major
international science campaigns like monsoon experiment (MONEX), middle
atmospheric program (MAP), ISTEP, INDOEX etc. by providing the
financial, technological and other assistance. Fig-5:facilities available
to Indian scientists for conducting space science research.
Based on the interest and request of large number of space
scientists in India, a number of 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 active and
flaring phenomena, (c) CRABEX: The Coherent Radio Beacon Experiment payload
onboard 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 ionisation
and its structure, (d) Planetary exploration/ science: competence building in
planetary science studies and also development of sensors
for planetary
probes/missions to moon/asteroids or nearby planets,(e)
Microgravity science/exploration programme: National workshops and meetings have
been held to define novel scientific experiments for such a programme,
proposals selected with potentials for space borne experiments either in a
balloon drop system or in a space recovery capsule.
7. INDUSTRY
PARTICIPATION
The national investment to
sustain the space programme can not only provide a significant and profitable
domestic market for Indian industry, but also help it 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 encouraged an active participation of industries in
its space programme that has resulted in the industry upgrading their own
technological skills. Also, as spin-off, a large number of technologies
developed under space program have been transferred to industries for commercial
applications. A few of the major industries have now set up exclusive
fabrication divisions to meet the demands of space program. 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 the industry.
8. HUMAN RESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT
A constant
induction of manpower to carry on the task of continuous research
and development is another requirement to sustain the space
programme. Towards this, Indian space programme
has established a strong interface with academia. One of the
initiatives that has been taken in this direction is the scheme of Research
Sponsored by ISRO (RESPOND) under which grants for undertaking research
projects on subjects relevant to space programme are selected and
financially supported at universities, academic and research institutions
by ISRO.
9. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
International
co-operation has been pursued from the inception of the Indian
Space programme. The establishment of Equatorial Rocket Launching Station at
Thumba, conduct of space application demonstrations like SITE and STEP and
launches of experimental satellite like Aryabhata, Bhaskara and APPLE,
have involved co-operation with other countries including USA, the
former Soviet Union, France, Germany and international space agencies.
India has co-operative agreements with several countries. India has set up two
Local User Terminals (LUT) and 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 program called SHARES. The UN-affiliated Centre for Space Science
and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific has begun its programme at
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 has hosted the second UN-ESCAP Ministerial Conference on space
applications in November 1999.
10. COMMERCIAL
PROSPECTS
Even though Indian 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
under Department of Space, ANTRIX Corporation, in 1992, for
marketing hardware and services has acted as a catalyst in this endeavour.
Important commercial agreements include world-wide 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.
11. FINANCIAL ASPECTS
India has now
established a well-integrated space programme with end-to-end capabilities
for the development and application of space technology for national
benefits. 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.
That, with a
modest overall expenditure of about US $ 2,400 million so far, India has
built 29 satellites, developed three types of launch vehicles with thirteen
flights in all 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 for data processing and
application, and developed a strong manpower base for undertaking
frontline R&D in space, proves that the Indian space programme has been one
of the most successful and cost effective,
especially, when one looks at the benefit that has accrued to the nation
in terms of communication, television broadcasting, meteorological services,
disaster management, resources survey and management.
As
India enters the new millennium, it is necessary to
sustain this programme by continuously tuning it to the fast
changing requirement 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 interests of personnel working
in the space
programme.
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