Barely six months after India's geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle, GSLV-FO2, broke up in the sky 65 seconds after its take-off, the country's space scientists have more than made up for that fiasco by successfully putting in orbit a technologically more advanced Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C7. This is a path-breaking feat as the PSLV-C7 carries the country's first space capsule recovery equipment, SRE-1, besides three other satellites, opening up the way for unmanned and manned space flights in the future. With this, India enters the elite club of countries with the technology for satellite re-entry and recovery. Notably, the other payload carried by the 10th PSLV, launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh yesterday, includes India's remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2, Indonesia's earth observation satellite LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina's nano-satellite PEHUENSAT-1. The Indian CARTOSAT-2 is intended to carry out some vital remote sensing operations with the equipment that it carries, including a state-of-the-art panchromatic camera with a spatial resolution of one metre and a sold state recorder with 64-gigabyte storage capacity. The data generated by it would find useful applications in urban and rural infrastructure development and management, besides strengthening the land information system and a geographical information system (GIS) which can track even the movement of vehicles on roads. Equally significant is the technical contribution the satellite recovery equipment (SRE-1) will make during its re-entry phase to navigation technology, especially guidance and control systems. It will also test the technology for re-usable thermal protection and equipment recovery through deceleration and floatation that is critical for bringing both manned and unmanned flights safely back to earth. It will, on the whole, be a demonstration of the basic technology for re-usable launch vehicles. | |
| Yesterday's operations mark only the launch part of the 10th PSLV and its payload. The whole success of the mission will be known only when the recovery equipment splashes down into the Bay of Bengal, about 140 km east of Sriharikota, after remaining in orbit for 13 to 30 days. But, considering the smooth manner in which the whole operation went through yesterday, the prospects of satisfactory return appear bright. |
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| India's track record of space forays may not be impeccable, but it compares well with that of many other countries. In fact, no country has a 100 per cent successful record in its space programme, with the US perhaps enjoying the distinction of suffering some of the worst space mishaps. India, on the other hand, has had only six failures in the 22 space adventures it has attempted since the first aborted one in 1979. What is more interesting, though, is to look ahead at the future space research programme that aims, among other things, to send an unmanned probe to the moon in three years, and then the even more lofty adventure of an unmanned mission to Mars by 2013. While there is little doubt that such an ambitious programme has much to commend it from several angles, for there are defence, industrial and agricultural applications, what is not too clear is the pay-off that is expected from the missions to the moon and Mars, other than preventing space dominance by other countries and boosting national prestige. There is a case to be made for keeping practical objectives in focus and prioritis-ing on that basis, pushing to the background more ephemeral objectives like joining a space club or boosting national pride with a manned mission. As in all other areas of national endeavour, the space programme too should not be a flight of fancy. |
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