ISRO is scheduled to begin its 2022 space romance with the launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle – PSLV-C52 – at 05:59 am on 14 February from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
The passengers include an earth observation satellite (EOS-4), a student satellite, and a mission to lay the foundation for a future India-Bhutan Joint Satellite project.
The space agency's last mission ended in failure after the GSLV rocket carrying the EOS-3 satellite malfunctioned about five minutes after lift-off in August 2021.
Meet the Satellites
PSLV-C52 mission will carry three satellites.
EOS-04 is a Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) which will collect observation data in C-Band frequency, adding to the data provided by Resourcesat, Cartosat, and RISAT-2B series. It weighs 1710 kg and has an operating life of a decade, says ISRO.
The satellite is designed to provide high quality images under all weather conditions for applications such as agriculture, forestry and plantations, soil moisture and hydrology, and flood mapping.
INSPIREsat-1 is a 8.1 kg satellite developed by students from Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology (IIST) in association with Laboratory of Atmospheric & Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. It will study ionosphere dynamics and the sun's coronal heating process over the course of a year.
INS-2TD is a technology demonstrator satellite from ISRO. It is a precursor to India-Bhutan Joint Satellite (INS-2B), the agency says. It is fitted with a thermal imaging camera to observe land, water surface temperatures, delineation of vegetation, and thermal inertia. The 17.5-kilogram satellite has the shortest lifespan of just six months.
The Launch Vehicle
With 53 launches under its belt, the PSLV has earned the title of the 'Workhorse of ISRO'. It is best known for launching Chandrayaan 1 in 2008 and the Mars Orbiter spacecraft in 2013, which later traveled to the Moon and Mars respectively.
This will be its 54th flight and 23rd launch in this particular configuration. It will climb up to 529 kms from the surface of the Earth and launch the satellites into a sun synchronous polar orbit.
After its first successful launch in October 1994, PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile launch vehicle with 39 consecutively successful missions by June 2017, ISRO says. During this period, it launched 48 Indian satellites and 209 satellites for customers from abroad.
The vehicle has a height of 44 meters, a diameter of 2.8 meters and can carry up to 1,750 kg.
What's Next for ISRO?
In his New Year’s message for 2022, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said that the agency had plenty of missions to execute this year, including the launch of EOS-6 on board the PSLV, and the EOS-02 on board the maiden flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
“We have many test flights for Crew Escape System of Gaganyaan and launch of the first unmanned mission of Gaganyaan. In addition, we also have Chandrayaan-03, Aditya Ll, XpoSat, IRNSS and technology demonstration missions with indigenously developed advanced technologies,” he said.
He also said that India's flagship project Gaganyaan has completed the design phase and has entered into the testing phase.
"Tests are in progress for human rated Ll 10 Vikas engine, cryogenic stage, crew escape system motors and service module propulsion system. S200 motor has been realised for ground test too," he added.
Sivan also said that three new space science missions are in the pipeline for ISRO, including a Venus mission, DISHA – a satellite mission to study the Earth's aeronomy and TRISHNA, an ISRO-CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales) mission in 2024.
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