ISRO plans to launch a number of new-generation Earth Observation Satellites in the near future. It will also undertake the development of new launch vehicles and spacecraft. ISRO has stated that it will send unmanned missions to Mars and Near-Earth Objects. ISRO has planned 58 missions during 2012–17; 33 satellites missions in next two years and 25 launch vehicles missions thereafter, costing ₹200 billion (US$3 billion).
GSAT-11 is based on I-6K bus, which is under advanced stage of development. The spacecraft can generate 10–12 KW of power and can support payload power of 8KW. The payload configuration is on-going. It consists of 16 spot beams covering entire country including Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The communication link to the user-end terminals operates in Ku-band while the communication link to the hubs operates in Ka-band. The payload is configured to be operated as a high data throughput satellite, to be realized in orbit in 2018.
NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) is a joint project between NASA and ISRO to co-develop and launch a dual frequency synthetic aperture radar satellite to be used for remote sensing. It is notable for being the first dual band radar imaging satellite.
As a first step towards realizing a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable launch vehicle, a series of technology demonstration missions have been conceived. For this purpose, a Winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) has been configured. The RLV-TD will act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies viz., hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion. First in the series of demonstration trials is the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX).
A scaled-down, unmanned version of India's futuristic space shuttle was getting the final touches at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thumba as of 20 May 2015.[87] "The 'space plane' part of the RLV-TD is almost ready. We are now in the process of affixing special tiles on its outer surface, which is needed for withstanding the intense heat during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere," SSC director M Chandradathan said. ISRO has tentatively slated the prototype's test flight from the first launchpad of Sriharikota spaceport for February 2016, but the date would be finalized depending on the completion of construction. The proposed RLV is designed in two parts; a manned space plane rigged atop a single stage, booster rocket using solid fuel. The rocket is expendable while the RLV would fly back to Earth and land like a normal airplane after the mission.
The prototype- 'the RLV-TD' weighs around 1.5 tonnes and would fly up to a height of 70 km.[88] The HEX(Hypersonic Flight Experiment) was successfully completed on 01:30 GMT, 23 May 2016.
Unified Launch Vehicle
The ULV or Unified Launch Vehicle is a launch vehicle in development by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The project's core objective is to design a modular architecture that will enable the replacement of the PSLV, GSLV Mk II and GSLV Mk III with a single family of launchers.It will use a semi-cryogenic core stage SC160 with SCE-200 engine with 160 tonne of propellant loading of RP-1 and LOX, producing around 2000 kN thrust.The SCE-200 engine can even be clustered for heavy launch configuration.The ULV will be able to launch 6000 kg to 10,000 kg of payload into GTO. This will mark the renunciation of the liquid stage with Vikas engine, which uses UDMH and N2O4, which produce toxic fumes.
Future Extraterrestrial exploration
ISRO's missions beyond Earth's orbit include Chandrayaan-1 (to the Moon) and Mars Orbiter Mission (to Mars). ISRO plans to follow up with Chandrayaan-2 and missions to Venus and near-Earth objects such as asteroids and comets.
Chandrayaan-2
Chandrayaan-2 (Sanskrit: चंद्रयान-२) will be India's second mission to the Moon, which will include an orbiter and lander-rover module. Chandrayaan-2 will be launched on India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-MkII) in 2018.[89][90] The science goals of the mission are to further improve the understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon.
Mangalyaan 2
The next Mars mission will likely be launched in 2021-2022, have a less elliptical orbit around the red planet and could weigh seven times more than the first mission.[91] This "Announcement of Opportunity (AO)" is addressed to all institutions in India currently involved in planetary exploration studies/the development of science instruments for space. This orbiter mission will facilitate scientific community to address the open science problems. The Principal Investigator of the proposal should be (i) able to provide necessary details of the instrument that can address the scientific problems and (ii) capable of bringing together the instrument team and lead the team for developing a space qualified instrument. The payload capability of the proposed satellite is likely to be 100 kg.
Venus exploration
ISRO is assessing a Venusian orbiter mission by 2020 to study its atmosphere.[92] Jacques Blamont, an astrophysicist, has offered to help the Indian Space Research Organisation with gigantic balloons carrying several instruments but designed to pop in and out of the extremely hot atmosphere of the planet after being unfettered from the orbiter. Some budget has been allocated for Mission to Venus as part of 2017–18 Indian budget under Space Sciences.[
Solar exploration programme
ISRO plans to carry out a mission to the Sun by the year 2019–20. The probe is named as Aditya-1 and will weigh about 400 kg.[96] It is the First Indian space based Solar Coronagraph to study the Corona in visible and near-IR bands. Launch of the Aditya mission was planned during the heightened solar activity period in 2012, but was postponed to 2019–2020 due to the extensive work involved in the fabrication, and other technical aspects. The main objective of the mission is to study Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), their properties (the structure and evolution of their magnetic fields for example), and consequently delineate parameters that affect space weather.
Venus and Jupiter Exploration
The ISRO is in the process of conducting conceptual studies that could take up to two years before deciding on a plan to send a spacecraft to Jupiter or Venus. The ideal launch window to send a spacecraft to Jupiter occurs every 33 months. If the missions occur, a visit to both planets would happen simultaneously. Venus would be visited first, then Jupiter. It would take a little over 3 months to go to Venus, and would take 23 months to travel from Earth to the Jovian orbit.[97]
Lunar missions
ISRO is planning a joint lunar mission with Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to explore the polar regions of the moon for water.[98] A mission proposal is expected by March 2019.[98]
Space science missions
The main objective of SRE II is to release a fully recoverable capsule and provide a platform to conduct microgravity experiments on Micro-biology, Agriculture, Powder Metallurgy, etc. SRE-2 is proposed to be launched on board PSLV. On 18 December 2014, ISRO successfully tested an unmanned crew module with re-entry, which was splashed down later in the Bay of Bengal as planned. Some budget has also been allocated to Space Docking Experiment Mission as part of 2017–18 Indian budget under Space Sciences.
India's space era dawned when the first two-stage sounding rocket was launched from Thumba in 1963.[73]
There is a national balloon launching facility at Hyderabad jointly supported by TIFR and ISRO. This facility has been extensively used for carrying out research in high energy (i.e., X- and gamma-ray) astronomy, IR astronomy, middle atmospheric trace constituents including CFCs & aerosols, ionization, electric conductivity and electric fields.[74]
The flux of secondary particles and X-ray and gamma-rays of atmospheric origin produced by the interaction of the cosmic rays is very low. This low background, in the presence of which one has to detect the feeble signal from cosmic sources is a major advantage in conducting hard X-ray observations from India. The second advantage is that many bright sources like Cyg X-1, Crab Nebula, Scorpius X-1 and Galactic Centre sources are observable from Hyderabad due to their favourable declination. With these considerations, an X-ray astronomy group was formed at TIFR in 1967 and development of an instrument with an orientable X-ray telescope for hard X-ray observations was undertaken. The first balloon flight with the new instrument was made on 28 April 1968 in which observations of Scorpius X-1 were successfully carried out. In a succession of balloon flights made with this instrument between 1968 and 1974 a number of binary X-ray sources including Cyg X-1 and Her X-1, and the diffuse cosmic X-ray background were studied. Many new and astrophysically important results were obtained from these observations.[75]
One of most important achievements of ISRO in this field was the discovery of three species of bacteria in the upper stratosphere at an altitude of between 20–40 km. The bacteria, highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, are not found elsewhere on Earth, leading to speculation on whether they are extraterrestrial in origin. These three bacteria can be considered to be extremophiles. Until then, the upper stratosphere was believed to be inhospitable because of the high doses of ultra-violet radiation. The bacteria were named as Bacillus isronensis in recognition of ISRO's contribution in the balloon experiments, which led to its discovery, Bacillus aryabhata after India's celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata and Janibacter hoylei after the distinguished astrophysicist Fred Hoyle.[76]
Chandrayaan-1 was India's first mission to the moon. The unmanned lunar exploration mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor called the Moon Impact Probe. ISRO launched the spacecraft using a modified version of the PSLV on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The vehicle was successfully inserted into lunar orbit on 8 November 2008. It carried high-resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, and soft and hard X-ray frequencies. During its 312 days operational period (2 years planned), it surveyed the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. The polar regions were of special interest, as they possibly had ice deposits. The spacecraft carried 11 instruments: 5 Indian and 6 from foreign institutes and space agencies (including NASA, ESA, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Brown University and other European and North American institutes/companies), which were carried free of cost. Chandrayaan-1 became the first lunar mission to discover existence of water on the Moon.[77] The Chandrayaan-166 team was awarded the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SPACE 2009 award,[78] the International Lunar Exploration Working Group's International Co-operation award in 2008,[79] and the National Space Society's 2009 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category.[80][81]
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), informally known as Mangalayaan, was launched into Earth orbit on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and has entered Mars orbit on 24 September 2014.[82] India thus became the first country to enter Mars orbit on its first attempt. It was completed at a record cost of $74 million.[83]
MOM was successfully placed into Mars orbit on 24 September 2014 at 8:23 am IST.
The spacecraft had a launch mass of 1,337 kg (2,948 lb), with 15 kg (33 lb) of five scientific instruments as payload.
The National Space Society awarded the Mars Orbiter Mission team the 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category.
The Indian Space Research Organisation has proposed a budget of ₹12,400 crore (US$1.9 billion) for its human spaceflight program.[63] According to the Space Commission, which recommended the budget, an unmanned flight will be launched after 7 years of final approval[64] and a manned mission will be launched after 7 years of funding.[65][66] If realized in the stated time-frame, India will become the fourth nation, after the USSR, USA and China, to successfully carry out manned missions indigenously. The government of India has not yet approved the mission as of October 2016.
Technology demonstration
The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SCRE or more commonly SRE or SRE-1)[67] is an experimental Indian spacecraft that was launched using the PSLV C7 rocket, along with three other satellites. It remained in orbit for 12 days before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and splashing down into the Bay of Bengal.[68]
The SRE-1 was designed to demonstrate the capability to recover an orbiting space capsule, and the technology for performing experiments in the microgravity conditions of an orbiting platform. It was also intended to test thermal protection, navigation, guidance, control, deceleration and flotation systems, as well as study hypersonic aerothermodynamics, management of communication blackouts, and recovery operations.
ISRO also plans to launch SRE-2 and SRE-3 in the near future to test advanced re-entry technology for future manned missions.[69]
Astronaut training and other facilities
ISRO will set up an astronaut training center in Bangalore to prepare personnel for flights on board the crewed vehicle. The center will use simulation facilities to train the selected astronauts in rescue and recovery operations and survival in zero gravity, and will undertake studies of the radiation environment of space. ISRO will build centrifuges to prepare astronauts for the acceleration phase of the mission. It also plans to build a new Launch pad to meet the target of launching a manned space mission in 7 years of funding clearance. This would be the third launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
Development of crew vehicle
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working towards a maiden manned Indian space mission vehicle that can carry three astronauts for seven days in a near earth orbit. The Indian manned spacecraft temporarily named as Orbital Vehicle intends to be the basis of indigenous Indian human spaceflight program. The capsule will be designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with a rendezvous and docking capability. In its maiden manned mission, ISRO's largely autonomous 3-ton capsule will orbit the Earth at 400 km in altitude for up to seven days with a two-person crew on board. The crew vehicle would launch atop of ISRO's GSLV Mk II, currently under development. The GSLV Mk II features an indigenously developed cryogenic upper-stage engine.[70] The first test of the cryogenic engine, held on 15 April 2010, failed as the cryogenic phase did not perform as expected and rocket deviated from the planned trajectory.[71] However the next two tests of the indigenous cryogenic engine were successful on 5 January 2014 and 27 August 2015.
India's first satellite, the Aryabhata, was launched by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1975 from Kapustin Yar using a Cosmos-3M launch vehicle. This was followed by the Rohini series of experimental satellites, which were built and launched indigenously. At present, ISRO operates a large number of earth observation satellites.
The INSAT series
INSAT (Indian National Satellite System) is a series of multipurpose geostationary satellites launched by ISRO to satisfy the telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology and search-and-rescue needs of India. Commissioned in 1983, INSAT is the largest domestic communication system in the Asia-Pacific Region. It is a joint venture of the Department of Space, Department of Telecommunications, India Meteorological Department, All India Radio and Doordarshan. The overall coordination and management of INSAT system rests with the Secretary-level INSAT Coordination Committee.
The IRS series
Indian Remote Sensing satellites (IRS) are a series of earth observation satellites, built, launched and maintained by ISRO. The IRS series provides remote sensing services to the country. The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite system is the largest constellation of remote sensing satellites for civilian use in operation today in the world. All the satellites are placed in polar Sun-synchronous orbit and provide data in a variety of spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions to enable several programmes to be undertaken relevant to national development. The initial versions are composed of the 1 (A, B, C, D) nomenclature. The later versions are named based on their area of application including OceanSat, CartoSat, ResourceSat.
Radar Imaging Satellites
ISRO currently operates two Radar Imaging Satellites. RISAT-1 was launched from Sriharikota Spaceport on 26 April 2012 on board a PSLV. RISAT-1 carries a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, operating in a multi-polarisation and multi-resolution mode and can provide images with coarse, fine and high spatial resolutions.[50] India also operates RISAT-2, which was launched in 2009 and acquired from Israel at a cost $110 million.[50]
Other satellites
ISRO has also launched a set of experimental geostationary satellites known as the GSAT series. Kalpana-1, ISRO's first dedicated meteorological satellite,[51] was launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on 12 September 2002.[52] The satellite was originally known as MetSat-1.[53] In February 2003 it was renamed to Kalpana-1 by the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in memory of Kalpana Chawla – a NASA astronaut of Indian origin who perished in Space Shuttle Columbia.
ISRO has also successfully launched the Indo-French satellite SARAL on 25 February 2013, 12:31 UTC. SARAL (or "Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa") is a cooperative altimetry technology mission. It is being used for monitoring the oceans surface and sea-levels. AltiKa will measure ocean surface topography with an accuracy of 8 mm, against 2.5 cm on average using current-generation altimeters, and with a spatial resolution of 2 km.[54][55]
In June 2014, ISRO launched French Earth Observation Satellite SPOT-7 (mass 714 kg) along with Singapore's first nano satellite VELOX-I, Canada's satellite CAN-X5, Germany's satellite AISAT, via the PSLV-C23 launch vehicle. It was ISRO's 4th commercial launch.[56][57]
South Asia Satellite
The South Asia Satellite (GSAT-9) is a geosynchronous communications and meteorology satellite by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region.[1] The satellite was launched on the 5th May,2017. During the 18th SAARC summit held in Nepal in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi mooted the idea of a satellite serving the needs of SAARC member nations, part of his Neighbourhood first policy.
One month after sworn in as Prime Minister of India, in June 2014 Modi asked ISRO to develop a SAARC satellite, which can be dedicated as a ‘gift’ to the neighbors.
It is a satellite for the SAARC region with 12 Ku-band transponders (36 MHz each) and launch using the Indian Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV Mk-II. The total cost of launching the satellite is estimated to be about ₹2,350,000,000 (₹235 crore). The cost associated with the launch was met by the Government of India. The satellite enables full range of applications and services in the areas of telecommunication and broadcasting applications viz television (TV), direct-to-home (DTH), very small aperture terminals (VSATs), tele-education, telemedicine and disaster management support.
GAGAN satellite navigation system
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has decided to implement an indigenous Satellite-Based Regional GPS Augmentation System also known as Space-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) as part of the Satellite-Based Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS)/Air Traffic Management (ATM) plan for civil aviation. The Indian SBAS system has been given an acronym GAGAN – GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation. A national plan for satellite navigation including implementation of Technology Demonstration System (TDS) over the Indian air space as a proof of concept has been prepared jointly by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and ISRO. TDS was successfully completed during 2007 by installing eight Indian Reference Stations (INRESs) at eight Indian airports and linked to the Master Control Centre (MCC) located near Bangalore.
The first GAGAN navigation payload has been fabricated and it was proposed to be flown on GSAT-4 during Apr 2010. However, GSAT-4 was not placed in orbit as GSLV-D3 could not complete the mission. Two more GAGAN payloads will be subsequently flown, one each on two geostationary satellites, GSAT-8 and GSAT-10. On 12 May 2012, ISRO announced the successful testing of its indigenous cryogenic engine for 200 seconds for its forthcoming GSLV-D5 flight.[58]
IRNSS satellite navigation system
IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system being developed by India. It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area. IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) and Restricted Service (RS) and is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.[59] It is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system being developed by Indian Space Research Organisation, which is under total control of Indian government. The requirement of such a navigation system is driven by the fact that access to Global Navigation Satellite Systems like GPS is not guaranteed in hostile situations. ISRO initially planned to launch the constellation of satellites between 2012 and 2014 but the project got delayed by nearly 2 years.
ISRO on 1 July 2013, at 23:41 IST launched from Sriharikota the First Indian Navigation Satellite the IRNSS-1A. The IRNSS-1A was launched aboard PSLV-C22. The constellation would be comprising 7 satellites of I-1K bus each weighing around 1450 Kilogrammes, with three satellites in the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and 4 in Geosynchronous earth orbit(GSO). The constellation would be completed around April 2016.[60]
On 4 April 2014, at 17:14 IST ISRO has launched IRNSS-1B from Sriharikota, its second of seven IRNSS series. 19 minutes after launch PSLV-C24 was successfully injected into its orbit.IRNSS-1C was launched on 16 October 2014, and IRNSS-1D on 28 March 2015.[61]
On 20 January 2016, 9:31 hrs IST IRNSS-1E was launched successfully aboard PSLV-C31 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. On 10 March 2016, 4:31 hrs IST IRNSS-1F was launched successfully aboard PSLV-C32 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. On 28 April 2016, 12:50 hrs IST IRNSS-1G was launched successfully aboard PSLV-XL-C33 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. This Satellite is the seven and the last in the IRNSS system and completes India's own navigation system
As of January 2016, ISRO was in the process of developing 4 back-up satellites to the constellation of existing IRNSS satellites.[62]
On 31 August 2017, India’s ISRO failed in its attempt to launch its eighth regional navigation satellite (IRNSS-1H) from Sriharikota at 7pm. The satellite got stuck in the fourth stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle–PSLV-C39.
