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Friday, December 31, 2010

village resource centre


To provide the space technology enabled services directly to the rural population, ISRO launched the Village Resource Centers (VRCs) programmed in association with reputed NGOs/ Trusts and state/ central agencies.

473 VRCs have been set up in 22 States/Union Territories, namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa, Pondicherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim. Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and islands.

The VRCs are joined to Knowledge/Expert Centers like Agricultural Universities, Skill Development Institutes and Hospitals.

Over 6500 programmes have been conducted by the VRCs in the areas of, Agriculture/horticulture, Fisheries, Live stock, Water resources, Tele health care, Awareness programmes, Women empowerment, Supplementary education, Computer literacy, Micro credit, Micro finance, Skill development / vocational training for livelihood support etc. So far, over five Lakh of people have availed VRC services.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Chandrayan 1


Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to Moon, was launched successfully on October 22, 2008 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.
The spacecraft was orbiting around the Moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the Moon.

The spacecraft carries 11 scientific instruments built in India, USA, UK, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria.

After the successful completion of all the major mission objectives, the orbit has been raised to 200 km during May 2009.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

About NRC data center


The NRSC Data Centre (NDC) is address to the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) Data Archive and is the satellite data users’ interface with NRSC. NDC provides data and data related services to the Indian and International users and as well as data from foreign satellites, to the Indian users. Data from the IRS, Cart sat and Ocean sat series of satellites across a wide spectrum of resolution from 1m to 4km swath are supplied to about 2000 users in the country. The Indian clientele belong to various categories like:

   * User Ministries/Departments of the Central Government

   * Remote Sensing Agencies in State Governments and Union Territories

   * Quasi Government Organizations’, NGOs and the private sector for developmental purposes through satellite imaging.

   * Educational institutions in promotion of research and development in space science and technology.
International data propagation is channeled through ANTRIX Corporation Ltd. resellers and distributors and the international ground stations.

NDC have end to end responsibilities right from generating a customer query and response to a query, receipt of order, determining feasibilities, generation of technical proposal, financial proposal, screening of the archived data, attainment of the data by collection planning ,generation and delivery .It is also a repository of data ordering tools like order forms , price lists , digital referencing maps , handbooks , leaflets and in-house publications and these are also available as e-copies in the NRSC website.

Today, NDC has reached a stage where the 'Product Turnaround Time' has improved from one month to few days to few hours of attainment and around 50,000 products are supplied annually. This was achievable due to technological advancements in data processing, data handling, data transfer through the net in close to real time and electronic delivery.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Earth Observation Satilite

Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite system was commissioned with the launch of IRS-1A, in 1988. With nine satellites in operation, IRS is the largest civilian remote sensing satellite constellation in the world providing imageries in a variety of spatial resolutions, spectral bands and swaths. The data is used for several applications covering agriculture, water resources, urban development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, drought and flood forecasting, ocean resources and disaster management.

CARTOSAT:

CARTOSAT - 2B is the seventeenth satellite in the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite series (IRS). CARTOSAT-2B carries a panchromatic camera (PAN) similar to those of its predecessors - CARTOSAT-2 and 2A. It is capable of imaging a swath (geographical strip) of 9.6 km with a resolution of better than 1 meter. The scene specific spot imagery sent by CARTOSAT-2B's PAN will be useful for cartographic and a host of other applications. The highly agile CARTOSAT-2B is steerable up to ± 26o along as well as across track to obtain stereoscopic imagery and achieve a four to five day revisit capability.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Geo Stationary Satellites


GSAT-4 was the nineteenth geo-stationary satellite of India built by ISRO and fourth in the GSAT series. GSAT-4 was basically an experimental satellite with the following new technologies intended to be tested:

* Electric Propulsion System
* Bus Management Unit
* 1553 Bus for Data Communication
* Miniaturised Dynamically Tuned Gyros
* 36 AH Lithium Ion Battery
* 70 V Bus for Ka band TWTAs

However, GSAT-4 was not placed in orbit as GSLV-D3 could not complete the mission.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

About Tele Education



The pivotal role of education as an instrument of social change by altering the human perspective and transforming the traditional mindset of society is well recognised.

The universalisation of education has become the top priority, especially for the developing countries. But the extension of quality education to remote and rural regions becomes a Herculean task for a large country like India with multi-lingual and multi-cultural population separated by vast geographical distances, and, in many instances, inaccessible terrain.

Since independence, India has seen substantial increase in the number of educational institutions at primary, secondary and higher levels as well as the student enrolment.

But the lack of adequate rural educational infrastructure and non-availability of good teachers in sufficient numbers adversely affect the efforts made in education.

About Tele Education

The pivotal role of education as an instrument of social change by altering the human perspective and transforming the traditional mindset of society is well recognised.

The universalisation of education has become the top priority, especially for the developing countries. But the extension of quality education to remote and rural regions becomes a Herculean task for a large country like India with multi-lingual and multi-cultural population separated by vast geographical distances, and, in many instances, inaccessible terrain.

Since independence, India has seen substantial increase in the number of educational institutions at primary, secondary and higher levels as well as the student enrolment.

But the lack of adequate rural educational infrastructure and non-availability of good teachers in sufficient numbers adversely affect the efforts made in education.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Space Sciences


Starting with ground based and balloon borne experiments in the 1940s, the Indian space science research activities were actually initiated with the launching of sounding rockets from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in 1963 to measure the equatorial electrojet parameters. Since then large number of rocket and balloon borne experiments have provided new data on upper atmospheric phenomena, cosmic rays and energetic x-ray and gamma rays. With the advent of satellite era, scientific experimental payloads have been launched starting from the first Indian satellite Aryabhata.

In the recent past a number of Indian space science projects / programmes have been completed or on going. Major ones are as follows:
Astronomy: GRB-SROSS-C2, IXAE-IRS-P3, SOXS-GSAT2, (completed projects), ASTROSAT, Indian RT-2 experiment on Coronas-Photon Russian Mission
Solar-Terrestrial Physics: IMAP, RPA-SROSS-C2, Middle Atmospheric Dynamics (MIDAS), (completed projects), Coherent Radio Beacon Experiment (CRABEX), CAWSES-India
Planetary Science/ Exploration: National level Planetary Science/Exploration Programme, PLANEX, Chandrayaan-1
Environment & Climate: Megha-Tropiques,
Micro-Gravity Science experiments for SRE-1 and SRE-2

The recent initiatives and ongoing projects: Chandrayaan-1, ASTROSAT, Megha-Tropiques, RT-2, CRABEX, PLANEX, SRE science experiments etc., would provide exciting opportunities to attract young research scientists and students to space science arena. Special effort is being made to organise training workshops, create special awareness and fellowships etc., to enable participation by students and scientists from universities and academic institutions. With the initiation of these major space science missions and their realisation, considerable interest and expertise have been generated and scientists have come up with proposals for new missions.

ISRO actively supports space science research in universities and research institutions on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee for Space Science (ADCOS) and participates in national and international scientific campaign.

Friday, December 10, 2010

About PSLV-C11

PSLV-C11, chosen to launch Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, was an uprated version of ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle standard configuration. Weighing 320 tonnes at lift-off, the vehicle used larger strap-on motors (PSOM-XL) to achieve higher payload capability.

PSLV is the trusted workhorse launch Vehicle of ISRO. During September 1993- April 2008 period, PSLV had twelve consecutively successful launches carrying satellites to Sun Synchronous, Low Earth and Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits. On October 22, 2008, its fourteenth flight launched Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

By mid 2008, PSLV had repeatedly proved its reliability and versatility by launching 29 satellites into a variety of orbits. Of these, ten remote sensing satellites of India, an Indian satellite for amateur radio communications, a recoverable Space Capsule (SRE-1) and fourteen satellites from abroad were put into polar Sun Synchronous Orbits (SSO) of 550-820 km heights. Besides, PSLV has launched two satellites from abroad into Low Earth Orbits of low or medium inclinations. This apart, PSLV has launched KALPANA-1, a weather satellite of India, into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

PSLV was initially designed by ISRO to place 1,000 kg class Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into 900 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbits. Since the first successful flight in October 1994, the capability of PSLV was successively enhanced from 850 kg to 1,600 kg. In its ninth flight on May 5, 2005 from the Second Launch Pad (SLP), PSLV launched ISRO's remote sensing satellite,1,560 kg CARTOSAT-1 and the 42 kg Amateur Radio satellite, HAMSAT, into a 620 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit. The improvement in the capability over successive flights has been achieved through several means. They include increased propellant loading in the stage motors, employing composite material for the satellite mounting structure and changing the sequence of firing of the strap-on motors.

PSLV-C11 is 44.4 metre tall and has four stages using solid and liquid propulsion systems alternately. The first stage, carrying 138 tonne of propellant, is one of the largest solid propellant boosters in the world. Six solid propellant strap-on motors (PSOM-XL), each carrying twelve tonne of solid propellant, are strapped on to the first stage. The second stage carries 41.5 tonne of liquid propellant. The third stage uses 7.6 tonne of solid propellant and the fourth has a twin engine configuration with 2.5 tonne of liquid propellant.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, designed and developed PSLV-C11. ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU) at Thiruvananthapuram developed the inertial systems for the vehicle.

Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), also at Thiruvananthapuram, developed the liquid propulsion stages for the second and fourth stages of PSLV-C11 as well as reaction control systems. SDSC SHAR processed the solid motors and carries out launch operations. ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) provides telemetry, tracking and command support during PSLV-C11's flight.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

NASA Mars Rover Images Honor Apollo

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has visited and photographed two craters informally named for the spacecraft that carried men to the moon 41 years ago this week.

Opportunity drove past "Yankee Clipper" crater on Nov. 4 and reached "Intrepid crater" on Nov. 9. For NASA's Apollo 12, the second mission to put humans onto the moon, the command and service module was called Yankee Clipper, piloted by Dick Gordon, and the lunar module was named Intrepid, piloted by Alan Bean and commanded by the late Pete Conrad. The Intrepid landed on the moon with Bean and Conrad on Nov. 19, 1969, while Yankee Clipper orbited overhead. Their landing came a mere four months after Apollo 11's first lunar landing.

This week, Bean wrote to the Mars Exploration Rover team: "I just talked with Dick Gordon about the wonderful honor you have bestowed upon our Apollo 12 spacecraft. Forty-one years ago today, we were approaching the moon in Yankee Clipper with Intrepid in tow. We were excited to have the opportunity to perform some important exploration of a place in the universe other than planet Earth where humans had not gone before. We were anxious to give it our best effort. You and your team have that same opportunity. Give it your best effort."

Rover science team member James Rice, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., suggested using the Apollo 12 names. He was applying the rover team's convention of using names of historic ships of exploration for the informal names of craters that Opportunity sees in the Meridian Planum region of Mars.

"The Apollo missions were so inspiring when I was young, I remember all the dates. When we were approaching these craters, I realized we were getting close to the Nov. 19 anniversary for Apollo 12," Rice said. He sent Bean and Gordon photographs that Opportunity took of the two craters.

The images are available online at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13593 and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13596. Intrepid crater is about 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter. Yankee Clipper crater is about half that width.

After a two-day stop to photograph the rocks exposed at Intrepid, Opportunity continued on a long-term trek toward Endeavour crater, a highly eroded crater about 1,000 times wider than Intrepid. Endeavour's name comes from the ship of James Cook's first Pacific voyage.

During a drive of 116.9 meters (383.5 feet) on Nov. 14, Opportunity's "odometer" passed 25 kilometers (15.53 miles). That is more than 40 times the driving-distance goal set for Opportunity to accomplish during its original three-month prime mission in 2004.

Mars Exploration Project Manager John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "Importantly, it's not how far the rovers have gone but how much exploration and science discovery they have accomplished on behalf of all humankind."

At the beginning of Opportunity's mission, the rover landed inside "Eagle crater," about the same size as Intrepid crater. The team's name for that landing-site crater paid tribute to the lunar module of Apollo 11, the first human landing on the moon. Opportunity spent two months inside Eagle crater, where it found multiple lines of evidence for a wet environment in the area's ancient past.

The rover team is checking regularly for Opportunity's twin, Spirit, in case the increasing daily solar energy available at Spirit's location enables the rover to reawaken and resume communication. No signal from Spirit has been received since March 22. Spring began last week in the southern hemisphere of Mars.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rovers for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.