In Focus

Isro launch: Here’s all you need to know about the 20 satellites

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) workhorse PSLV-C34 on workhorse injected 20 satellites including 17 foreign satellites into orbit in a single mission and set a new record on Wednesday. Here's all you need to know about ISRO's latest space mission:

ISRO's PSLV C-34 blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, to execute a clockwork mission.

India's earth observation satellite, Cartosat-2 Series, is similar to the earlier Cartosat-2, 2A and 2B.

The total weight of all the satellites launched by PSLV-C34 were 1,288 kg, with the 19 co-passenger satellites weighing 560kg.

The foreign satellites launched were LAPAN-A3 (Indonesia), BIROS (Germany), M3MSat (Canada), SkySat Gen2-1 (US), GHGSat-D (Canada), 12 Dove Satellites (US).

PSLV-C34 also carried two mico-satellites from Indian universities - SWAYAM from the College of Engineering, Pune and SATYABAMASAT from Chennai's Satyabama University.

Including the 17 foreign satellites of the PSLV-C34, ISRO has launched a total of 74 satellites for global customers.

This was the 36th flight of the PSLV launch platform and the 14th flight of the PSLV-XL, the most powerful variant, which has been used for ISRO's most critical missions, such as the Chandrayaan and the Mars Orbiter Mission.

ISRO's previous record for highest number of satellites in a single launch was PSLV-C8, which placed 10 satellites into orbit on April 28, 2008.

NASA in 2013 launched 29 satellites in a single mission and Russia in 2014 launched 33 satellites in one launch.

The launch affirmed ISRO's rising position as one of the key service providers for the launch of small satellites. PSLV's consistent success and lower costs, compared to other launch platforms, have added teeth to ISRO's attempts to effectively commercialize its operations.

Cartosat 2C: The Cartosat 2C was the first satellite to be released from the launch vehicle, as well as the primary payload in the mission. The Cartosat series of satellites are indigenously developed. This is the fourth Cartosat 2 series satellite to be launched, after 2, 2A and 2B.

While similar in design and function to the previous satellites, this iteration is heavier than the Cartosat 2B, and technically more advanced. The satellite was injected into a polar sun synchronous orbit 550km above the surface of the earth. The Cartosat 2C is an earth observation satellite and is equipped with panchromatic and multi-spectral image sensors for that purpose.

Sathyabamasat and Swayam: Sathyabamasat and Swayam were two amateur Indian satellites built by students. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had congratulatory Tweets just for the students who built the satellites that were launched.

The Sathyabamasat was built by the students of Sathyabama University in Chennai. This satellites monitors greenhouse gas emissions. It is fairly advanced and functional for an amateur satellite, monitoring more greenhouse gases than other greenhouse gas monitoring satellites that were its co-passengers in the same launch vehicle. The Sathyabamasat can detect levels of water vapour, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen fluoride in the atmosphere. This is impressive considering that the satellite weighs less than 1.5 kg.

Swayam, made by students from the College of Engineering, Pune, weighs less than 1 kg. Swayam is meant to provide point-to-point messaging services to the amateur radio HAM network.

LAPAN-A3: LAPAN stands for Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional, which is the national space agency of Indonesia. The LAPAN-A3 is a multitasking satellite, similar to the LAPAN-A2. The LAPAN design is a cost effective micro-satellite. The LAPAN A3 is designed for both communication and earth observation functions. The LAPAN will be used to monitor the environment and consumption of food resources in Indonesia.

BIROS and LAPAN-A3 were the two satellites deployed together after the three Indian satellites. BIROS stands for Berlin Infrared Optical System, which is part of the Firebird constellation of fire detecting satellites. BIROS is designed by DLR, the German space agency. There are two satellites in the constellation, the TET-1 is already functional. BIROS has a cold gas propulsion system, whereas the TET-1 has none. The BIROS weighs 130 kg.

The BIROS is meant primarily for detecting forest fires, and the data collected will be available openly to the scientific community. The BIROS will be operational in a sun synchronous orbit at an altitude of 510 km.

M3MSat: Next in line were the Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Microsatellite and the SkySat Gen 2-1. The M3MSat is from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The small satellite has a number of cutting edge technologies developed in Canada, and this is meant to be a technology demonstration. Similar to the communications role of the LAPAN-A3, the M3MSat has an Automatic Identification System. The system will be used by ships and maritime authorities for safety and monitoring traffic in the open seas.

SkySat Gen 2-1: The SkySat Gen 2-1 from the US was deployed with the M3MSat. SkySat Gen2-1 belongs to Terra Bella, a Google owned company that changed its name from Skybox Imaging. Terra Bella has already launched the SkySat A and the SkySat B, and plans to have at least 20 satellites in orbit by 2017. The SkySat Gen 2-1 is also designated as the SkySat C, and is part of a growing constellation of SkySat satellites. The SkySat Gen 2-1 has a mass of 110 kg according to ISRO, but the Terra Bella site lists SkySat satellites at less than 100 kg.

GHGSat-D: The GHGSat-D actually has an easy to use name, Claire. Claire was next in line, another Canadian passenger weighing just 25.5 kg according to ISRO, and less than 15 kg according to GHGSat. The satellite is designed to monitor greenhouse gas emissions. Claire monitors the distribution of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by studying the spectral fingerprint of these gases using sunlight. The satellite will monitor specific high risk sites all across the world, including oil wells in the US, power plants in Europe, coal mines in China and rice fields in Vietnam.

Dove Flock 2p: The final satellites to be deployed were a cluster of 12 Doves from Planet Labs. The 12 satellites were released over a period of 7 minutes. The satellites were launched in a sun synchronous orbit at 500 km altitude. These were housed in three QuadPack dispensers on board the launch vehicle. Each QuadPack dispenser had 4 Dove satellites. The weight of each satellite is 4.7 kg, making them the lightest passengers in the launch.

source : http://tech.firstpost.com/