PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- PSLV C-45
1 . PSLV C -45
Syllabus – :General Studies 3 Space
Context : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the country’s first electronic surveillance satellite, EMISAT, from Sriharikota in coastal Andhra Pradesh on Monday morning. As many as 28 small satellites of international customers were also put in space as secondary riders. This flight marked the first mission of PSLV-QL, a new variant of PSLV with four strap-on motors.
About the Launch
- PSLV-C45 injected India’s EMISAT into a 748 km sun-synchronous polar orbit.
- After separation, the two solar arrays of EMISAT were deployed automatically and the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru assumed control of the satellite.
- Following the separation of EMISAT, the vehicle’s fourth stage engines were restarted twice to place the 28 international customer satellites precisely into a sun-synchronous orbit of 504 km height.
- The fourth stage (PS4) of the vehicle was moved to a lower circular orbit of 485 km after two restarts to establish it as an orbital platform for carrying out experiments with its three payloads.
- The payloads carried by PS4 are Automatic Identification System from ISRO, Automatic Packet Repeating System from AMSAT, India and Advanced Retarding Potential Analyzer for ionospheric studies from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.
- The 28 international customer satellites, together weighing about 220 kg, are from four countries, namely, Lithuania (2), Spain (1), Switzerland (1) and USA (24). These foreign satellites were launched as part of commercial arrangements.
- A new variant of the rocket PSLV-QL equipped with four Strap-On motors in the first stage is used for the launch.
- In Monday’s mission, ISRO scientists would place the satellites and payloads in three different orbits, a first for the agency.
- According to ISRO, this is the first time it has been envisaged to provide a micro-gravity environment for research organisations and academic institutes to perform experiments.
- This is also the first launch to use solar panels to make the fourth stage last longer in orbit. Using the solar panels in the fourth stage, the PSLV can provide power to attached payloads almost indefinitely, ISRO said.
About EMISAT
- Space-based electronic intelligence or ELINT from the 436-kg spacecraft will add teeth to situational awareness of the armed forces as it will provide location and information of hostile radars placed at the borders; this will be another dimension to the current land or aircraft-based ELINT, according to defence experts
- ISRO, which is said to have built the satellite body for the DRDO payload, merely said the spacecraft would measure the electromagnetic spectrum.
- EMISAT is a satellite built around ISRO’s Mini Satellite-2 bus weighing about 436 kg. The satellite is intended for electromagnetic spectrum measurement.
