The first successful satellite launch by the

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1 CHAPTER XXX SPACE PROGRAMME The first successful satellite launch by the Soviets in 1957 ushered in the space era. At initial stages, critical military applications, national prestige and enabling space exploration were the main drives for the development of satellites and satellite launch vehicles. In later years, many civilian applications of satellites have been identified and extensively developed. Dominated by satellite communications, these civilian applications have now become the main motivating forces for the space programmes pursued by many other countries. As for the future, the new frontiers of space research promise the establishing of space colonies and interplanetary travel, and increasing our understanding of the evolution of the universe. In the field of space applications, space-borne observations are looked upon as a very powerful and unique technique for a variety of applications ranging from weather forecasting to generation of an information base relevant to sustainable development of natural resources. India is amongst the first few countries to realize the potential of space technology and its applications. The pioneer of the Indian space programme, Vikram Sarabhai, under whose chairmanship, the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) was formed in 1962, had cherished a dream that India should be second to none in the application of advanced technologies, like space, to solve the real problems of humanity and society. In 1972, the Indian Space Programme was formally organized with the setting up of the Space Commission and the government funding it through the Department of Space. SATELLITE COMMUNICATION The potential of space technology for mass education, especially in terms of immediacy, potency, visual power and outreach was recognized in the early 70s. Keeping in view the larger aspects of education, especially rural education, India launched the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) in to telecast a series of educational TV THE INDIAN SPACE programmes on health, family PROGRAMME IS ONE OF planning, agriculture, and THE MOST SUCCESSFUL adult education covering 2,500 Indian villages via the US satellite, ATS-6. It was the largest AND COST-EFFECTIVE ENDEAVOURS GIVING WIDE sociological experiment ever RANGE OF BENEFITS TO carried out in the world. The Satellite Telecommunication THE NATION AND SOCIETY. Experiment Project (STEP), conducted using Franco- German SYMPHONIE satellite during , was another major demonstration of long-distance satellite telecommunication application of space. India also launched its own APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment), an experimental communication satellite, in June 1981, using the opportunity offered by the European Space Agency (ESA) to put this satellite on board the third developmental flight of Ariane. 304 P URSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE

2 A major development took place during 1980s, through the establishment of the operational Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system, for providing indigenous services in telecommunications, TV broadcasting, meteorology and disaster warning. The INSAT series, commissioned in 1983, has today become one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world, comprising five satellites. The last satellite of the second generation INSAT-2 series, INSAT-2E, was launched from Kourou, French Guyana, on April 3, Work on INSAT-3 series of satellites has already begun. Five satellites in the INSAT-3 series have been planned and the first satellite, INSAT-3B, has already been launched in March The INSAT system has a unique design, combining telecommunication, television/radio broadcasting and meteorological services upon a single platform. The involvement of various users like the Department of Telecommunication, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Indian Meteorological Department, has enabled proper tuning of INSAT system towards identified national developmental needs. The demonstrated space applications in SITE and STEP of the 1970 were transformed to practical and operational systems through INSAT. Today, INSAT links about 450 earth stations set up in the country, including those located in inaccessible regions and offshore islands. Besides, there are about 8,500 Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), including those installed by the National Informatics Centre and private networks, catering to corporate houses. Television in India now reaches about 85 per cent of its population through over 1,000 TV transmitters linked via INSAT. Educational programmes of over 100 hours are telecast every week. The INSAT system has become a powerful tool for training and developmental education and is used by various agencies to provide continuing education, conduct in-situ training for industrial employees, social welfare personnel and training of Panchayat Raj (village governance) workers. India continues to emphasize the use of INSAT for rural upliftment. A pilot project that started in November 1996, in a tribal district of Madhya Pradesh in Central India is now in progress to educate the indigenous community on various aspects of health, hygiene, family planning and women's rights. This project is being expanded to cover more villages and is expected to lead to a unique space-based system that will be dedicated to the development of rural society. Similar projects are being initiated in several other states. WEATHER FORECAST AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT Indian agriculture predominantly depends on the monsoons and precise forecasting of weather assumes a great significance. Large populations living on the eastern and western coasts face devastating cyclones very frequently. Thus, precise weather forecasting and warnings on impending disasters is P URSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE 305

3 very important. This is the reason why India included meteorological instruments on its INSAT, making it a unique multipurpose satellite system. The cloud imageries collected by the satellites and over a hundred meteorological data-collection platforms installed all over the country that relay local weather parameters via the INSAT, have contributed greatly to improved meteorological services. The twin capability of communication and meteorological imaging of INSAT is effectively used not only to predict cyclone tracks but also to issue warnings to the population likely to be affected. About 250 disaster warning receivers have been installed for this purpose along the cyclone-prone east and west-coast of India. Several thousand lives have been saved by the INSAT disaster warning system through timely evacuation. MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES India has 3.3 million km 2 land area with varied physical features ranging from the snow-covered Himalayas in the north to tropical forests in the south and from regions in the east receiving highest rainfall in the world to the arid deserts of Rajasthan in the west. India is also blessed with a vast natural wealth, yet to be exploited fully. A coastal belt of 7,500 km has a store of rich aquatic resources. What better way can be there to monitor and manage the natural resources for a large country like India than through the use of the powerful tool of space-based observation systems? India not only demonstrated the potential of spacebased remote sensing in the 1970s using data received from the US satellite, LANDSAT, but also went on to build its own experimental satellites, BHASKARA-1 and BHASKARA-2, which were launched in June 1979 and November 1981, respectively. India became one of the few countries to develop its own operational Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1A) in March 1988, and now has the largest constellation of five remote sensing satellites, IRS-1B, IRS-1C, IRS-1D, IRS- P3, and IRS-P4 in operation. Of these, IRS-1C and IRS- 1D, are the best civilian remote sensing satellites in the world. IRS-P4 (OCEANSAT-1) launched in May 1999 is used for monitoring ocean resources and for understanding the atmosphere over the oceans. Two more 306 P URSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE

4 satellites, IRS-P5 for cartographic applications and IRS-P6 for resources survey, are planned for launch in the coming years. The IRS system has brought in a sea change in India's resources monitoring and management techniques. Data from IRS is used for estimation of acreage and yield of important crops, like wheat, rice, sorghum, oil seeds and sugarcane, and other applications such as forest survey, forecasting drought conditions, flood mapping and demarcation of floodrisk zones, land use and land cover mapping for agroclimatic planning, waste land mapping and their classification for possible reclamation, preparation of hydro-geomorphological maps for locating sites for borewells, monitoring and development of irrigation command areas, snow-cover and snowmelt run-off estimation of Himalayan rivers for optimal use of water. Data from IRS are also used in urban planning, alignment of roads and pipelines, detection of underground fires in collieries, marine resources survey, mineral prospecting, and so on. A unique application of data from IRS is in the Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD) which is aimed at the generating locale-specific prescriptions for development at micro-level. The impact of IMSD is already being felt in areas where prescriptions generated have been actually implemented. The figure on the right shows various aspects of IRS satellite system, data and its applications related to sustainable development. INDIGENOUS LAUNCH VEHICLE PROGRAMME India realised quite early that sustaining the space programme in the long run would depend on indigenous technological capabilities. Keeping this in view, besides building satellites, India embarked on satellite launch vehicle development in the early 1970s. The first experimental launch vehicle SLV-3 was carried out in An augmented version of this vehicle, ASLV, was launched successfully in India has now acquired a significant capability in the launch vehicle area with the successful development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), capable of putting a 1, kg class satellite into 820 km polar sun-synchronous orbit. PSLV is P URSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE 307

5 being offered to launch the satellites of other countries and has launched two small satellites, one for Korea and another for Germany along with India's IRS-P4 in May More space agencies are expected to use PSLV for placing their satellites in orbit; a European satellite PROBA is scheduled for launch as a piggy back on board next PSLV. The Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D1) had its maiden successful flight on April 18, 2001, from Sriharikota injecting the G-SAT 1 satellite into ~180 x 32,155 km geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The adjoining figure shows different types of sounding rockets and satellite launch vehicles developed and launched by ISRO. SPACE SCIENCE RESEARCH The initial thrust for Indian space programme came from the requirement of scientists to carry out investigations in aeronomy as well as in astronomy by conducting space-based experiments. Apart from developing technologies for sounding rockets and balloon borne instrumentation, ISRO has established complementary ground -based facilities, particularly for scientists from universities and academic institutions. The major areas of investigation in space sciences have been high-energy cosmic ray variability using neutron/ meson/cerenkov monitors, equatorial electrojet and spread-f ionization irregularities, ozone, aerosol and cloud phenomena, middle atmospheric radiation, dynamics and electrodynamics, solar physics, IR astronomy, neutron star and black hole astrophysics, planetary science and origin/evolution of life and so on. Also, India has recently launched scientific payloads to study celestial gamma ray bursts and X-ray sources. For conducting atmospheric research with high resolution, the Mesosphere, Stratosphere and Troposphere (MST) radar has been established at Gadanki near Tirupati. The ISRO has enabled participation of scientists in major international science campaigns, like monsoon experiment (MONEX), middle 308 P URSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE

6 atmospheric programme (MAP), ISTEP, and INDOEX by providing the financial, technological and other assistance. Based on the interest shown by a large number of space scientists in India and their suggestions, several new proposals and activities have been initiated by ISRO. Some of the major ones include (a) ASTROSAT: a multi-wavelength dedicated satellite mission for high-energy astronomy. The satellite is likely to carry soft and hard X-ray detectors and imaging payloads, all sky X-ray monitors and a UV/optical telescope system, (b) SOXS: The Solar X-ray Spectrometers payload development on board GSAT, for studying solar activity and flaring phenomena, (c) CRABEX: The Coherent Radio Beacon Experiment payload on board geo-stationary satellite and a ground-based chain of receivers located at various universities and research institutions for developing ionospheric tomography or 3-D models of ionization and their structure, (d) Planetary exploration/science: competence building in planetary science studies and also development of sensors for planetary probes/missions to the moon or to asteroids or nearby planets, and (e) Microgravity science/ exploration programme: National workshops and meetings have been held to define novel scientific experiments for such a programme and proposals selected with potentials for space-borne experiments either in a balloon drop system or in a space recovery capsule. INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION The national investment to sustain the space programme not only provides a significant and profitable domestic market for Indian industry, but also helps it to acquire technological muscle to enlarge its capability for increasing the value-added component in other areas and eventually capture a part of the growing international market in high technology applications. Hence India has encouraged active participation of industry in its space programme which in turn has led the industry to upgrade its own technological skills. Also, as a spinoff, a large number of technologies developed under the space programme have been transferred to industries for commercial applications. A number of major industries have now set up exclusive fabrication divisions to meet the demands of the national space programme. A large number of systems required on ground, such as remote sensing data processing equipment, communication earth stations and terminal equipment, have opened up a fairly large market for industry. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Aconstant induction of human power to carry on the task of continuous research and development is another vital element that sustains the space programme. Towards this end, Indian space programme has established a strong interface with academia, for example, the scheme of Research Sponsored by ISRO (RESPOND) under which grants for undertaking research projects on subjects relevant to the space programme are financially supported at universities, academic and research institutions by ISRO. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION International cooperation has been pursued from the inception of the Indian space programme. The establishment of the Equatorial Rocket Launching Station at Thumba, conduct of space application demonstrations, like SITE and STEP, and launches of experimental satellites, like Aryabhata, Bhaskara and APPLE, have involved cooperation with other countries including USA, the former Soviet Union, France, Germany and international space agencies. India has cooperative agreements with several countries and has set up two Local User Terminals (LUT) and the Mission Control Centre (MCC) as part of the COSPAS-SARSAT network, under the international satellite-aided search and rescue programme. India also shares its experience in space applications with other developing countries by training their personnel under a programme called SHARES. The UN- P URSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE 309

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8 affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific has begun its programme at the postgraduate level in remote sensing and geographical information system, satellite communications, meteorology and space science for the benefit of persons from Asia and the Pacific region. India hosted the second UN-ESCAP Ministerial Conference on space applications in November COMMERCIAL ACCRUALS Even though IndiaÕs space programme is primarily directed towards establishment of space systems for national development, the capability that is built in the process has started yielding economic benefits. The setting up of an exclusive commercial front, the ANTRIX Corporation, under Department of Space, in 1992, for marketing hardware and services has acted as a catalyst in this endeavour. Important commercial agreements include worldwide marketing of remote sensing data from Indian satellites, lease of satellite capacity, launch of small satellites on board PSLV, supply of satellite hardware, providing tracking support for satellites using Indian ground stations and training of personnel. SPACE EXPENDITURE India has now established a well-integrated space programme with end-to-end capabilities for the development and application of space technology for national benefit. The execution of the programme has been well orchestrated -- starting with demonstration of end-use through large-scale experiments, developing linkages with users, passing through experimental and developmental phases of system development and finally, establishing state-of-the-art operational systems. With a modest overall expenditure of about US $ 2,400 million so far, India has built 29 satellites, developed three types of launch vehicles, conducted thirteen flights so far, established an elaborate infrastructure to design, build and test communication and remote sensing satellites, their launch, and their in-orbit management as well as their data processing and application, and has developed a strong human power base for undertaking frontline R&D in space. The Indian space programme has been one of the most successful and cost-effective endeavours, especially, when one looks at the wide range of benefits that have accrued to the nation and society. As India enters the new millennium, it is necessary to sustain this programme by continuously tuning it to the fast changing requirements and updating the technology that goes into the making of these sophisticated systems. The challenges continue to grow but that is what attracts and sustains the interest of personnel working in the space programme. P URSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE 311