India crosses new frontiers in
space By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - India's space initiatives
recently took a big step forward. The achievements
were somewhat overshadowed by Beijing's
confirmation that it had successfully shot down
one of its own satellites with a missile,
launching itself into a select club that comprised
US and Russia until now and sparking talk about an
arms race in space.
India's non-military
efforts in space took a leap with the recent
launch of the 44.4-meter-tall, four-stage Polar
Satellite Launch
Vehicle (PSLV) carrying four
satellites for the first time.
This
success more than made up for the failure of the
Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)
last July 10 designed to launch heavy payloads.
The GSLV burst into flames and set back India's
quest to garner a portion of the US$2 billion
satellite-launch market.
India's space
agency, the Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO), unlike most other government-managed
programs, has an otherwise impeccable record of
progress, despite international sanctions that
have required that it depend largely on domestic
technology.
Of particular interest this
time was the study of technologies connected with
the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) via the
550-kilogram space-capsule recovery experiment
(SRE), which has the potential to attract more
countries to launch their satellites from India
because of lower costs.
The RLV was
successfully recovered (re-entering the Earth's
atmosphere and landing on Earth) this week, after
remaining in space for 11 days.
Space
agency Chairman G Madhavan Nair termed as
"fantastic" the splashdown of satellite SRE-I into
the waters of the Bay of Bengal. He called it "a
technological breakthrough as far as the country
is concerned".
He said the recovery was a
"big boost" to India mastering re-entry and
recoverable technologies and building a reusable
launch vehicle. Nair said, "This is a humble step
towards sending an Indian into space.
"Sending a satellite into space is
comparatively easy as the difficulties are known.
Everything was unknown in bringing back a
satellite from orbit. The satellite had a speed of
28,000km/h. We had to brake its orbit. We had to
steer it. Its orbit-raising took place over the
Pacific Ocean, then it traveled over the Pole, and
then it passed Lucknow and Sriharikota. Its
navigation, guidance, control and above all the
thermal management for its re-entry had to work.''
Unlike traditional rockets, which can be
used only once, the recovery launch vehicle, as
the name implies, can be launched a number of
times, thus cutting launch costs by a good margin.
Currently it costs between $12,000 and $15,000 to
place a kilogram of payload in orbit. Once the RLV
is operational, this figure could decrease
substantially.
The first
technology-demonstrator RLV flight is scheduled
for 2008-09. More flights could increase the space
agency's commercial options.
The United
States' space shuttle had its maiden flight on
April 12, 1981. Despite its technological
achievements, it proved an economic disaster.
There are currently four shuttles, which will be
phased out by 2010.
ISRO officials say
that the Indian RLV will be much better than the
US shuttle as it will have new and enhanced safety
features. Two US space shuttles have exploded or
disintegrated in flight, killing their crews.
Indeed, space business is a frontier that
India wants to tap. The country is looking to
embark on its first fully commercial satellite
launch by lifting the Italian satellite Agile into
outer space aboard the workhorse PSLV-C8 in March
or April. The launch reportedly will cost $10
million.
According to Nair, India's launch
vehicles are cost-effective and thus competitive.
''It will be a great opportunity for us if we can
capture at least 10% in the launch business,'' he
has said.
India may also launch Russian
satellites for a global navigational system this
year. ISRO is also slated to send an Indonesian
micro-satellite into space this year.
Many
feel that the time is ripe for India to embark on
a government-led campaign to win launch orders
from other countries by putting competitive bids,
especially to developing countries.
India
is looking to follow the lead taken by China,
which joined hands with Brazil and won an order in
2004 to build and launch a communications
satellite for Nigeria. Russia, the US and Europe
continue to lead the world in space launches,
followed by China.
India is also looking
for more cooperation with the US, which has
partnered with it in many space endeavors going
back to 1963, when an Indian atmospheric
experiment was carried on a US-made rocket.
However, progress has been hobbled by the
inter-linking of India's missile, space and
nuclear programs and the sanctions that have
accompanied India's nuclear tests.
However, the restrictions have been eased
over the years as relations between the two
countries have improved. Last year, the US
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and ISRO signed an agreement to fly two US
lunar-mapping instruments on India's first
unmanned mission to orbit the moon, scheduled for
early next year.
The agency has already
developed two categories of rockets - the PSLV,
designed for Earth observation and scientific
missions such as remote sensing satellites, and
Chandrayaan, for the moon mission.
The
latest remote sensing satellite Cartosat-1 joined
what is already the world's largest cluster of
non-military remote sensing satellites. Six Indian
spacecraft are already observing the Earth with a
wide range of instruments.
However, the
Indian launch vehicles are not yet powerful enough
for India's heaviest communication satellites,
which have been launched on Europe's Ariane. ISRO
is looking to be self-sufficient in this sector
from 2008, though the failure of the GSLV last
year will delay plans.
The INSAT (Indian
National Satellite) series of satellites has given
90% of the population access to satellite
television besides building a distant-learning
network.
India's ability to launch a human
in space is, however, still a decade away, say
scientists.
Siddharth Srivastava
is a New Delhi-based journalist.
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