Do you know that till now ISRO has launched maximum 20 satellites at one go; it was PSLV-C34 on June 22, 2016. But now ISRO is going to create a history by launching 104 satellites on board, a flight of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on 15 February 2017 from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. For the first time India will go to Venus. No other country has ever tried this.
Source: www.tvindialive.in.com
The last world record was made by Russia in 2014 by launching 37 satellites in a single launch by using a modified intercontinental ballistic missile and the US space agency NASA had launched 29 satellites at one go.
The mission of 104 satellites aims to launch 714kg Cartosat-2 series for earth observation along with 103 co-passenger together weighing about 664 kg at lift off. It will be launched into a 505km Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). It is sixteenth flight in the XL configuration and thirty nine flight of the PSLV.
These co-passengers satellites comprise 101 nanosatellites two from India, one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 96 from USA. The total weight of all the satellites onboard PSLV-C37 is about 1378 kg and the 101 foreign satellites are being launched as part of a commercial agreement between ISRO and its commercial arm, Antrix.
Details of Satellites are as follows:
Cartosat-2D
It is the first satellite to be separated. Has mass 714 kg and is the heaviest satellite on board. It will be injected into a 505 km Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO). Cartosat-2D is the fifth earth observation satellite in the Cartosat series, previous satellites are Cartosat-2, Cartosat-2A, Cartosat-2B and Cartosat 2C.It has its own fuel with lithium ion batteries and also two solar panels. The planned operational period of the satellite is 5 years.
It will provide remote sensing services; equipped with panchromatic and multispectral image sensors which will be used for a number of Land Information System (LIS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications. These images will be used for cartographic applications, urban and rural planning, monitoring of coastal land use, and utility management such as road network monitoring, water distribution, mapping land use and change detection to identify natural and manmade features.
Milestones in Indian Space Programmes
INS-1A
Source: www.space.skyrocket.de.com
It is ISRO Nano Satellite which is a nanosatellite bus system similar to the CubeSat standard concept and will be operational for six months. This system is used for future experiments, student satellites and technology demonstration payloads. Its weight is 8.4 kg and onboard has two science payloads.
Ahmadabad, Space Applications Centre (SAC) has provided the Surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function Radiometer (SBR) which will measure the amount of sunlight that gets bounced off different surface features. SAC has also provided the instrument known as Single Event Upset Monitor (SEUM) which will study the effects of high energy space radiation on commercial, electronic components.
INS-1B
Its weight is 9.7 kg and on board it is the experimental payload from the SAC which will be helpful in taking high resolution images of Earth by using a small package. It has Earth Exosphere Lymann Alpha Analyser (EELA) to record terrestrial exospheric line of sight neutral atomic hydrogen Lyman-alpha background flux. Its life on board is of six months.
Flock-3p
Source: www.space.skyrocket.de.com
From Planet labs, 88 Dove satellites will be released in pairs. These are part of 100 Earth imaging satellites constellation and remaining 12 were also launched by India in the PSLV-C34 mission. The images obtained by Flock-3p will be used for commercial, humanitarian and environmental purposes. The satellites will be put into a Sun Synchronous Orbit, at an altitude of 500 km.
List of Satellites Launched by ISRO
PEASS
Source: www. tnomediaprod.blob.core.windows.net.com
It is Piezo Electric Assisted Smart Satellite Structure which is 3 kg technology demonstration nanosatellite from the Netherland. It will test and qualify cutting edge “smart structures”, which will combine composite panels, piezoelectric materials and next generation sensors. It is built by European consortium of Partners, lead by Dutch research institute TNO and owned by Innovative Solutions in Space. It will also get 88 satellites on the PSLV and will act as an intermediary between Planet Labs and Antrix.
BGUsat
It is a nanosatellite from Israel and weighs up to 4.3 kg. It was built by Israeli Aerospace Industries in cooperation with students from the Ben Gurion University. It is based on CubeSat architecture and on board they are camera, a space GPS and an optical communication system.
Al-Farabi-1
It is a nanosatellite from Kazakhstan and weighs up to 1.7 kg. It is the first student satellite from Kazakhstan, built by Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. It has a payload of 3MP sensor and there are solar panels on all the sides of the satellite. It is based on CubeSat standard and will take measurements of atmospheric radiation.
Nayif-1
It is a technology demonstration nanosatellite from United Arab Emirates (UAE) and weighs up to 1.1 kg. It is built by Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai and American University of Sharjah (AUS). It is the smallest and lightest passenger on board. It is also based on CubeSat standard and will collect a large amount of environmental space data.
Launch Fleets of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at a Glance