India in Space - 2020

Dr. T. P. Sasikumar

Introduction

Indian Space Program has been thriving. The data and the details can be reviewed from the official sites[i] of ISRO as well as from unofficial sites[ii]. Thus, we shall not discuss those details here. The aim of the essay is to see what the Indian Space Program could do by 2020.

Bharadwaja’s Yentra Sarvaswa (Amsubhodhini) in AD-300; Sayana Bhashya for Rig Veda in AD-1300; Sishyadhi Vrudhithanthram in AD-784 etc. all deal with most scientific space related activities. Described in the old text are space scientists as ‘khedasastrajnan’ who have defined the vimana; which has been studied and experimented by Germans. The astronomical knowledge in India was superb. The facts and the history tell us that we were well advanced when other nations were under the forest with no developmental activities in hand.

Today we are look at the so-called the developed nations and have to decide what India is to do, not in the space activity alone but in all the other fields too. The idea is not to talk against the globalization and the information era. The reality remains that, as we are not trying to find and fit the technology for the need of the nation.

Indeed, we are happy to see that the place of Indian activity being placed at international level. When Indian data and the space being quoted by the other nations, we feel proud. In this, we have forgotten the natives’ requirements. We could neither win there (India is not among the best 20 space countries even with many RS satellites on space – source: News paper quote during July 2003 from the UN survey) nor could we justify the native applications.

The next 17 years our space goals need to be for the betterment of the country - a dedicated service to the nation. Closer interaction with the private and public industries and the governmental agencies to see the application of space reaches the large public.

Man Power

Indian space scientists are second to none. The source of development is indigenous. The activities are not being spread nationwide. The load and the demand on the individual scientists are high during the launching of the satellite. This activity is only at certain centers in the space department. The application and the user interaction departments have a leisured activity. The manpower needs to be given target specific activity and not R&D in the true sense. The real man power audit with the project and the application in hand need to be done and reoriented for the actual on the field application support with area wise demarcation and connections to the user agencies.

Succession

The first and the second-generation manpower of ISRO have a lot of gap. The prime power and the core idea group are those at the highest level. The spreading is very little in the case of responsibilities at the lower levels. The patch job and the piece-meal is the life at the lower level. The information hierarchy is strictly followed along with the administrative hierarchy in ISRO, which is not very good for the progress. The problem will be that the first generation people will vacate the chair from 2005 to 2010 and the gap is a problem for ISRO. The study on the impact this will have on the future needs to be seriously undertaken and a proper manpower planning with long-term strategy needs to be initiated.

Vehicle Technologies

The launch vehicle capability of ISRO is proved beyond doubt by the successive successes in these days. The design and the mathematical study of the avatar, the space plane with the liquid hydrogen fuel to reach into the space, indicate the vision of ISRO. Thus the reaching out to outer space and higher and higher is in the activity plans of ISRO and this will take us into more laurels.

Satellite Building

The communication satellite with more and more bandwidth and higher capabilities are not an issue. The large number of satellites for more transponder support is needed, as the communication is the order of the day. The Remote sensing satellite needs higher telescopic resolution. The mechanism to achieve higher imaging vistas with the available CCD array and the spectral filters need to be explored. The requirement of the users needs to be understood well before getting into the design. The experiments with the bacteriological and the ocean study group in the design and the assured usage of OceanSat and the MetSat need to be spread into other application areas too.

Industry Collaboration

The space in India is being supportive and also supported by the industries. There are many more areas where in including the research and development that can be invested into. The effort to study this need to be taken up. The collaboration is mainly in the satellite and vehicle building area, the effort for more application spreading and data distribution need to be carried out. The user support and the maintenance of the technology along with the technology transfer in the software field will take the internal ideas international.

ANTRIX

The activity in the international field after the ANTRIX has been increased. The national counterpart for the progress in the country need to be initiated.

RESPOND

The respond project need to be spread more into the higher research areas and the universities must be encouraged to handle more contribution into the application field as being done in many of the foreign countries. The design and building of the satellite could be the role of ISRO but inputs could even come from the universities. The education and the strength of universities towards this need to be developed. This could be done only when ISRO spreads its people and activity in tight collaboration with education sector.

Software Development in application area

Software development is needed for the applications. But in most of the applications areas the in-house software itself is not being used. The overall outcome is that the so-called software being developed in the application areas of space technology are not really being utilized. The developers are becoming experts in the applications with out really contributing.

The satellite data and the formats, resolution, application areas and the technology is changing by year after year and the scientists are go on experimenting with the international technologies. The standard of research is also not very high to get international publications (this could be surveyed and established if required).

R&D Vs. Production

Inside the department the discrimination is seen clearly when some one is not in the so-called-R&D. This is due to the fact that the applications are not seen as the mainstream activity of ISRO/DOS. It is high time to see that the close interaction with the user agencies the production could be taken up inside the department with some budgetary tie-up with the user agencies.

Moon Mission

The idea of proving the capabilities is good.  It is also a welcome objective to see the Indian flag on moon. However, greater clarity regarding the studies to be taken-up at moon is critical to judging the value of this mission. 

Role of Technologists

The telecommunication has the super strive in these years. But the fact is that the technologists of ISRO/DOS have not seen this opportunity. This is due to the fact that the intra-department interactions are lacking. It is required to see that the role of the technologists are given due share when the backbone is from the space technology.

The space department is happy when its satellite is put onto the orbit – regardless of whether the satellite is the communication or the remote sensing device. The communication satellite projects in its application demands and the direct involvement will bring in new requirements and understanding them will create window for the development of newer technologies for tomorrow.

In the data utilization awareness and marketing in the remote sensing front the Indian space have failed. The launch costs are 1000 times higher than the application handling. The common public has not still have a handle on the satellite data. It needs to be spread at least to the level of university students, for which free data for the students project etc. could be tried out. Today, to get satellite data for students to study is not very easy. The software for the processing and application project handling is not available to the common student community.

It is felt that the applications are to be dealt by the user agencies independently. This being the view of the space technologists, the money ear-marked for the application front is much less. The utilization of the data becomes the discretion of the user. Thus he goes for the purchase of the data available across the globe, even with higher cost. Thus the Indian data gets non-utilized. This is the situation in the remote sensing applications.

State of Art RS Data Sources

In the following table the state-of-the-art remote sensing satellite imagery details are listed (Ref : http://www.infoterra-global.com/satellite.htm ).

Optical Satellites

Radar Satellites

Indian Remote Sensing Data Provision

Many private companies abroad are now into the satellite data services sector. Space Imaging is one such leading agency in US.  Infoterra's Satellite Data Services is Europe's leading independent provider of satellite imagery. In India it is NRSA under the Department of Space who is responsible for the data distribution and support.

IRS-1D is the latest in the series of Indian commercial Remote Sensing high-resolution satellites. IRS-1D was launched on the 29th September 1997, and carries an identical payload to the IRS-1C satellite, launched on the 28th December 1995. Both satellites carry three sensors viz. Linear Imaging Self-scanning Sensor (LISS III); Panchromatic (PAN) and Wide Field Sensor (WiFS). The IRS satellites orbit at an altitude of 817Km. IRS PAN scene sizes are typically 70Km by 70Km (vertical viewing) and LISS scenes are 140Km by 140Km. PAN sub-scenes (23Km by 23Km) are also available. IRS PAN data is acquired over the visible green to near infrared portion of the spectrum, and has 5.8-meter spatial resolution. Until the IRS-1C PAN with 5.8-meter spatial resolution, with 64 gray levels; were commercially available SPOT PLA data with 10 meter, which has 256 gray levels; was the best.

International Vs. Indian (RS Applications as an example)

Selecting the most suitable data type for a particular application can be a daunting task for the novice, and occasionally for those who are more experienced in this subject. The Satellite Data Services team are able to advise you on the various imagery available, perform searches to check on data availability, guide you through the various options during the ordering process, use their close links with the data suppliers to ensure orders are expedited efficiently and quality check the data before supply. The various sources of satellite data sets are today from Landsat, SPOT, ASTER, IRS, EROS, IKONOS, Quickbird, Radarsat, ENVISAT, and ERS etc. The criteria for the selection of the satellite data are generally based on the Coverage, Vintage, Resolutions and Band Combinations. The spatial and spectral resolutions of various satellites are pictorially shown below. The applications of the images are highly dependent on these factors.

Ref: http://www.infoterra-global.com/satellite.htm

Remarks on data Usage

The selection of the datasets will depend on the budget apart from the other technical parametric specifications of the satellite data. The chart below gives a depiction of choices of the data sets internationally available against the given applications described earlier.