ISRO - A prominent organization in the space market?
ISRO - Achievements & it's upcoming missions
Introduction:
Space studies, and research on the outer space has always intrigued man. Mankind has a thirst to know what is beyond the earth’s atmosphere. Thus, every nation has set up its own space agencies and research centres. They are numerous of them, but only few are the ones who are of high quality, do extreme research, are technologically advanced and are well known around the world. One among them is India's own national space agency, ISRO. And in this article, we shall see about ISRO.
Short Description:
The Indian Space Research Organisation, (ISRO), is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS), which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India.
History:
ISRO was formed in 1969, with a vision to develop and harness space technology in national development, while pursuing planetary exploration and space science research.
Achievements of ISRO:
ISRO built India's first satellite, Aryabhata, which was launched by the Soviet Union, on 19 April 1975. In 1980, ISRO launched the satellite RS-1 onboard its own SLV-3 (Satellite Launch Vehicle),making India the sixth country to be capable of undertaking orbital launches. The development of two rockets has taken place by ISRO, which are the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, which was world's first probe to verify the presence of water on the Moon, and Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013, which was first Asian spacecraft to enter Martian orbit, and India being first country to do so in maiden attempt.
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), was completed at a record low cost of $74 million. In comparison, the NASA's Perseverance spacecraft itself costs $2.2 billion, while launch services for the Atlas V rocket came to $243 million. The Indian Space Research Organisation has, since 1975, launched a total of 129 satellites of Indian origin, and 342 foreign satellites of 36 countries, of which 39 satellites are commercial satellites and the rest are nano satellites.
Upcoming missions:
ISRO is working towards an orbital crewed spacecraft that can carry up to three people and can operate for seven days in a low Earth orbit. The spacecraft, called Gaganyaan, will be the basis of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. ISRO's plan to study the Sun, Aditya L1, will be launched in 2023. The Chandrayaan - 3, is a planned third lunar exploration mission by ISRO, that is expected to launch in June , 2023. The Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM 2), is India's second interplanetary mission to reach Mars.
Shukrayaan-1 is a planned orbiter to Venus to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus. India plans to build a space station, as a follow-up programme of the Gaganyaan mission. ISRO will build a 20-tonne space station on its own, which is expected to be placed in a low Earth orbit, at 400-kilometres (250 miles) altitude, and be capable of harbouring three humans for 15 to 20 days. There have been two reusable launcher projects ongoing at ISRO, and is working on replacing conventional chemical propulsion with hall effect and plasma thrusters. GSAT-4 was first Indian spacecraft to carry electric thrusters but failed to reach orbit. GSAT-9 launched later in 2017, have xenon-based electric propulsion system for in-orbit functions of the spacecraft. GSAT-20 is expected to be first fully electric satellite from India.
Conclusion:
There is no doubt that ISRO is a successful space agency that is capable of space launches at a low cost. Furthermore, it has boosted the reputation of India in the world as a nation of scientific thought and development. Hopefully, ISRO will continue on its noble mission of space and technological exploration in the future.
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