Mumbai: India plans to power some parts of
the Chandrayaan II--its next unmanned mission to the moon--
with nuclear energy and the feasibility studies are being
carried out by Indian Space Research Organisation and Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre.
"We are thinking of powering some parts of Chandrayaan
II with nuclear power and it will power the spacecraft when
it revolves aroung the dark side of the moon," Madhavan Nair,
Chairman, ISRO, told media here today before accepting the
degree of Doctorate of Science conferred on him at the 47th
Convocation of IIT-Mumbai.
He said both ISRO and BARC are carrying out the
feasibility studies on this, which will be useful for carrying
out further experiments to use N-power for Chandrayaan II, he
said.
Asked how safe it is to use nuclear power in the
mission, he said "the safety aspects are being worked and
safety is crucial when it is launched from ground level to
the orbit."
"To work out the safety, we have to work on new
technologies and the feasibility studies will help in
developing those," Nair said.
On using N-power in the deep space probe, he said
"We need nuclear power in those missions which are outside out
solar systems but the challenges are very many."
Asked whether laws relating to use of space will allow
use of N-power, he said "we have to take utmost care in
launching from to ground to the orbit and this aspect we will
work out in future."
On India's plans to launch GSAT-10 and GSAT-11 to
boost the GPS-based navigation which was approved by the
union cabinet yesterday, Nair said there was an urgent need to
expand the KU band and C-band for users in the country as all
our 210 transponders are fully utilised.
So, both GSAT-10 (Ku Band and C-band) and GSAT-11 (Ku
band) are expectd to be launched within two years, he added.
India''s plans to have a GPS-based navigation system
got a shot in the arm with the government approving
development of a communications satellite for the purpose.
A meeting of the union cabinet, chaired by Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, approved undertaking the design and
development of GSAT-10 spacecraft at a cost of Rs 735 crore.
On July 24, the Union Cabinet had approved undertaking
design and development of GSAT-11 communication satellite at a
total cost of Rs. 500 crores.
G-10, a 3.3 tonne satellite, one of the heavier
spacecrafts to be developed by ISRO, will replace INSAT 2E and
INSAT-3B, an official release said. The GSAT-10
satellite will have 12 high power Ku-band transponders, 12
C-band and 12 extended C-band India coverage transponders
which would create additional capacity for Direct-to-Home
like operations.
The satellite will also have a navigation payload
that would provide on-orbit back up for the GPS Aided Geo
Augmented Navigation (GAGAN), a system to support all phases
of flight over Indian airspace and adjoining areas. The
spacecraft is configured with two-sided solar array panels to
generate around 6 KW of DC power.
GSAT-10 will replace INSAT 2E and INSAT 3B which were
launched in April 1999 and May 2000 respectively.
The GSAT-11 is an advanced communication satellite,
designed for a lift-off mass of about 4,500 kg with a dry mass
of 2100 kg and will be a high capacity multi-beam
Ku/Ka-band spacecraft.
The launch of GSAT-11 will augment the Ku-band capacity
considerably for telecommunication services in the country.
With 16 beams in Ku-band and frequency reuse factor of
4, it can provide 10 GHz effective bandwidth equivalent to
about 220 transponders of 36 MHz.
GSAT-11 employs a new 1-4K Bus. This craft is
configured with two sided large solar array panels generating
around 11 KW of DC power.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, August 07, 2009, 23:44