Day 34 – Q 1.Highlight the achievements of ISRO in the area of indigenisation of technology.

1. Highlight the achievements of ISRO in the area of indigenisation of technology. 

प्रौद्योगिकी के स्वदेशीकरण के क्षेत्र में इसरो की उपलब्धियों पर प्रकाश डालिए।

Introduction:

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was established in 1969. Since its beginning, ISRO has created a niche for itself in the space technology world through continuous low-cost innovations.

Body

Indigenization of Space systems:

India has made remarkable strides achieving 98 per cent indigenisation in launch vehicle technology and 60-70 per cent in satellite technology

ISRO is making desperate attempts to indigenizing current space technology. It is developing its own rockets, cryogenic engines, navigation, spy and communication satellites. 

Some of Achievements are: 

CHANDRAYAAN-2:

• Chandrayaan2 is a fully indigenous mission, which aims to place a robotic rover on the moon, is India’s most complex and most ambitious. For the first time, it will shed light on a completely unexplored region of the Moon – its Southern Polar region. 

GAGANYAAN :

ISRO has successfully demonstrated some of the technologies required for the
mission such as:

• Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-2007),
• Crew module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE-2014),
• GSLV Mk-III (2014), 
• Reusable Launch Vehicle- Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD),
• Crew Escape System 
• Pad Abort Test (2018) and 
• unveiled a space capsule (crew module) and Space suit prototype

IRNSS:

• India’s own regional navigation satellite system named as “Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC)” is established by ISRO 
• The potential of this indigenous system is being demonstrated in various application sectors viz. vehicle tracking system, mobiles, timing & power synchronization, fisheries, surveying etc. For example, all commercial vehicles registered from 1stApril 2019 onwards are mandated to have vehicle trackers, which are also NavIC-enabled.

GAGAN:

• The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) have implemented the GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation-GAGAN project as a Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) for the Indian Airspace. The objective of GAGAN to establish, deploy and certify satellite based augmentation system for safety-of-life civil aviation applications in India has been successfully completed.

MANGALYAAN:

• It is India’s first interplanetary mission and made ISRO the fourth space agency to reach Mars, It made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first nation in the world to do so in its maiden attempt. most of the systems were indigenous.

 HysIS:

• It is the country’s first hyperspectral imaging satellite for advanced Earth observation. HysiS is a state-of-the-art satellite with many indigenous components developed by SAC.
• The primary goal of HysIS is to study the Earth’s surface in visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

LAUNCHERS:

• Launch Vehicles are used to carry spacecraft to space. India has two operational launchers: Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

ENGINES:

• ISRO is also planning to use scramjet engine for minimizing rocket size (40-50 per cent) and save fuel (up to 70 per cent). Furthermore, ISRO has developed RLV-TD a reusable launch vehicle to make space program cheaper and perform advanced space research.
• GSLV Mark III – developed by ISRO with its own cryogenic engine. The launch vehicle is capable of carrying 4 ton satellites into the geosynchronous transfer orbits.

DEFENCE:

• Communication is key to any sort of defence establishment. By developing India’s capability in GSLV launching system, India is now inching closer to launching its own communication satellites which will serve a critical role and purpose in times of strategic need.

In all, India now has complete autonomous capability in space technology- propellant manufacture, satellite manufacture, launch capability up to 4ton satellite and so on. Also, the costing is very competitive compared to foreign launches which costed much more, thereby saving India’s foreign reserve too

Conclusion:

The success of ISRO is testament to India’s capability in frugal engineering and finding solutions with severe resource constraints and international non-cooperation. Future missions like Aditya-L1, Gaganyaan etc. will help India enhance its global image even further.