Can I launch my own satellite in 20 years’ time? ‘Yes I can’, is the phrase that comes to my mind.
The technology is growing at a rapid pace and every year it progresses further. The Internet, for example, came into wide usage only after 1990. Today we cannot imagine our lives without it.
The satellite was first launched into orbit in 1957, now we are living in the age where 20+ satellites are being launched in a single mission. So, the saying ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ proves correct.
India is a country of around 1.25 billion people and all have high aspirations. ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has launched of record 20 satellites in a single mission on June 22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota. The launch mission is hailed as monumental accomplishment.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C34 carried all 20 satellites including India’s earth observation spacecraft Cartosat-2. They launched 19 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 560kg at lift-off into a 505km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). The total weight of all the 20 satellites carried on board PSLV-C34 was about 1,288 kg. The whole mission was over in around 25 minutes.
The co-passengers include satellites from the US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia as well as two satellites from Indian Universities. In a way, the launch marks the India-US friendship, and also with other countries.
The images sent by Cartosat-2 satellite will be useful for cartographic, urban, rural, coastal land use, water distribution and other applications.
On the other hand, the launch takes into orbit two academy community built satellites; the 1.5 kg Sathyabamasat from Sathyabama University to collect data on greenhouse gases while the 1 kg Swayam satellite from College of Engineering, Pune will provide point-to-point messaging services to the HAM radio community.
The mission also carried LAPAN A3 of Indonesia, BIROS of Germany, SKYSAT GEN 2-1 of US, MVV of Germany among the micro satellites.
It’s not the first time in history where multiple satellites were launched in a single mission. ISRO had earlier sent 10 satellites into orbit in a single mission in 2008. Russia currently holds a record of sending 34 satellites in a single mission with its DNEPR rocket launch in 2014 and USA Minotaur-1 rocket which sent 29 rockets in one launch in 2013. Perhaps India took this as an inspiration to compete against these nations.
India, is known for its low cost space satellite launching programme. A couple of months back India had successfully launched its first mini space shuttle as it joined the global race to make reusable rockets. The shuttle was developed on a budget of 1 billion rupees($14 million), a small fraction of the billions of dollars spent by other nations’ space programmes.
India’s unmanned rocket to orbit Mars was launched at a cost of $73 million compared to NASA Maven Mars mission with the $671 million price tag.
ISRO has launched 57 satellites in total for foreign vendors for about 20 countries, earning about $100 million in bargain.
India with this low cost space launch programme is ready to take on private billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who are already launching their space programmes. The global companies like Google are already ISRO’s customers and has launched the earth imaging satellite recently.
What goes behind such a complex launch? It’s the ‘trick of the trade’ and tiny manoeuvre at the last stage ensures clean separation of these satellites.
My purpose of launching a satellite is yet to be determined but one thing that I don’t have to worry about is how I launch my own satellite economically!