Dr Ajey Lele
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched seven satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) on July 30 2023. This PSLV-C56 mission was configured in its core-alone mode. The core alone mode for PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) indicates that the vehicle was without any strap-on motors. Such a version of PSLV is used when very less payload is carried during this mission. The main satellite DS-SAR is a 360 kg bird and other six satellites are very small with some in nano category. It is expected that the total weight carried could be less than 500 kg. This was the 58th flight of PSLV and 17th flight of PSLV in Core Alone configuration.
This was a dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) for ST Engineering, Singapore. The main payload, DS-SAR satellite, is a Radar Imaging Earth Observation satellite. The other six co-passenger customer satellites also belong to Singapore. All satellites were injected into a 535 km circular with 5 deg orbital inclination. In recent times, ISRO has increased its commercial activities significantly and this launch should be viewed as a part of this effort.
During March 2019, the Indian government established New Space India Limited (NSIL). This is a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the administrative control of the Department of Space (DoS). This organisation has been established for commercially exploiting the research and development (R & D) work of ISRO. Here the purpose is to commercially exploit the emerging global space market. The PSLV systems used for such commercial launches, have been built by Indian industry with technology assistance from ISRO.
Recently, on a commercial basis NSIL has successfully undertaken two missions for a UK-based Network Access Associated Limited (OneWeb). Total 72 satellites (36 per mission) with placed in LEO during missions launched on 23 Oct 2022 and 26 march 2023. These are broadband communication satellites. Initially, the contract for launching this mission was given to a Russian agency. However, owing to the ongoing Ukraine conflict, Russia has come under sanctions. NSIL smartly found an opportunity here and got the contracts and more importantly in a very short span of time executed them perfectly.
The satellites during this mission are an interesting mix of requirement specific and experimental satellites. Satellite DS-SAR is developed under a corporation between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering. This satellite would provide the satellite imagery and geospatial services to various agencies of the Singaporean government and commercial customers. The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, which allows day & night and all-weather imaging capability with a resolution of 1 meter, has been developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
A satellite called VELOX-AM, is a 23 kg technology demonstration microsatellite. Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore is the operator and contractor of this mission. This satellite is a part of NTU’s Undergraduate Satellite Program, to encourage engineering students for undertaking a multidisciplinary hands-on space project.
The Atmospheric Coupling and Dynamics Explorer (ARCADE) is a 27U microsatellite developed at the Satellite Research Centre at NTU School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. This is the fourth satellite (INSPIRESat-4) in the INSPIRE (International Satellite Program in Research and Education) satellite series. The ARCADE mission has contributions from institutions in Germany, Taiwan, India, and the US. The Indian agency involved is the Indian institute of Space Science and Technology. One of the unique features of this mission is to fly an electric propulsion system to progressively lower the altitude from an initial 530 km to 350 km to fly and image the Earth from Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). Singapore has ambitious plans to explore the VLEO region in future. This ARCADE mission provides an opportunity for studying the equatorial ionosphere at low altitude. There is much interest in studying the ionosphere since irregularities caused by the ionosphere have a major impact on GPS signal scintillation, propagation of electromagnetic waves and communication.
SCOOB-II, a 3U nanosatellite (size of a shoe box) flying a technology demonstrator payload developed at NTU. SCOOB-II is the second satellite built by students at NTU. The first satellite SCOOB-I was also launched by ISRO during July 2022. It is important to note that the performance of the Masters and PhD students involved in this project (SCOOB-II) would be judged based on the performance of this satellite. This spacecraft carried an attitude determination control system, which would allow the spacecraft to point at the sun and with the help of solar panels would generate about three times the power that was generated from SCOOB-I. This will allow SCOOB-II to run the power intensive customer payload.
NuLIoN by NuSpace is an advanced 3U nanosatellite enabling seamless IoT connectivity in both urban & remote locations. For NuSpace, this satellite is special being their first commercial satellite aimed at bridging the connectivity gap. NuSpace provides reliable regional coverage and data collection services to allow for anyone in Southeast Asia to use the satellite to monitor and observe data points that really matter to them. Additionally, it also serves as a payload testing bed in space, with different companies partnering with NuSpace to test their devices. This company has a vision for emerging as a small satellite service provider within Asia-Pacific.
Galassia 2 is a 3U Cubesat developed by undergraduate students at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Here, the main mission is to perform an inter-satellite link (ISL) with TeLEOS-1. Galassia-2 will demonstrate the capability of using Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) multispectral imagery for space applications. Interestingly, during December 2015, ISRO had undertaken almost a similar mission for Singapore. It was a PSLV-C29 mission, which had launched six satellites of Singapore into a 550 km circular orbit. During this mission TeLEOS-1 (weighing 400 kg) was the main payload which is a remote-sensing satellite. In the same mission Galassia, the first NUS Cubesat was also launched. Such university projects have many educational and scientific objectives.
ORB-12 STRIDER, is a 12U CubeSat built by OrbAstro (Orbital Astronautics) to test a propulsion system for a customer. This satellite has been developed under an international collaboration, coordinated by Singapore-based Aliena, including OrbAstro as bus providers, and Aurora Propulsion Technologies of Finland as subsystem co-developers. This satellite will demonstrate next generation propulsion systems catered specifically for small satellite constellations. This mission carries the world’s first Multi-modal all-Electric Propulsion Engine (MEPE), featuring Aliena’s flagship Multi-Stage Ignition Compact (MUSIC) Hall thruster and Aurora’s ARM resistojets. OrbAstro is also going to test some internally developed subsystems on the satellite, some of which are new and some are second or third generation.
This mission projects the competence of the newly constituted second commercial arm of ISRO called NSIL (the first being the Antrix Corporation Limited, established during 1992). For India is it important to look at this mission beyond the commercial outlook. Indian space startups are already doing some interesting projects, but there could be some new learnings, if they dig a bit deeper to understand how Singaporean agencies and universities have designed, developed, and are executing their space projects. Another sector could learn from this mission is the education sector. Since 2009, the ISRO has stimulated the minds of university students for designing satellites and India’s student community has already launched more than ten satellites. Now Indian universities need to invest in new projects, not merely for the purpose of demonstration. There is a need to push for more challenging projects. Also, there is an opportunity for Indian universities to collaborate with India’s private space industry and come out with new and innovative projects.
The author is a consultant, MP-IDSA, New Delhi.
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