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Material for ISRO Elite Stage 2

The ISRO Elite Study Material by Vidyakunj International School is a specialized educational resource designed to spark curiosity and build a strong foundation in space science for students. Developed in alignment with the school's collaboration with ISRO-affiliated partners, this material provides comprehensive insights into satellite technology, rocketry, and landmark space missions.

🛰️ The NISAR Mission: NISAR - NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Mission

Types of Satellites launched by ISRO

Launch missions & Satellites launched by ISRO

List of Foreign satellites launched by ISRO

Details of Co passenger Satellites

Space based Earth Observation Applications

Telescopes

How Do Telescopes Work?

Lenses

Why Mirrors Work Better

🛰️ The NISAR Mission: NISAR - NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Mission

NISAR is the first of its kind mission, jointly developed by ISRO and NASA for microwave imaging purpose globally. It carries an L-band and S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), with capability to acquire fully polarimetric and interferometric data.

The unique dual-band SAR employs advanced, novel SweepSAR technique, which provides high resolution and large swath imagery. NISAR will image the global land and ice-covered surfaces, including islands, sea-ice and selected oceans every 12 days.

NISAR mission's primary objectives are to study land & ice deformation, land ecosystems, and oceanic regions in areas of common interest to the US and Indian science communities.

NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) is a landmark collaboration between India and the USA.

Primary Purpose: A microwave imaging mission designed to observe global land and ice-covered surfaces.
Imaging Frequency: It will capture data every 12 days.
Technology: It features a dual-band (L-band and S-band) SAR using the novel SweepSAR technique for high-resolution imagery.
Objectives: Studying land/ice deformation, ecosystems, and oceanic regions of mutual interest to both nations.

GSLV-F16 I NISAR

GSLV-F16 is the 18th flight of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and the 12th flight with Indigenous Cryogenic stage. This is the 9th operational flight of GSLV with indigenous Cryogenic stage. The Payload Fairing in GSLV-F16/NISAR Mission is 4 m dia Ogive configuration.
GSLV-F16 Mission is the first mission with GSLV to Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit.
The GSLV-F16 with indigenous Cryogenic stage will place NISAR satellite into a Sun-Synchronous Polar Orbit. Launch is planned from the Second Launch Pad (SLP) at Satish Dhawan Space Centre,SHAR.

Types of Satellites launched by ISRO

Student Satellites

ISRO's Student Satellite programme is envisaged to encourage various Universities and Institutions for the development of Nano/Pico Satellites.

Small Satellites

Sub 500 kg class satellites - a platform for stand-alone payloads for earth imaging and science missions within a quick turn around time.

Experimental Satellites

A host of small satellites mainly for the experimental purposes. These experiments include Remote Sensing, Atmospheric Studies, Payload Development, Orbit Controls, recovery technology etc ..

Navigation Satellites

Satellites for navigation services to meet the emerging demands of the Civil Aviation requirements and to meet the user requirements of the positioning, navigation and timing based on the independent satellite navigation system.

Communication Satellites

Supports telecommunication, television broadcasting, satellite news gathering, societal applications, weather forecasting, disaster warning and Search and Rescue operation services.

Earth Observation Satellites

The largest civilian remote sensing satellite constellation in the world - thematic series of satellites supporting multitude of applications in the areas of land and water resources; cartography; and ocean & atmosphere

Scientific Spacecraft

Spacecraft for research in areas like astronomy, astrophysics, planetary and earth sciences, atmospheric sciences and theoretical physics.

In order to fulfill vision and service goals, the Department of space has been developing mainly the satellites for communication, earth observation, scientific, navigation and meteorological purposes.

Launch missions & Satellites launched by ISRO

Source: https://www.isro.gov.in/Indian_private_players.html

List of Foreign satellites launched by ISRO

Source: https://www.isro.gov.in/ForeignSatellites.html

Details of Co passenger Satellites

Space based Earth Observation Applications

ISRO provides satellite services required for weather forecasting, monitoring etc. It provide satellite imagery required for the developmental and security needs of the country. Further, it provides satellite imagery and specific products and services required for application of space science and technology for developmental purposes to the Central Government, State Governments, Quasi Governmental Organisations, NGOs and the private sector.

The data obtained from earth observation satellites is utilized for various applications on ground including agriculture, forestry, mining, water management, rural and urban development et cetera. The data is processed for a specific application by ISRO experts or those trained by ISRO working in various departments. It can be obtained by individuals or government or private agencies. Some data is made available freely while the remaining is on payment basis.

All these applications are made available through Bhuvan and Bhoonidhi portals. Bhuvan portal displays the projects that have been conducted so far. Most of them are done in collaboration with other government departments or state government or local authorities

For making complete use of the Bhuvan portal, users are suggested to use these resources. The Earth Observation Satellite Data can be procured at Bhoonidhi portal.The data available in Bhuvan portal can be categorized as thematic, sectoral, disaster management support and government associated projects.

Thematic
DIsaster Management Support System
Governance Applications
Overview
Bhoonidhi

Source

Telescopes

How Do Telescopes Work?

Early telescopes focused light using pieces of curved, clear glass, called lenses. However, most telescopes today use curved mirrors to gather light from the night sky. The shape of the mirror or lens in a telescope concentrates light. That light is what we see when we look into a telescope.

A telescope is a tool that astronomers use to see faraway objects. Most telescopes, and all large telescopes, work by using curved mirrors to gather and focus light from the night sky.

The first telescopes focused light by using pieces of curved, clear glass, called lenses. So why do we use mirrors today? Because mirrors are lighter, and they are easier than lenses to make perfectly smooth.

The mirrors or lenses in a telescope are called the "optics." Really powerful telescopes can see very dim things and things that are really far away. To do that, the optics-be they mirrors or lenses-have to be really big.

The bigger the mirrors or lenses, the more light the telescope can gather. Light is then concentrated by the shape of the optics. That light is what we see when we look into the telescope.

The optics of a telescope must be almost perfect. That means the mirrors and lenses have to be just the right shape to concentrate the light. They can't have any spots, scratches or other flaws. If they do have such problems, the image gets warped or blurry and is difficult to see. It's hard to make a perfect mirror, but it's even harder to make a perfect lens.

Lenses

A telescope made with lenses is called a refracting telescope. A lens, just like in eyeglasses, bends light passing through it. In eyeglasses, this makes things less blurry. In a telescope, it makes faraway things seem closer.

Why Mirrors Work Better

A telescope that uses mirrors is called a reflecting telescope. Unlike a lens, a mirror can be very thin. A bigger mirror does not also have to be thicker. Light is concentrated by bouncing off of the mirror. So the mirror just has to have the right curved shape. It is much easier to make a large, near-perfect mirror than to make a large, near-perfect lens. Also, since mirrors are one-sided, they are easier than lenses to clean and polish. But mirrors have their own problems. Have you ever looked into a spoon and noticed your reflection is upside down? The curved mirror in a telescope is like a spoon: It flips the image. Luckily, the solution is simple. We just use other mirrors to flip it back.

The number-one benefit of using mirrors is that they're not heavy. Since they are much lighter than lenses, mirrors are a lot easier to launch into space.

A simple reflecting telescope uses mirrors to help us see faraway objects. Credit: NASAIJPL-Caltech

Space telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope have allowed us to capture views of galaxies and nebulas far away from our own solar system. Set to launch in December 2021, the James Webb SP-ace TelescoP-e is the largest, most powerful space telescope ever built. It will allow scientists to look at what our universe was like about 200 million years after the Big Bang.

This image of the Crab Nebula was created with information from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and the Very Large Array. Credit: NASA, ESA, NRAO/AUI/NSF and G. Dubner (University of Buenos Aires)

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