The countdown for ISRO’s (Indian Area reserach Organisation) GSLV F12/NVS-01 launch mission commenced at 7:12 am Sunday, forward of the lift-off that’s scheduled for 10:42 am Monday, WION has learnt. The countdown is the ultimate part previous to launch the place the launch automobile’s liquid and cryogenic fuels are stuffed and the ultimate well being checks of essential programs are carried out.
The GSLV rocket that stands tall on the second launchpad on the Satish Dhawan Area Centre, Sriharikota, is supposed to position a 2,332 kg navigation satellite tv for pc NVS-01 right into a Geosynchronous Switch Orbit (GTO). The GTO is a short lived parking orbit, into which the satellite tv for pc will likely be hurled by the rocket. There on, the satellite tv for pc will independently use its onboard propulsion programs to carry out orbit-raising maneuvres and attain its supposed orbit.
This would be the Indian area company ISRO’s fourth launch mission of the calendar yr 2023. Up to now in 2023, ISRO has launched its smallest rocket SSLV, the most-flown workhorse rocket PSLV and the heaviest rocket LVM3. Monday’s launch will add the GSLV to the record — marking the launch of all 4 operational automobiles of ISRO in a brief span of 4 months.
NVS-01 is the primary within the collection of second-generation navigation satellites constructed by ISRO’s UR Rao Satellite tv for pc Centre in Bengaluru. At current, India makes use of its Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) collection of satellites for civilian and defence navigation, positioning, and timing providers within the Indian mainland and even 1500 km past India’s borders.
“NVS collection of satellites will maintain and increase the NavIC with enhanced options. This collection incorporates L1 band indicators moreover to widen the providers. For the primary time, an indigenous atomic clock will likely be flown in NVS-01,” ISRO stated.
Atomic clocks are extremely exact timekeeping devices which are positioned inside satellites. They provide measurements of time which are exact right down to a billionth of a second (nanosecond). Such precision is essential as a result of they assist in providing correct positioning providers.
Whereas utilizing satellite-based positioning and navigation providers, our place (of the GPS receiver) is decided regarding its distance from a number of satellites. When such a calculation occurs, the space worth is obtained by multiplying the time (taken for sign to journey) and the velocity of the sign (nearly just like the velocity of sunshine). In such instances, (when giant values are being multiplied) even a variation of a billionth of a second can result in an inaccurate distance worth (by a couple of metrrs or tens of metres). Therefore it’s essential to have atomic clocks that may work for a number of years with out even nanosecond-level errors in timekeeping.
Earlier, the NavIC collection of satellites have been often called IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite tv for pc System). It offers two sorts of providers — Normal Positioning Service (SPS) which is supplied to all of the customers and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service supplied solely to the authorised customers. In line with ISRO, a few of the functions of the IRNSS/NavIC system are terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, catastrophe administration, automobile monitoring and fleet administration and exact timing. In line with ISRO, NavIC SPS indicators are interoperable with different international navigation satellite tv for pc system (GNSS) indicators equivalent to – GPS, Glonass, Galileo, and BeiDou.
ISRO’s present collection of eight NavIC satellites have been positioned in orbit in a phased method between the years 2013 and 2018 utilizing PSLV rockets. All satellites within the first-generation NavIC collection weighed 1,425 kg and carried foreign-origin atomic clocks. All IRNSS/NavIC collection satellites carried two sorts of payloads – navigation payload and ranging payload.
The navigation payload transmits indicators for the dedication of place, velocity and time. Rubidium atomic clocks are a part of the navigation payload of the satellite tv for pc. The ranging payload of those satellites consists of a C-band transponder which facilitates correct dedication of the vary of the satellite tv for pc.