Astrosat satellite is a dedicated mission of ISRO on Astronomy. It is a mission to observe the celestial sources simultaneously in X-Ray, Optical and UV Spectral bands simultaneously. Astrosat satellite was launched from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The launch centre is named as Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) or Sriharikota Range (SHAR). The satellite was launched on September 28, 2015, using the launch vehicle Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-30. The satellite was placed into an orbit of 650 Km. The mission was planned for a period of 5 years.
This has put India in an exclusive club of countries which have multi wavelength space observatories.
Candidates would find this topic to be of importance while preparing for IAS Exam.
Where are the Control Centres of Astrosat Located?
Control of Astrosat is based out of different centres, which are given below.
- Primary Data Archive Centre of Astrosat – Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC), located at Bangalore.
- Ground Command and Control Centre for Astrosat – ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), located at Bangalore.
What is UVIT in Astrosat Payloads?
UVIT stands for Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope. It is the long-wavelength eye of the multi-wavelength satellite Astrosat. UVIT is configured as 2 Cassegrain-telescopes, one of the telescope’s images in FUV and other telescope images in NUV and VIS. It was developed in collaboration with various research institutions in India and Canada. The list of institutes and organisations involved in this project are given below.
- Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore.
- Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUAA), Pune.
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai
- Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
- CSA, Canada.
Which type of fuel is used in Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) in its operations?
GSLV launch vehicles are used to put heavier satellites (4 tons to 10 tons) in Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). To achieve this objective ISRO has successfully developed Cryogenic engines which will be used in GSLV launch vehicles. The fuel used in Cryogenic engines is the liquid fuel and liquid hydrogen. To keep the fuels in liquid form, extremely low temperatures must be achieved and maintained. It is a technological breakthrough since cryogenic engines have been developed by only a few countries in the world.
The above details would help candidates preparing for UPSC 2021.
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