Space hub coming up near Bangalore

Space hub coming up near Bangalore

Hindustan Times

A SPACE hub in the midst of craggy terrain and a rustic precinct would seem unusual, but that is exactly what Indian scientists are setting up on a 100-acre campus outside this village, 40 km from Bangalore.

Gigantic dishes and an array of gadgets will come up here at the Rs 100 crore Deep Space Network (DSN) and the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC), which will be the nucleus of Indian space exploration missions beginning next year.

The facility would support Chandrayaan I, the orbiter to the Moon, and ASTROSAT, a unique space telescope designed to scout for galactic clusters, new stars beyond the Milky Way and a variety of cosmological phenomenon. The first two of these exploration missions will be launched in 2008 and data beamed by these two spacecraft would be received and analysed at this centre.

In short, it would be an important facility for Indian space and astrophysical research and promote international cooperation in space explorations, including planetary and extra solar systems, G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said.

ISRO officials said the DSN would house two massive, fully steerable dish antennas for communication with these spacecraft. The DSN antennas would also be employed for observations of bodies in the Solar System and for radioastronomy observations of the Universe. For instance, the DSN provides scientists with data about changes in a radio signal as a spacecraft passes through a planet's atmosphere. Scientists interpret such data to better understand planetary atmosphere.

The DSN would be tuned in to an international network of such centres to support international missions as well. The US and Russia already have similar facilities to link up with space probes. The US space agency Nasa has set up DSN facilities at Barstow in California, Madrid and Canberra - a combination of locations that permits constant observation of spacecraft as the Earth rotates, and helps to make DSN the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world. Each location has eight to 14hour contact with spacecrafts.

Speaking about Chandrayaan I, Nair said, "The design of the spacecraft has already been completed and fabrication and testing processes are progressing. The instruments from Nasa, the European Space Agency and Bulgaria are expected to arrive between August and October. We expect the launch to take place in the first half of 2008." Space hub coming up near Bangalore