Insat-ID satellite to improve vital communication links

India's space programme, despite the occasional breakthrough, has largely been governed by Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Satellite launch vehicles have crashed into the sea seconds after take-off; solar arrays have refused to open up; one satellite has even been knocked out by a swinging crane - often it has seemed that nothing could go right.Insat-1O at launch: Success at lastClick here to EnlargeSo at the launch of the Rs 134-crore Insat-ID satellite from Cape Canaveral in the US, it was only natural that space scientists at the control centre in Hassan in Karnataka kept their fingers crossed. And kept them that way for 10 days, until Insat-1D was put into its final parking slot, in a geostationary orbit, which means it remains fixed with respect to a point on the earth.It wasn't just national pride that motivated the anxiety. In fact, there wasn't so much to be proud of - the satellite was built by Ford Aerospace and put into orbit using a Delta rocket of the McDonnel Douglas Corporation. If scientists were so eager that the launch and subsequent manoeuvres in space go off well, it was because Insat-ID will fulfil a vital function, replacing Insat-1B, which was deployed in 1983 and has already outlived its scheduled seven-year life-span.Insat-1B's sudden death could have disrupted telecommunications and drastically reduced the area covered by television. For television viewers, the first sign of its demise would have been the absence of the satellite picture in the daily weather reports.Now, barring an unforeseen calamity, those problems will at least be alleviated. Insat-ID has an extra C-band transponder - 13 compared with 12 in the first three satellites. So it will not only take over Insat-IB's functions, it will handle more.For instance, it will enable Karnataka and Orissa to have regional TV networks like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra instead of making do with programmes beamed from Delhi for two hours every evening. For All India Radio, the successful launch means it can use four more networking centres for its external services. The satellite will also permit the extension of the disaster warning systems in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to Orissa, West Bengal and Gujarat.Still, Insat-1D will meet only a part of the country's telecommunication needs. Several organisations that are setting up national computer networks - the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, the National Information Centre, the National Thermal Power Corporation, Tata Chemicals, the Gas Authority of India Ltd and Nuclear Power Corporation - need to use Insat's capabilities. Says an official of the Department of Telecommunications, which leases the circuits: "There is a scramble for communication circuits. We need two satellites up there all the time to meet users' demands." .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}In fact, the original plan of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at the start of the Insat-1 series was to always have a spare satellite in space to provide telecommunication links throughout the country. But, plagued by glitches, the space programme never managed to nave two satellites in space at any given time. And since one satellite could provide only 4,000-odd two-way circuits, the country had to rely on microwave, coaxial and fibre-optic telecommunication links. In recent months, it even had to hire channels from Arabsal and other satellites.But the services of foreign satellites come costly - Arabsat's 12 transponders were hired at the rate of $800,000 per transponder per year. Says ISRO Chairman U.R. Rao: "There is no doubt that Insat provides the cheapest mode of communication in India today.The Arabsat lease ends in September next year. After that the option is between again hiring the services of foreign satellites and using homemade satellites. But the first of the next satellite series - Insat-II - will take another two years before it is ready for launch. Though it is an experimental satellite, ISRO plans to use it for commercial services. All five satellites in the series are to have twice the capacity of the Insat-1 satellites and if all goes well, the last will be launched before the end of the century. But that part of the ambitious programme is still very much in the air.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jul 15, 1990--- ENDS ---

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Insat-ID satellite to improve vital communication links

The satellite will improve vital communication links.

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