The consulate called it “a true symbol of US-India civil space cooperation,” and it is ISRO Got satellite now.
While ISRO is yet to issue an official statement on the matter, it had earlier said that Nisar, a low Earth orbiter (Leo) jointly developed by NASA and Isro, the observatory will be launched from Indian soil in the first quarter of 2024, and its science operations will begin 90 days after reaching the designated orbit.
The Integrated Radar Instrument Structure (IRIS) and the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payloads mounted on the spacecraft are collectively called the observatory.
As reported earlier by TOI, the observatory will map the entire Earth in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data to understand Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, groundwater and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis. Volcanoes and landslides.
“It will carry L and S dual band SAR — the first dual frequency radar imaging mission of L-band and S-band using an advanced sweep SAR technique to provide L&S band space-borne SAR data with high repeat cycle, high resolution. , and larger swath,” according to ISRO.
The satellite will not only meet US and Indian national needs but also provide information to the science community by encouraging studies related to surface deformation measurement through repeat-pass InSAR technique, ISRO added.
NASA was responsible for providing the L-band SAR payload system while ISRO provided the S-band SAR payload and both these systems would use a large size (about 12m diameter) common unfurlable reflector antenna.
In addition, NASA will provide the engineering payload for the mission, including a payload data subsystem, high-rate science downlink system, GPS receiver and a solid state recorder. ISRO is responsible for providing services related to S-SAR data handling system, high-rate downlink system, spacecraft bus system, GSLV launch system and mission operations.
The observatory consists of a 12 m wide deployable mesh reflector mounted on a deployable 9 m boom developed by JPL that will use both L-Band and S-Band SAR payload systems.
“IRIS hosts the S-SAR and L-SAR tiles with their electronics and data handling systems. The spacecraft includes all attitude (orientation) and orbit control components, power systems, thermal management systems,” ISRO added.
