New Delhi: World’s most expensive satellite NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture payload Radar (Nissar) arrived in India on Wednesday after a US Air Force C-17 aircraft landed in Bangalore from California (from NASA’s JPL). The SUV-sized payload’s 14,000-km final journey marks an important milestone in US-India relations in space cooperation.
“Touchdown in Bangalore! @ISRO receives NISAR (@NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) on @USAirforce C-17 from @NASAJPL in California, setting the stage for final integration of Earth observation satellites, a true symbol of #USIndia civil space cooperation,” tweeted US Consulate General in Chennai.
After receiving the payload, ISRO “The integrated payload has been shifted to UR Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru for further testing and assembly with ISRO’s satellite bus,” it said on Wednesday. NISAR is expected to be launched into a near polar orbit from Sriharikota in January next year and will operate for at least three years. The low-Earth orbit satellite will map the entire Earth every 12 days.
The estimated $1.5 billion NISAR project, “will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces and ice sheet collapse, provide information on biodiversity, sea level rise, groundwater and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides”.
NISAR will be the first radar in space to systematically map the Earth, using two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in the Earth’s surface of less than one centimeter. Under the terms of the 2014 contract, NASA is providing the mission’s L-band SAR, a high-rate telecommunications subsystem for the scientific data GPS receiver, a solid-state recorder and a payload data subsystem. On the other hand, ISRO is providing the satellite bus, an S-band SAR, launch vehicle (GSLV Mk II) and associated launch services.
The NISAR project was envisioned eight years ago by NASA and ISRO as a powerful demonstration of radar’s capabilities as a science tool to help study Earth’s dynamic land and ice surfaces.
Data collected from NISAR will also reveal information about the evolution and condition of Earth’s crust, help scientists better understand the planet’s natural processes and changing climate, and help future resource and natural hazard management. NISAR data will also be used to improve agricultural management and food security by providing information on crop growth, soil moisture and land-use change.
“Touchdown in Bangalore! @ISRO receives NISAR (@NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) on @USAirforce C-17 from @NASAJPL in California, setting the stage for final integration of Earth observation satellites, a true symbol of #USIndia civil space cooperation,” tweeted US Consulate General in Chennai.
After receiving the payload, ISRO “The integrated payload has been shifted to UR Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru for further testing and assembly with ISRO’s satellite bus,” it said on Wednesday. NISAR is expected to be launched into a near polar orbit from Sriharikota in January next year and will operate for at least three years. The low-Earth orbit satellite will map the entire Earth every 12 days.
The estimated $1.5 billion NISAR project, “will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces and ice sheet collapse, provide information on biodiversity, sea level rise, groundwater and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides”.
NISAR will be the first radar in space to systematically map the Earth, using two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in the Earth’s surface of less than one centimeter. Under the terms of the 2014 contract, NASA is providing the mission’s L-band SAR, a high-rate telecommunications subsystem for the scientific data GPS receiver, a solid-state recorder and a payload data subsystem. On the other hand, ISRO is providing the satellite bus, an S-band SAR, launch vehicle (GSLV Mk II) and associated launch services.
The NISAR project was envisioned eight years ago by NASA and ISRO as a powerful demonstration of radar’s capabilities as a science tool to help study Earth’s dynamic land and ice surfaces.
Data collected from NISAR will also reveal information about the evolution and condition of Earth’s crust, help scientists better understand the planet’s natural processes and changing climate, and help future resource and natural hazard management. NISAR data will also be used to improve agricultural management and food security by providing information on crop growth, soil moisture and land-use change.
