Who is considered as the "founding father" of Indian Space Programme? |
Dr Vikram A Sarabhai is considered as the founding father of space programmes in India.
Top
|
Why was Thumba selected for being the rocket launching station ? |
The geomagnetic equator of the earth passes over Thumba.
Top
|
What was the name of the rocket station established at Thumba? |
Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS)
Top
|
When was the first rocket launched? What was the rocket? |
The first rocket, a Nike-Apache, procured from the US, was launched on November 21, 1963.
Top
|
What was the first name of the Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram? |
The space establishment was known as Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC).
Top
|
When was TERLS dedicated to the United Nations? |
TERLS was dedicated to the United Nations on February 2, 1968, by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Top
|
When was ISRO formed? |
ISRO was formed on August 15, 1969.
Top
|
When was Department of Space constituted? |
Department of Space (DOS) and the Space Commission were set up in 1972. ISRO was brought under DOS on June1, 1972.
Top
|
When did India begin developing her own rockets? |
India’s first indigenous sounding rocket, RH-75, was launched on November 20, 1967.
Top
|
What does the letter 'RH' and the numerals on an Indian sounding rocket signify? |
RH stands for 'Rohini' sounding rocket and the numeral indicate the diameter of the rocket.
Top
|
What is a sounding rocket? |
A sounding rocket is a rocket which is intended for assessing the physical parameters of the upper atmosphere.
Top
|
What are the other Indian Sounding rockets? |
Apart from RH-75, India has developed RH-100, RH-125, RH-200, RH-300, RH-300 Mk II, RH-560, RH-560 SV and Menaka.
Top
|
When was the Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC) renamed? |
SSTC was renamed as Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in 1972.
Top
|
Why is the Centre now called as VSSC? |
The Centre was renamed in honour of Dr Vikram Sarabahi who met with his untimely demise on December 30, 1971.
Top
|
What is the staff strength of VSSC? |
VSSC had a strength of 4126 in 2006-07.
Top
|
How many Centres are there for ISRO? |
There are five major Centres and several other Units, Agencies , Facilities and Laboratories.
Top
|
Where are the other Centres located? |
ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore; Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR; Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore and Mahendragiri and Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad.
Top
|
What specialized work of the organization is carried out in each Centre? |
Satellites are designed and developed at ISAC; Integration and launching of satellites and launch vehicles are carried out from SDSC; Development of liquid stages including cryogenic stage is carried out at LPSC and application aspects of the space technology is taken up at SAC, Ahmedabad.
Top
|
From where are the rockets launched? |
ISRO's Launch facility is located at SDSC SHAR from where Launch Vehicles and Sounding Rockets are launched. Sounding rockets are launched from TERLS at Thiruvananthapuram.
Top
|
Which is the first launch vehicle of India? |
Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3) is the first launch vehicle of India.
Top
|
When was it launched? |
The first successful launch of SLV-3 took place on July 18, 1980 from SDSC SHAR.
Top
|
What are the other launch vehicles developed by India? |
Apart from SLV-3, India developed Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
Top
|
Why does India still depend on other nations for launching its satellites? |
Though India has developed communication satellites weighing more than 2000 kg, India has not developed corresponding launch vehicles capable of launching such heavy satellites into Geostationery Transfer Object. . So India is depending on other agencies for launching.
Top
|
How satellites are broadly classified? |
Satellites are broadly classified into two, viz., Communication satellites and Remote sensing satellites.
Top
|
What is a communication satellite? |
A communication satellite usually operates from the Geosynchronous orbit catering to requirements in communication, television broadcasting, meteorology, disaster warning etc.
Top
|
What is a remote sensing satellite?
|
A remote sensing satellite is intended for resource monitoring and management and operates from a Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO).
Top
|
Which is the first Indian satellite?
|
Aryabhata is the first Indian satellite
Top
|
From where was it launched?
|
It was launched from Soviet Union on April 19, 1975.
Top
|
Which is the heaviest satellite launched by India from Indian soil?
|
EDUSAT-1 weighing 1950 kg and launched by GSLV-FOI on September 20, 2004 is the heaviest satellite launched from India.
Top
|
How many launches of launch vehicles were carried out so far?
|
23 launch vehicle missions were carried from India so far till April 2007
Top
|
How many satellites have been launched by India?
|
48 + 7 (foreign) satellites were put into orbit so far.
Top
|
Which is the first operational launch vehicle of India?
|
PSLV is the first operational launch vehicle of India. It had so far three developmental flights and eight operational flights.
Top
|
When was Department of Space constituted?
|
Department of Space (DOS) and the Space Commission were set up in 1972. ISRO was brought under DOS on June1, 1972.
Top
|
What is Chandrayaan-1?
|
Chandrayaan-1 is a scientific investigation – by spacecraft – of the Moon. The name Chandrayaan means “Chandra- Moon, Yaan-vehicle”, –in Indian languages (Sanskrit and Hindi) , – the lunar spacecraft. Chandrayaan-1 is the first Indian planetary science and exploration mission.
Top
|
How long Chandrayaan-1 was operational?
|
Chandrayaan-1 was operational for 312 days till August 28, 2009.
Top
|
What are Chandrayaan's scientific goals?
|
The Chandrayaan-1 mission is aimed at high-resolution Remote Sensing of the Lunar surface in visible, near Infrared, low energy X-rays and high-energy X-ray regions. Specific scientific goals are:
- To prepare a three-dimensional atlas (with a high spatial and altitude resolution of 5-10 m) of both near and far side of the moon.
- To conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for distribution of mineral and chemical elements such as Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Calcium, Iron and Titanium as well as high atomic number elements such as Radon, Uranium & Thorium with high spatial resolution.
- By simultaneous photo geological and chemical mapping, we will be able to identify different geological units, which will test the hypothesis for the origin and early evolutionary history of the moon and help in determining the nature of the lunar crust.
Top
|
What are the scientific instruments onboard Chandrayaan-1?
|
There are eleven scientific instruments onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Five of them are Indian and other six are from ESA (3), NASA (2) and Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1) selected through ISRO Announcement of Opportunity (AO). Two of the ESA instruments have Indian collaboration.
Top
|
What is the temperature on the moon?
|
The moon undergoes extremes in temperature - the side of the Moon receiving sunlight becomes scorching hot at about 130 ºC, and freezing cold at -180 ºC during night.
Top
|
Is there any Life on moon?
|
So far none of the lunar missions have detected any signature of presence of life on the Moon.
Top
|
Why do we see only one side of the Moon?
|
As the Moon orbits, it always presents the same side towards the Earth. This is so because Earth's gravity has slowed the Moon's rotation so that it just matches the time it takes to go around the Earth. So the Moon takes the same amount of time to revolve around the Earth as it takes to rotate around its spin axis.
Top
|
What is the total budget for realising Chandrayaan-1 mission?
|
The budgetary estimate for realising the proposed Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 stands at Rs. 386.00 crores (about $76 million). This includes Rs. 53.00 crores (about $11 million) for Payload development, Rs. 83.00 crores (about $17 million) for Spacecraft Bus, Rs. 100.00 crores ($20 million) towards establishment of Deep Space Network, Rs. 100.00 crores ($20 million) for PSLV launch vehicle and Rs. 50.00 crores ($10 million) for scientific data centre, external network support and programme management expenses.
Top
|
What is Antrix?
|
Antrix is the commercial wing of ISRO, a single window agency for marketing Indian space capabilities both products and services to the world.
Top
|