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Today we will be study about the space technology. Let's start and explore.

Space technology refers to technology that can be used for travel or activities beyond Earth’s atmosphere, such as space flight or space exploration. Exploring other planets, studying the universe, and providing communication and navigation services to support human activities are all possible with space technology. It includes everything from satellites and other instruments to astronautics, physics, chemistry, and biology, as well as the human aspects of space travel. Space technology encompasses the research and development of new technologies, as well as new applications for existing technologies and technological advancements for current space systems. Deep space communication, in-space propulsion, and a wide range of other technologies, such as support infrastructure equipment and procedures, are all examples of space technology.

<h2 id="content-id-0">History of space tech in India</h2>

India has become a significant global player in space science and technological (S&T) developments. India formally coordinated its various organisations related to space programmes in 1972 by constituting the space commission and the Development of Space (DOS). Both of these institutes direct and regulate India’s space programme.

Vikram Sarabhai—founder of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad—and Homi Bhabha, who established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1945 organised space research in India.

ISRO’s timeline of Space Programme from 1960s to 2022:

1960’s: Journey of the formation of ISRO

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			1962
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			Vikram Sarabhai, commonly regarded as the "Father of India's Space Program," and scientist Kalpathi Ramakrishna Ramanathan founded the Indian National Committee for Space Research.
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			1963
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			Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Kerala launched the first sounding rocket for probing upper atmospheric areas for space exploration. It was the first step in India's space programme.
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			1965
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			On January 1, 1965, the Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC) was founded at Thumba.
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			1967
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			Isro and Tata institute of Fundamental Research operated balloon launch at Hyderabad base.
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			1968
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			Ahmedabad, Gujarat, an experimental satellite communication earth station was set up.
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			1969
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			The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was established with the goal of utilising space technology for national development.
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1970s: Era of launching Satellites began

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			1971
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			In Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre was established.
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			1972
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			The Department of Space (DoS) was established and ISRO brought under it.
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			1975
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			The first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was launched into space on April 19th.It was a defining moment in India's space programme because it was designed entirely in India and launched from a Russian facility.
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			1979
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			Bhaskara-I, the first experimental remote-sensing satellite developed in India, was launched. The photos it sent are used in hydrological, forestry, and oceanographic research.
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1980s: Launch of Satellite launch Vehicle, Communication satellite, remote sensing satellite.

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			1980
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			India's first experimental satellite vehicle, the Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3) was launched, making ISRO the country's sixth space agency. SLV-3 launched a second time with Rohini. The mission was successful.
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			1981
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			Rohini was placed into orbit.
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			1982
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			Communication Satellite Insat-1A was launched.
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			1983
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			Rohini was launched into orbit on SLV-3's second developmental mission.
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			1984
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			India and the Soviet Union have undertaken a joint manned mission. Rakesh Sharma, India's first cosmonaut, spent eight days in the Russian space station Salyut 7.
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			1987
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			ASLV was launched with the SROSS-1 satellite.
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			1988
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			Indian Remote Sensing Satellite IRS-1A was launched
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<h2 id="content-id-1">Indian Space Research Organisation</h2>

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), located in Bengaluru, is the country’s first space exploration organisation. ISRO was established in 1969 with the goal of developing and utilising space technology for national development while also pursuing planetary exploration and space science research. ISRO was founded after INCOSPAR (Indian National Committee for Space Research), which was founded in 1962 by India’s first Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, and scientist Vikram Sarabhai, considered amongst the founding fathers of the Indian space program. 

7 Mega Missions of ISRO:

ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2, XPoSat (to research cosmic radiation in 2020), and Aditya-L1 are among its seven mega missions (to the Sun in 2021).

Undefined Missions — These include missions such as Mangalyaan-2 (or Mars Orbiter Mission-2 in 2022), Lunar Polar Exploration (or Chandrayaan-3 in 2024), Venus mission (in 2023), and Exoworlds, which are currently in the planning stages (exploration outside the solar system in 2028).

Xposat: ISRO’s dedicated mission to examine polarisation is the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (or Xposat). The X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) is a space observatory being developed by ISRO to research the polarisation of cosmic X- rays. It will be launched on a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) in the second quarter of 2022 and will have a service life of at least five years.

Aditya- L1 Mission: It’s the country’s first solar mission. Its goals are to research the sun’s outermost layers, the corona and chromospheres, as well as collect data on coronal mass ejection, which will help anticipate space weather. The data from the Aditya mission will be extremely useful in distinguishing between various hypotheses for the origin of solar storms, as well as constraining how the storms evolve and what course they take across interplanetary space from the Sun to the Earth.

<h2 id="content-id-2">Basics of orbits</h2>

An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes around another one. An object in an orbit is called a satellite. A satellite can be natural, like Earth or the moon. Many planets have moons that orbit them. A satellite can also be man-made, like the International Space Station.

What Shape is an Orbit?

Orbits come in a variety of forms. All orbits are elliptical, which means they are shaped like an ellipse. The orbits of the planets are approximately round. Comets’ orbits are shaped differently. They are “squashed,” or very odd. They resemble thin ellipses rather than circles. Satellites orbiting Earth, including the moon, do not always stay the same distance from Earth.

How do Objects Stay in Orbit?

Newton’s first law of motion states that unless something pushes or pulls on it, an object in motion will stay in motion. Without gravity, an Earth-orbiting satellite would go in a straight line into space. It gets dragged back to Earth by gravity. A constant tug-of-war takes place between the satellite’s tendency to move in a straight line, or momentum, and the tug of gravity pulling the satellite back.

<h2 id="content-id-3">Types of orbits</h2>

When a satellite or spacecraft is launched, it is usually positioned in one of several orbits around Earth — or it may be sent on an interplanetary mission, in which it orbits the Sun instead of Earth until it reaches its eventual destination, such as Mars or Jupiter.

Geostationary Orbit (GEO): Geostationary satellites (GEO) circle the Earth above the equator from west to east in 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds, travelling at the same rate as the Earth. To perfectly match the rotation of the Earth, GEO satellites should travel at a speed of about 3 km per second at an altitude of 35,786 km. This is much farther away from the Earth’s surface than many satellites.

Lower Earth Orbit (LEO): A lower Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit that is close to the Earth’s surface, as the name implies. It is normally less than 1000 km above Earth, but it can be as low as 160 km above Earth – which is low in comparison to other orbits, but still very far above the Earth’s surface.

In comparison, most commercial planes do not fly at altitudes much higher than 14 km, so even the lowest LEO is more than ten times higher. Unlike GEO satellites, which must always orbit along Earth’s equator, LEO satellites do not always have to follow the same path around Earth – their plane can be tilted. This means that satellites in LEO have more available routes, which is one of the reasons why LEO is such a commonly used orbit.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO): Medium Earth orbit encompasses a wide range of orbits ranging from LEO to GEO. It is similar to LEO in that it does not require specific paths around Earth, and it is used by a wide range of satellites with a variety of applications.

Polar orbit and Sun-synchronous Orbit (SSO): Polar orbiting satellites typically travel from north to south rather than west to east, passing roughly over the Earth’s poles.

Satellites in polar orbit do not have to pass exactly through the North and South Poles; a deviation of 20 to 30 degrees is still considered a polar orbit. Polar orbits are a type of low Earth orbit because they are at low altitudes ranging from 200 to 1000 kilometres. This is because, if you want to monitor an area by taking a series of images of a specific location over many days, weeks, months, or even years. comparing somewhere at midnight and then at midday is not very useful – you need to take each picture as similarly as the previous picture as possible.

Satellites in SSO are frequently synchronised so that they are constantly in dawn or dusk – this is because they will never have the Sun at an angle where the Earth shadows them if they are constantly riding a sunset or sunrise. A satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit would typically be located at an altitude of 600 to 800 km. It will travel at a speed of approximately 7.5 km per second at 800 km.

Transfer orbits and Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO): Transfer orbits are orbits that are utilised to transition from one orbit to another. Satellites are not always placed directly on their ultimate orbit when launched from Earth and taken to space by launch vehicles like Ariane 5. Satellites are frequently placed in a transfer orbit, which allows the satellite or spacecraft to transition from one orbit to another with relatively little energy from onboard engines. With such a very eccentric orbit, the satellite can suddenly shift from being extremely far away to being very close to the Earth’s surface, depending on where it is in the orbit. In transfer orbits, the payload utilises engines to move from one eccentric orbit to another, putting it on course for higher or lower orbits. On the blue elliptical orbit, the apogee is the point farthest away from Earth, while the perigee is the point closest.

<h2 id="content-id-4">Satellite</h2>

A satellite is a body that orbits around another body in space. Natural and man-made satellites are the two sorts of satellites. The Earth and the Moon are examples of natural satellites. The Earth revolves around the Sun, whereas the Moon revolves around it. A man-made satellite is a spacecraft that is launched into orbit around a celestial body. The Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station are examples of man-made satellites.

<h2 id="content-id-5">Types of Satellite</h2>

1. Astronomical: Used to study distant planets, stars, galaxies, and other objects in-universe. It’s a space telescope that hangs in space and takes pictures of objects in space.

2. Biosatellite: A satellite that sends animals or plants into space to study the effects of space on these living things.

3. Communication: These satellites support telecommunication. Telecasting, phone calls, Internet access, radio, and a wide range of remote connectivity are all common uses.

4. Earth Observation: Deployed to study the environment, monitor climatic changes and mapping the earth for non military purposes.

5. Navigation: Facilitates the exact location of any objects on the Earth. As a result, new applications, technologies, and business cases are developed.

6. Killer (Military): During the conflict, it was used to strike hostile satellites and space objects.

7. Space Stations: Designed for human beings to live and conduct research on objects on planets, stars, and galaxies.

8. Reconnaissance: Deployed for spying, surveying and scouting enemy territory during the war period.

9. Crewed Spacecraft: These satellites ferry astronauts to space and bring them back to earth. It has excellent grounding capabilities and assists astronauts in gaining access to space stations.

10. Recovery: Recovery satellites are primarily used to recover bio, reconnaissance and other satellites back to earth.

11. Solar Power: Space-based satellites gather energy from the Sun and transmit it to earth for consumption.

12. Miniaturised: Smaller and lighter satellites are launched at a low cost for the limited purpose of scientific data collection and radio relay.

Satellite Launching Vehicles: 

In 1980, the first experimental Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV- 3) was built. In 1992, an augmented version of this, ASLV, was successfully introduced. With the operationalization of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), India has achieved enormous progress in launch vehicle technology to achieve self-reliance in satellite launch vehicle programmes.

<h2 id="content-id-6">Initial launch vehicles of India</h2>

Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV): SLV-3 (Satellite Launch Vehicle- 3) was India’s first experimental satellite launch vehicle, a four-stage, all-solid-fuel vehicle capable of launching payloads up to 40 kg into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). When the Rohini satellite, RS-1, was sent into orbit in 1980, India became the sixth member of an exclusive club of space-faring nations.

Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV): The ASLV is a five-stage, all-solid-fuel rocket capable of launching 150 kg satellites into circular orbits 400 kilometres in diameter. The ASLV Program was created to increase the payload capacity for Low Earth Orbits to 150 kg, three times that of SLV-3 (LEO).

Operational Launch Vehicles of India: ISRO currently uses two launch vehicles: the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and the GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle), both of which can be configured in a variety of ways. PSLV has been ISRO’s most reliable rocket to date, with 52 of its 54 launches proving successful. The GSLV is a significantly more powerful rocket designed to transport heavier satellites further into space. GSLV rockets have launched 18 missions to date, four of which have failed.

We studied about differenent technologies such as Biotechnology, Defence, Nuclear, Energy and recent discoveries, now we will try to solve some previous year questions. Stay tuned for more.

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