India to launch OCEANSAT – 2 soon

A new satellite OCEANSAT- 2 to study oceans will be launched by India before the end of the ensuing financial year, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair said.

OCEANSAT – 2 will replace the OCEANSAT – 1 which is nearing the end of its lifespan, Nair told reporters in Bangalore on the concluding day of a workshop on “Communication strategies and delivery systems to promote science and technology among rural people”.

OCEANSAT – 2 will be a powerful satellite equipped with scatterometer to study the sea surface. The applications of this satellite will include identifying fishing zones and weather forecasting, he said.

Nair also revealed that ASTROSAT, a satellite that will serve as a “space observation system” will be launched during 2008-08. “It will have the capability to observe and study various celestial phenomena like supernova and black holes through the use of multiple wavelengths such as ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays”, he said.

Fielding queries on future commercial launches, Nair said ISRO will be taking up three more commercial launches in the next two years after the success of its recent launch of Agile missile. “Three contracts are much in their final stages and we hope they come they come through soon”.

Nair said ISRO’s Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark II will be operationalised by 2009. While the existing GSLV could launch a payload capacity of 2.5 tonnes into geosynchronous transfer orbit, the proposed GSLV Mark II will have a capacity of four to five tonnes. He said ISRO was in the cryogenic stage of GSLV Mark II and its test launch would take place in the next few months.

Earlier, delivering the valedictory address at the workshop, Nair said the country was facing pressing problems ranging from access to food and water to inefficiency in healthcare and education.

He emphasized the need for shifting the focus of technologies to reach out to the millions of people in rural areas. “We do not need such sophisticated technology so as to serve only the population in metros and urban areas”, he remarked.

Nair cited the example of desalinization mechanism developed by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research that had a capacity to provide a litre of drinking water for just 5 paise.
“The dramatic changes taking place in our metros are not enough to realize the dream of reaching our development to the 70 per cent of India’s population that lives in villages by 2020”.