NISAR satellite launch aboard GSLV Mark II
Processes include ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse and natural hazards such as earthquakes, Tsunamis
Chennai: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and American space agency Nasa are on course to launch NISAR satellite mission (Nasa-Isro synthetic Aperture Radar), which will provide resolutions of less than a centimetre and designed to observe and take measurements of some of the planet's most complex processes.
The processes include ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse and natural hazards such as earthquakes, Tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides. All data generated by the satellite will be made available to public free of cost.
Dr Yunjin Kim, Joint Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), CalTech, project manager, NISAR, said on Monday, while presenting an overview of the $900 million project at IIT-M, that both Nasa and Isro are doing great progress and NISAR satellite would be launched in 2020 aboard Indian launch vehicle- GSLV Mark II.
"The first two stages of the design validation phase has been reviewed and approved by NASA and the final third stage will be approved in 2016", he told DC on the sidelines of the event. This is one of the biggest collaborations between the Isro and Nasa, which have re-established the chemistry during Chandrayaan-1 and Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). Alok K. Chatterjee, JPL, CalTEch, Interface Manager for NISAR, said firstly it will be tried out on Indian satellite and tentatively it will be in 2018.