ECIL inks antenna deal with Isro

Hyderabad: The city-based ECIL has signed up to develop an 18-metre antenna for the Telemetry Tracking and Command Network of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). The antenna is used to send information that guides and controls spacecraft like Mars Orbiter for navigation and collects images and data sent back by the spacecraft.

ECIL chairman and managing director P. Sudhakar, who signed MoU with Isro, said indigenous antenna would be useful for new missions like Aditya, the first Indian mission to study the sun, Chandrayaan-2 to the moon and Mars Orbiter 2 to the red planet. “In 2008, ECIL had built a 32-metre deep space network antenna in close association with ISTRAC and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. This provided telemetry tracking and command support for Chandrayaan-1 and Mars Orbiter-1.”

He said the 18-metre antenna could simultaneously transmit and receive data and would be installed at the ISDN campus in Bylalu near Bengaluru. According to officials the existing DSN is augmented by stations in the western hemisphere and a 64-m antenna in Russia to improve the visibility duration and to provide support. The Deep Space Network developed in India will bring down the costs. Istrac coordinates ground stations at Sriharikota in Nellore and Port Blair, and takes help from Nasa and two ships of the Shipping Corporation of India positioned near Fiji.

Infographic:

Nasa uses a 70-m antenna and the European Space Agency one of 34-m diameter. Russia has a 64-metre diameter to receive and send signals to deep space which China uses one with 34-metre diameter.