NELLORE: For protecting its growing number of satellites from risk of collisions in space, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed a System for Safe and Sustainable Operations Management (IS4OM).
The system, established in Bengaluru, safeguards all Indian space assets by mitigating collisional threats from space objects. It undertakes specific orbital manoeuvres while complying with international guidelines on post-mission disposal and satellite’s end-of-life operations.
Union minister of state for science and technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh, dedicated IS4OM to the nation on Monday. ISRO chairman S. Somanath and former chairmen Dr. Radhakrishnan, Kiran Kumar and Dr. Sivan graced the occasion.
IS4OM is ISRO’s holistic approach to ensure safety of India’s space assets, thereby sustaining utilisation of outer space for national development.
According to an Isro statement, safe, sustainable and effective management of outer space activities is of paramount importance to ensure that outer space remains utilisable for future generations of humankind. This entails a holistic approach, encompassing multiple areas related to observation and monitoring of space objects and space environment.
This is in addition to processing observations for orbital determination, object characterisation and cataloguing, analysing the evolution of space environment, assessing risk and mitigation, exchanging data, and collaborating with other agencies.
Isro has already been taking necessary measures to safeguard all its space assets from intentional and accidental close approaches by space objects, including operational spacecraft and space debris objects.
IS4OM will aid India in achieving its Space Situational Awareness (SSA) goals by providing to users comprehensive and timely information of space environment.
The multi-domain awareness platform will bring prompt, accurate and efficient information on on-orbit collision, fragmentation, atmospheric re-entry risk, and cataloguing of observational data, hazards and space weather forecast, ISRO officials disclosed.
