AstroSat – India’s next great space mission
- 30th Oct 2015
- Author: Jamie Laughton
Studying the Universe
28 September 2015 saw the launch of Astrosat from the Sriharikota launch site which marks another major milestone in India’s impressive and rapidly growing space industry. Astrosat’s mission is to study the universe using 5 different scientific instruments. These measure everything from UltraViolet light to X-rays and even charged particles that fall upon the spacecraft
This is the first time that India has launched a dedicated multi-wavelength experiment into orbit. The collection of telescopes on board will allow the satellite to study a large range of astrological objects. These will include distant stars, the centre of galaxies and the study of the cores of dying stars. What makes this mission so useful is that it will study all of these phenomena in various bands of light. The satellite contains the hardware to focus on the Ultraviolet and X-Ray data and it will work in conjunction with ground-based telescopes to gather radio, optical and infrared data.
India’s growing reputation in the field of space exploration is generating great interest in collaboration from many other nations and agencies, with the Astrosat mission itself generating a lot of international interest. The Indian rocket that carried Astrosat into orbit also contained 6 other small missions that had been submitted by other international organisations. Locally, the University of Leicester has 50 years’ experience in X-Ray Astronomy, so this is a project they were keen to get involved in. Staff at the University reached out to the Indian Space Agency to offer support and worked with the Astrosat team to design and build the camera used in one of the X-ray instruments on board the satellite.
India is the first country to successfully orbit Mars on their first attempt.
The Indian Space and Research Organisation have seen much success over the last few years. Alongside a successful program of GPS, communication and Earth Observation satellites, ISRO hit the news in 2008 with their first mission to the Moon. Chandrayaan-1 was India’s first mission to the Moon and consisted of an orbiting satellite and an impactor. It became the first mission to detect water on the surface of the Moon. India then continued their Extra-terrestrial success in 2013 when they launched Mangalayaan, their Mars Orbiter. This mission entered the record books as India became the first country to successfully orbit Mars on their first attempt.
Personal Adventure
The Indian’s exploits in space continues to advance and grow with every mission contributing to their own knowledge as well as feeding into the global space exploration initiative. Astrosat represents the next step in their own personal adventure.
Here in Leicester we are proud to have been part of that with our contributions to their satellite and we shall be celebrating alongside them when the first batches of science results are fed back from the satellite this week.
