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Packed with advanced technologies and a high resolution camera, India's next satellite mission later this year could be a run-up to placing a spy satellite in orbit, a leading American space weekly has said.
The Spacenews, published from Washington, said the Indian Space Research Organisation is also preparing to "build more satellites at a faster rate, incorporating new technologies like microwave imaging."
The ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore will double its production capacity to four satellites annually from the present two to meet the rising demands for services, the weekly said quoting P S Goel, the director of the centre.
Goel told the weekly that ISRO expected to meet India's requirements in about two years and then "shall start looking for opportunities for making satellites for other countries, particularly in the small communication satellites category".
The Spacenews said ISAC is designing a new 2000-kg INSAT spacecraft (specifically for launches by the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle), large INSATs of 3.5 to 4 tonnes, a dedicated astronomy satellite and a cartography satellite with one metre resolution -- six times better than existing remote sensing satellites.
In the next 90 days, ISRO would be launching the Rs 1.86 billion Technology Experiment Satellite on board the polar satellite launch vehicle carrying multiple payloads.
Evading a direct answer to the question if TES was a precursor to the spy satellite that the Indian Army has been wanting, Goel told the weekly that TES "is planned to qualify new technologies that will be used in next generation remote sensing satellites".
"Some of the technologies which we have undertaken are very complex and need to be demonstrated through a satellite," Goel said.
The Spacenews said TES would carry a beam steering antenna (to prevent eavesdropping on communication), solid state recorder, step-and-stare mode camera (that keeps focussing at the same scene while the satellite is in motion), two-mirror optics (for compactness) and high-bit rate data transmission.
The weekly quoted Goel as saying that communication and remote sensing were the primary objective of ISRO and that the proposed moon mission was still in the "definition phase".
"Satellite communication in India got a real boost with the launch of INSAT-IB in August 1983 and in remote sensing we are among the most advanced nations," Goel told the Spacenews.
PTI
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