SUCCESS OF NEW “GPS” SYSTEM “NAVIC” IS BOON TO INDIAN COMMUNICATION SYSTEM IN THIS ERA.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) 7th and last satellite IRNSS 1G on 28th April 2016 from Sathish Dhawan Space research centre, Shriharikota. With the launch of this last satellite India become the Fifth country in the world to have its own navigation system for civilian and military use.
This system was developed because the dependency on usage of US’s GPS system has to avoid. In 1999 during Kargil war India wants to utilize the GPS system of US for military operations. But US Govt. has declined the proposal, in support of Pakistan.A need for an native satellite navigation system was felt earlier, but the Kargil experience made the nation realize its unavailability.Advertisement
P.M. Narendra Modi named it as “NAVIC”(Navigation with Indian Constellation) means “sailor” or “navigator “ in Sanskrit and Hindi. This is dedicated to the India’s Mariner’s, fishermen who have been navigating using the Sun and Stars as waypoints over the centuries. This is similar to the U.S’s Global positioning system –“GPS”and Russia’s – “Glonass”, Europe’s – “Galileo”, China’s –“Bei Dou”respectively.
With the launch of this IRNSS 1G satellite the constellation of seven satellites is completed. ISRO is focusing on developing process of designing the front end chips which will receive navigational signals from the seven satellites. The IRNSS 1G was launched in to a sub geosynchronous transfer orbit with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 284 Km to apogee (farthest point to earth) of 20,657 Km.
The satellite was launched on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle ( PSLV C33).The IRNSS-1A first of seven satellites launched on 1st July2013,IRNSS -1B was launched on 4th April 2014 on board the PSLV-C24 rocket. IRNSS- 1C was launched on 16th October 2014,IRNSS -1D on 28th March 2015,IRNSS-1E on 20th January 2016,IRNSS-1F on 10th March 2016 and finally IRNSS-1G was launched on 28th April 2016.
“NAVIC” is used to provide accurate real time positioning and timing better than10 meters in Indian land mass and better than 20 meters in Indian ocean as claimed by ISRO, will navigate around 1500km (930 Miles) region around India. The NAVIC system consist of Constellation of 3 Satellites in Geostationary Orbit(GEO) and Constellation of 4 Satellites in Geo Synchronous Orbit(GSO),approximately 36,000 Km(22,000 Miles) altitude above the Earth surface and two Satellites on ground as stand- by ,in addition to ground stations.
Total cost of the project is Rs.1420 crores (US $211 million), with the cost of the ground segment being Rs.300 crore (US$ 45millions).Each satellite costing Rs.150 crore (US$ 22 million) and the PSLV –XL version rocket costs around Rs.130 crore (US $ 19 million).
The “NAVIC” will provide standard positioning service for civilian use for communication to Fishermen, mariners, fleet management , extensively used in disaster management and a restricted service for authorized users for Military and Marine operations. The system is going to operational soon, after all checking.