New Delhi: The union agriculture ministry is gearing up to provide advance and accurate forecast of farm output in the kharif season by setting up a remote sensing centre in New Delhi with the help of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). The centre is likely to be operational in a month's time.
"Isro has developed basic procedures, models, and software packages for crop area and production forecasting, using remote sensing and weather data. We will be engaging seven Isro scientists who, along with our agriculture scientists, will come out with reliable information about agri output," said agriculture secretary Prabeer Kumar Basu.
The technology will be used for the analysis of cropping system (satellites provide valuable inputs for diversification and intensification of crops), mapping of sodic and usar soils, assessing the impact of droughts and floods, weather forecasting and monsoon prediction.
"The prediction of monsoon is difficult even with remote sensing technology. But the assessment of drought is quite easy. Satellite data will help us in contingency planning and for drought declaration process. We will extend the use of this technology for the analysis of water index and rainfed areas," he said.
The ministry is running a country-wide project, 'Forecasting of agriculture outputs through satellite, agrometeorology and Land-based observations' (FASAL) for forecasting major crops including wheat, rice, millet, jowar, bajra, oilseeds and sugarcane. From this year onwards, remote sensing technology will be used to forecast horticulture output as well.
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Showing posts with label ISRO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ISRO. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
ISRO to launch French satellite in 2012
Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar: Continuing its programme of commercial launch of foreign satellites, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has lined up launch of an image capturing satellite of France next year, according to Parivakkam Subramaniam Veeraraghavan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), a unit of ISRO.
“Because of our cost effective technology, many developed nations, including France and the US are willing to launch their satellites with our system. Many smaller and mini satellite launching programmes on commercial basis are in offing,” Veeraraghavan said while attending the National Technology Day seminar organised by National Aluminum Company (Nalco) here yesterday.
The French satellite SPOT (Satellite Pour l'observation de la Terre) is a high-resolution, optical imaging, earth observation satellite system. Currently SPOT 5 is working in the space and is expected to be withdrawn by the end of 2013. India will launch the SPOT 6 satellite, which will provide continuous high definition images of earth.
Due to the cost effectiveness of India-made PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles), many countries prefer India to launch their satellites. Recently ISRO successfully placed Singapore's first experimental satellite in space. India has so far launched 27 foreign satellites and 60 India-made satellites.
Currently, it costs $25,000 per kg to launch a satellite. The satellites can weigh 500 to 5,000 kg. Sometimes mini-satellites weighing 15-20 kg are bundled with the rocket and are placed in desired orbits.
However, profit realisation from satellite launch is currently lower because of high cost of fuel and one-time use of the rockets. Veeraraghvan said, ISRO is working on a project to develop reusable satellite launcher.
“The reusable spacecraft would minimise the launching cost by 90 percent. We have set 2030 as deadline to reach this goal,” he said.
In next five years, ISRO has plans to launch one ASTROSAT, which is a low cost version of Hubble Telescope, one GPS navigation satellite and a special satellite that can provide Internet services, informed the VSSC director.
“Because of our cost effective technology, many developed nations, including France and the US are willing to launch their satellites with our system. Many smaller and mini satellite launching programmes on commercial basis are in offing,” Veeraraghavan said while attending the National Technology Day seminar organised by National Aluminum Company (Nalco) here yesterday.
The French satellite SPOT (Satellite Pour l'observation de la Terre) is a high-resolution, optical imaging, earth observation satellite system. Currently SPOT 5 is working in the space and is expected to be withdrawn by the end of 2013. India will launch the SPOT 6 satellite, which will provide continuous high definition images of earth.
Due to the cost effectiveness of India-made PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles), many countries prefer India to launch their satellites. Recently ISRO successfully placed Singapore's first experimental satellite in space. India has so far launched 27 foreign satellites and 60 India-made satellites.
Currently, it costs $25,000 per kg to launch a satellite. The satellites can weigh 500 to 5,000 kg. Sometimes mini-satellites weighing 15-20 kg are bundled with the rocket and are placed in desired orbits.
However, profit realisation from satellite launch is currently lower because of high cost of fuel and one-time use of the rockets. Veeraraghvan said, ISRO is working on a project to develop reusable satellite launcher.
“The reusable spacecraft would minimise the launching cost by 90 percent. We have set 2030 as deadline to reach this goal,” he said.
In next five years, ISRO has plans to launch one ASTROSAT, which is a low cost version of Hubble Telescope, one GPS navigation satellite and a special satellite that can provide Internet services, informed the VSSC director.
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