Here is my piece on Marsdaily about the geopolitics of India’s Mars mission. Despite what the piece states at the top – I am NOT in Bangalore!
Why India went to Mars
ISRO’s GSLV Launch delayed
ISRO has had three successful launches this year and the planned three more are not quiet on track. Two of the three remaining are the IRNSS navigational satellites. The IRNSS constellation has a 10 year plan but will only work once the complete constellation of seven are in orbit. The first has been in orbit for over a year and the 2nd IRNSS-1B was launched in April this year..
The key launch this year is the GSLV-Mk3. This is India’s heavy lift launcher on a maiden sub-orbital flight designed to test a habitable crew module. It was scheduled to be launched in May, June, July and the August. It has been delayed again but no alternative date has been announced. It will now likely be sometime after ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission’s arrival at Mars on 24th September.
Launch of of IRNSS-1B from Shriharikota on 4th April 2014.
Episode 66: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
November 21st 2013 was the 50th anniversary of a rocket launched from India in to space. The launch itself was an all Indian affair but with lots of international support. The rocket was American, carried a French Sodium Vapour payload with assisted by a computer and a helicopter from the Soviet Union. From this meagre beginning, India has become a key player not only in building and launching rockets but also designing , building and deploying satellites.
This episode was recorded on the site of that first launch. Then known as the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station and is today known as the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. Sundaram Ramakrishnan, the current director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) talks about his 4 decade long career with the Indian Space Research Organisation. He has has played a central role throughout the development of India’s most reliable launcher – the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
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Episode 65: ISRO – The early years
The Indian Space Research Organisation formally came in to being in 1972. By then, India had been developing its space program for almost a decade. The first launch to space from Indian soil was a two stage Nike-Apache rocket supplied by USA with a sodium payload from France. The rocket delivered a vertical trail of sodium vapour in space above the twilight sky of the south eastern coast of Kerala on 21st November 1963.
In this episode, professor UR Rao talks about his rich and diverse career. Professor Rao completed his Phd under Dr Vikram Sarabhai, then went on to work for NASA at MIT and in Texas exploring the Solar System with instruments on NASA’s Pioneer and Explorer spacecraft. He returned to India at Sarabhai’s request and after heading up the Physical Research Laboratory, in 1984 became the chairman of the Indian Space Research organisation. He served in that role until 1994.
During his 81 years, he has participated in many significant areas in space and science exploration. Several key individuals associated with space and science research including CV Raman, Robert Millikan, Ed Stone, Arthur Clark, James Van Allen , Abdus Salam and Vikram Sarabhai were individual he knew personally and some were colleagues.
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