Press Trust of India Posted online: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 1651 hours IST Updated: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 1655 hours IST
Chennai, January 25: Indian Space Research Organisation's unmanned lunar mission will be launched in 2007 as scheduled, ISRO chairman P Madhavan Nair said in Chennai on Tuesday.
"ISRO has completed all design activities for the mission. We are in the process of building special instruments required for the mission," he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting at Satyabhama deemed university in Chennai.
ISRO had also designed a special three stage-tracking network to monitor the mission, when the spacecraft was in orbit. A special ground station had been designed and would come up near Bangalore, he said.
The spacecraft would keep on circling the moon and would send data, he said, adding a small equipment in the spacecraft would detach itself and descend to the moon surface. This would also send data.
The communication satellite INSAT 4 A with 12 KU band and 12 C band transponders would be launched from the launch pad at French Guyana in May this year.
The satellite would weigh 3.5 tonnes and would enable 100 television channels to transmit programmes, he said.
ISRO would also launch a Carto Satellite from Sriharikota by end of March or in early April this year. This would help mapping the landmass of the country.
In the second half of this year, ISRO would be launching another Carto Satellite, with a one-metre fine resolution camera fitted to it, Nair said.
ISRO would also launch INSAT 4 B, which will be similar to 4 A, by the end of this year.
ISRO was developing a total disaster management support system, which would be operational very soon. Images got from the satellites would be analysed and passed to the disaster management control room under the system, he said.
Ruling out prediction of tsunami attack now, saying it was a difficult task, he said some coordinated efforts should be developed for getting information on symptoms of tsunami attack.
ISRO would set up 200 remote sensing centres in remote areas of the country, which would enable a better networking of information system on cyclone warnings and floods.
Earlier, Madhavan Nair was conferred the National Science and Technology Award, instituted by the Jeppiaar Educational Trust.
The award, carrying a citation and Rs one lakh cash, was conferred on him by Dr K Kasthurirangan, MP and director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.
In his acceptance speech, Nair said while tsunami prediction was not a matured sceience, the country could use satellite remote sensing and aerial photography capabilities to provide needed information for relief and rehabilitation work.
