Key facts about Navigation Indian Constellation {NAVIC}
In its thirty fifth flight (PSLV-C33), launched the 1425 kg IRNSS-1G from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR), Sriharikota. IRNSS-1G happens to be the seventh satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). With this launch, ISRO has achieved a major milestone by establishing India’s own navigation system similar to the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the US. This is also a 34th consecutive successful mission of PSLV and 13th in its ‘XL’ configuration. It may be noted that the same XL variant was used to launch Mars Orbiter Mission, Chandrayaan-1, ASTROSAT and the six other satellites in the IRNSS system.
Renaming
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has renamed the IRNSS as ‘NavIC’ (Navigation Indian Constellation).
What is IRNSS?
IRNSS is the Indian navigation system aimed at establishing an independent regional navigation satellite system to provide information over Indian region and an area extending about 1500 sq km around India. IRNSS will provide two types of services:
- Standard Positioning Services (SPS), which will be provided to all users.
- Restricted Services – (RS), which will grant access only to authorised users.
The IRNSS comprises of seven satellites even while four satellites would be sufficient to start operations. The remaining three satellites were launched to make the system more accurate and efficient. It consists of three Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) spacecraft and four Geosynchronous orbit (GCO) spacecraft inclined at 29 degrees. With the launch of IRNSS-1G (seventh and final member of IRNSS constellation) the IRNSS system is complete and would be soon operational. IRNSS-1G has a 12-year mission life.
A number of ground facilities have been established in eighteen locations across the country specifically dedicated for satellite ranging and monitoring, generation and transmission of navigation parameters, etc. This ground facilities will help in the full fledged functioning of NAVIC.
When was the previous satellites belonging to IRNSS was launched?
IRNSS-1A was launched on July 1, 2013, IRNSS-1B on April 4, 2014, IRNSS-1C on October 16, 2014, IRNSS-1D on March 28, 2015, IRNSS-1E on January 20, 2016 and the sixth satellite (IRNSS-1F) was launched very recently on March 10. All the launches used PSLV XL with six strap-ons, each carrying 12 tons of propellant.
What is the expenditure incurred on this project?
The total expenditure incurred on launching all the seven satellites is approximately 1,420 crore.
What will be the applications of NAVIC?
A variety of services will be offered by NAVIC which includes terrestrial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, navigation aide for hikers and travelers, visual and voice navigation for drivers among others. In addition, it is expected to provide position accuracy of better than 20 m over Indian region and an area extending about 1500 sq km from the Indian Mainland.
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