India to Have Its Own GPS Soon Share
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By Times of IndiaApril 18, 2013 2k
reddit gplus BANGALORE: The first of the seven satellites, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), will be launched during the second week of June 2013 giving India its own indigenous air navigation system/Global Positioning System (GPS), which would provide information on location and time in all weather conditions.
The IRNSS-1, which will be under complete control of the , will be launched using the polar satellite launch vehicle, PSLV-C22, from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh's launch pad. It will provide two major services, with Standard Positioning Service open for civilian use and Restricted Service, encrypted one, for authorized users (military).
"The satellite constellation, IRNSS, aims to increase position accuracy and provide standard positioning service for common users and restricted service for authorized users," said ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan at the sidelines of a national conference on Space Based Navigations held at the ISRO satellite center on Wednesday.
By launching the IRNSS, India will join China and Europe in the mission to create their own version of the American GPS. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union (EU) are currently working on a 30 satellite Galileo constellation. The global satellite navigation system (GNSS) is slated to be completed by 2020. Meanwhile, China's navigation system, BeiDou, is already functional for commercial use across the Asia-Pacific region.
"As of now the IRNSS is a regional system with seven satellites, which would be further expanded into 11 satellites in the coming years," Radhakrishnan said. "A space based augmentation system for GPS will make major difference in the way the air ports are operated in India. In the next two years, our country will be blessed with several new satellite based services. Value adding services from use of navigation will also help public," he said.
Civil aviation is one of the sectors that would benefit immensely from this endeavor.
"We currently have 456 air fields and 85 operational airports in the country. Once the GNSS and IRNSS is functional, they will help us with precise navigation, provide data on mountainous, oceanic areas and enhance security tremendously," said VP Agrawal, Chairman, Airports Authority of India
The IRNSS system mainly consists of three components, namely, Space Segment (Constellation of Satellites & Signal-In-Space), Ground Segment and User Segment. It will have two types of signals in L5 and S-band centre frequency, with the L band centre frequency
"Satellite based augmentation system will also open the door for socio economic benefits for developing countries to pursue sustainable growth.
Satellite navigational positioning data will be used in spheres of mapping, surveying, monitoring, precision agriculture, disaster warning, aviation, maritime, transportation and research areas. Our study shows that we will be able to save five percent in fuel, because we will be using optimal routes for transportation courtesy data from the Satellite based augmentation system," Agrawal added. 2k
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