IRNSS: Desi GPS to free India from dependence on the US, Russia

April 28 at 12:50 o'clock rocket PSLV 44.4 meters tall, weighing 320 tons, burst into the clear afternoon sky from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with a fiery tail to Orangered back. After expanding across the sky for about 20 minutes, the IRNSS-1G satellite was ejected from the rocket and injected into an elliptical orbit. He is quickly opened its solar panels.

Back home, the control room of the mission of the Space Research Organization (ISRO) resounded with applause. Scientists who were until then glued to their monitors burst into applause. Mini GPS India, a regional positioning system, was ready to be released.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was watching the launch live from his office in Delhi congratulated the scientists. "With this successful launch, we will determine our own paths fed by our technology. This is a test.

The constellation of seven satellites, IRNSS(Navigation Satellite System Regional India), is designed to provide a system of regional positioning of India with fewer satellites. It is expected to provide precise positioning of users in India and 1,500 km across the Indian continent information service.

Navíc offer two types of services - Standard Positioning Service for all users, and restricted service, which is an encrypted service provided only to authorized users. It is expected to provide position accuracy that is better than 20 meters in the primary service area.

Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, responsible for space policy initiative in the Observer Research Foundation, says IRNSS is intended primarily for own use in India and has been freed from its dependence on the US system 'Global Positioning System (GPS), GLONASS from Russia and other external systems, which are not under their control and therefore potentially dangerous in case of conflict, in particular.

"IRNSS has multiple navigation applications, all to provide capacity for autonomous navigation of Indian soldiers, sailors and airmen. It also provides India with a part of a guidance system very accurate for everything from bombs with GPS to long-range missiles "says Rajagopalan. Ajey Lele, an expert in space and the assistant director of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, says IRNSS have both commercial and strategic value. "India can allow your neighbors to use the sys...

The first of seven satellites, IRNSS-1A, was released on July 2, 2013. Six satellites have already begun to operate from its designated orbital positions after extensive testing and evaluation in orbit. With the launch and operation of IRNSS-1G, the seventh of the constellation, the navigation system is completed. The cost of each satellite is around Rs 125 crore, while the total cost of the constellation is around Rs 1,410 crore.

The main areas of application include land, air and maritime navigation, disaster management, integration with mobile phones, helps land navigation for hikers and travelers, visual and voice navigation for drivers.

It could take up to a year for Navíc to be used on the phone, however. First the IRNSS that it has been declared formally operational. Antennas, receivers and chipsets being developed for the signals. Entrepreneurs have to use and carry out commercial receivers and incorporate them into smartphones position information. Besides the US GPS and Russia, the other players in the field of navigation are China and the European Union.

The feat of navigation comes a year and a half after India had its first meeting with Mars. The mission to Mars, with a reduced Rs 450 crore budget, had put the nation into a new orbit. That was on September 24, 2014.

What's next?

While new missions to Mars, Venus and asteroid are still in the discussion stages, a second mission to the moon aims to expand scientific knowledge of India and improve their technological capabilities. Chandrayaan-2, a fully indigenous mission is scheduled to be launched by GSLV Mk II in the first quarter of 2018. The mission of sun, Aditya-L1, plans to study the dynamics in the solar chromosphere and corona. The satellite will be launched in 2019-20 by PSLVXL.

Aditya-L1 - so called because the satellite will be placed in orbit around Lagrange point 1 (L1) of SunEarth system and have the advantage of displayed continuously at the sun without any concealment or eclipses - is bound to observe the photosphere sun, chromosphere and corona.

India is also in the process of building what is called a "satellite SAARC": to provide satellite communications services for the nations in the neighborhood. Communication and meteorological satellite, is expected to be released before December 2016.

Towards the end of the year, with the launch of GSLVMk III, space mission India could become self-sufficient and leave releases obtained from foreign shores. GSLV Mk III, considered the heaviest rocket, is intended to launch a satellite class 4 tons to geostationary transfer orbit. After a suborbital test achieved in 2014, ISRO is preparing for the launch of communications satellite GSAT GSLV Mk III 19 December 2016.

Since the launch of the first satellite with all the equipment from foreign countries for the implementation of the Mars mission with indigenous technology and syncing only seven mini satellites for GPS, the country has taken a giant step.