THEY WERE ON each other’s radar, their wavelengths matched and it was a coming together like no other. No, romance was not in the air, but a rocket soon would be.
The rocket—the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II (GSLV-Mk II)—will carry the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR). The launch date is set for early next year. The GSLVMk II will unload NISAR at an orbit 747km above Earth.
NISAR, to put it simply, will perhaps be the fanciest, high-tech version of a camera out there. Only, it will produce fine-resolution images of the Earth’s land and ice surfaces, helping measure the changing ecosystem and provide data about natural hazards, sea level rise and groundwater level. NISAR will be on a three-year mission, observing the planet every 12 days, morning and evening, come rain or shine. This is the first-ever collaboration between NASA and ISRO on an Earth-observing mission. And, NISAR is likely to be the most expensive satellite—$1.5 billion. That is probably because its payload will be the most advanced radar system ever launched.
A rocket’s payload can be a satellite, a space probe or a spacecraft carrying humans. NISAR’s payload is a satellite, consisting of two radar systems—the 24cm-wavelength L-band built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in South California, and the 10cm-wavelength S-band built by ISRO. The S-band was shipped to JPL in March 2021. The two bands were integrated and tests were done to check if they work well together. And, on March 6 this year, the payload was flown in to ISRO’s U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru.
Esta historia es de la edición July 02, 2023 de THE WEEK India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición July 02, 2023 de THE WEEK India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI