ISRO has said that this is an important milestone in India’s space program. Spadex is an ambitious mission to establish India’s capability in orbital docking, a critical technology for future manned space missions and satellite servicing missions. With its help it will be possible to send humans from one spacecraft to another.
Country’s own station – ‘Indian Space Station’ will be built
Space ‘docking’ technology will be essential to fulfill India’s space ambitions, which include sending humans to the Moon, retrieving samples and building and operating the country’s own space station – the Indian Space Station. ‘Docking’ technology will also be used when more than one rocket launch is planned to achieve common mission objectives.
ISRO said that the PSLV rocket will carry two spacecraft – Spacecraft A (SDX01) and Spacecraft B (SDX02) – in an orbit that will keep them five kilometers apart from each other. Later, scientists at ISRO headquarters will try to bring them closer by three meters, after which they will merge together at an altitude of about 470 kilometers from the Earth.
The docking and undocking process is expected to take place 10 to 14 days after launch.
ISRO officials said that this process is expected to happen about 10 to 14 days after the launch on Monday. After performing ‘docking’ and ‘undocking’ experiments, both satellites will continue to orbit the Earth for separate missions for two years. The SDX-1 satellite is equipped with a High Resolution Camera (HRC) and SDX-2 has two payloads, a Miniature Multispectral (MMX) payload and a Radiation Monitor (RADMON).
ISRO said these payloads will provide high-resolution images, natural resource monitoring, vegetation studies and in-orbit radiation environment measurements, which have multiple applications. In the ‘Spadex mission’, ‘Spacecraft A’ carries a high resolution camera, while ‘Spacecraft B’ carries a miniature multispectral payload and a radiation monitor payload. These payloads will provide high resolution images, natural resource monitoring, vegetation studies etc.
Start-ups and private institutions will experiment in space
The fourth stage of the PSLV rocket, which will remain in orbit for some time after launching two satellites on Monday, will give start-ups and private institutions an opportunity to conduct experiments in outer space. India’s space regulator is emerging as a common link in turning these projects into reality.
The PSLV Orbital Experiment Module (POEM) will carry 24 experiments to demonstrate various technologies in space. Of these, 14 experiments are related to various laboratories of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and 10 experiments are related to private universities and ‘start-ups’.
A common link between the equipment of start-ups and private universities is the technology center located at the Ahmedabad headquarters of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACE), India’s space regulator and promoter.
Rajeev Jyoti, director of In-Space, said, “We give them all the support including testing facilities as well as the help of consultants to solve any problems.”
Trying to grow seeds in outer space
Demonstration of seed germination in outer space, a robotic arm to capture debris and testing of a green propulsion system are some of the experiments planned for ‘POEM-4’, the fourth stage of ISRO’s PSLV rocket.
ISRO has conducted experiments ranging from seed germination and plant nutrition to the two-leaf stage in a closed box-like environment with active thermal control as part of the Compact Research Module for Orbital Plant Studies (CROSPS) developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC). It is planned to grow eight seeds of cowpea.
There is a plan to study the growth of spinach in microgravity environment under the Amity Space Plant Experiment Module (APEMS) developed by Amity University, Mumbai. The ‘Debris Capture Robotic Manipulator’ developed by VSSC will demonstrate the capture of debris tied to the ‘Robotic Manipulator’ in the space environment.