Union Minister of Science and Technology (S&T), Jitendra Singh inaugurated ISRO System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operation and Management (IS4OM) at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) control centre, Bengaluru, Karnataka for safeguarding space assets.
- Around 60 startups have been registered with ISRO since the agency’s start of promoting India’s space sector.
About IS4OM:
i.The IS4OM facility will support all operations in safeguarding Indian space assets, mitigating collision threats from other space objects.
- This is a part of the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program to identify space debris and monitor them.
ii.As a part of IS4OM, labs have been set up for space debris mitigation and remediation, compliance verification of United NAtions International Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) guidelines and various Research & Development (R&D) activities.
Space Debris:
i.The space debris consists of rocket bodies that are used to launch satellites, defunct satellites, materials released during mission operations, fragments from broken space objects and Anti satellite tests (ASAT).
ii.The debris moves at a speed of 27,000 km per hour in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and hence the collision causes huge damage to around 3000 operational satellites in space.
Highlights:
i.The radars and optical telescopes are the main ground-based facilities for tracking space objects including space debris.
ii.Infrastructure for Space Weather monitoring and forecast plays a critical role in protecting space and also ground-based infrastructure from critical Solar activities.
- The Vision of IS4OM towards space weather services and planetary defence initiatives are also to be important areas of SSA.
iii.Long-Term Sustainability (LTS) of Outer Space activities is important to be noted for the future generations to use outer space.
- The usage includes observation and monitoring of space objects and space environment, processing observations for orbit determination, object characterization and cataloguing, analysis of evolution of space environment, risk assessment and mitigation, data exchange and collaboration.
Note – ISRO is an active member of Inter Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IDAC), IAF Space Debris Working Group, IAA Space Traffic Management Working Group, ISO Space Debris Working Group and UNCOPUOS LTS Working Group.
Keynote –
i.In December 2020, ISRO launched the SSA Space centre, ‘NETRA (NEtwork of space object TRacking and Analysis) that aimed at monitoring, tracking, and protecting India’s space assets.
ii.This was set up within the ISTRAC (ISRO, Telemetry Tracking and Command Network) and functions as a hub for all SSA activities within India.
Recent related news:
The Indian SPace Promotion and Authorisation centre (IN-SPACe) headquartered at Ahmedabad, Gujarat has authorised two Indian private firms, Dhruva Space Private Limited in hyderabad, Telangana and Digantara Research and Technologies Private Limited in Bengaluru, Karnataka to launch their payloads into space.
About Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO):
Chairman – S Somanath
Establishment – 1969
Headquarters – Bengaluru, Karnataka
