India Launches 10 Satellites At Once

freakxx writes "India sets a world record after launching 10 satellites in one go using its workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). All the satellites were put into their respective orbits successfully. It was the core-alone version of the launch vehicle weighing 230 tonnes with a payload of 824 kg in total. Two of the satellites were Indian satellites, while the rest were from different countries. By this launch, the ISRO has proven its credibility and it is going to boost India's image in the attractive multi-billion commercial market of satellite launches. This was the 12th successful launch of the PSLV."

Building a ... Cluster?

[adpsimpson (956630)]

Suddenly, I'm worried I won't have to imagine a Beowolf cluster of satellites...

Sorry.

Building a... MIRV?

[Moraelin (679338)]

Here's a funny thought:

1. India has nukes. (It also sits on huge reserves of Thorium and has breeder reactors, so it can transform them to uranium or eventually plutonium, as needed.)

2. If you can put an object in orbit, you can make it come down wherever you want it to come down. Or use a smaller rocket and/or a heavier load to make them go ballistic instead of orbitting at all. (For reference, the USSR's space program started the other way around. Someone realized that they had build a rocket so powerful to haul nukes, that it could put a small-ish object in orbit.) Rockets are that interchangeable purpose.

3. Inclined/polar orbits? Always good to have for a nuke, if nothing else, to hit a location that's not near the equator. Plus you might want to go extremely inclined to minimize flight time and thus warning time (I think both the USA and the USSR had most of their nukes aimed at each other over the arctic), or to lob them over international waters and avoid pissing off everyone else in their path.

As a bonus: once you can do polar orbits and big payloads, you can use spy sats.

Now I'm not saying India is necessarily aiming to become an ICBM power. Maybe, maybe not. And they're probably not yet ready to willy-wave internationally about it, in any case. But I'm saying I wouldn't be the least surprised if that was at least one factor in funding that space program.

I still remember seeing the news on TV when they had built their first nuke, and the general euphoria. It was waay back, while they were even poorer than today. Arguably that money could have been better invested in industrializing a little faster. But there were people cheering in the streets that they now have a big destructive weapon. I can see a lot of political capital in the implicit "and now we can lob it at anyone too!" message.

Now I'm not singling India out there. I think they're just... humans, like everyone else. And it's a sad thing that we'd rather have a big stick to threaten the neighbours with, than an extra slice of bread.

Re:Building a... MIRV?

[escay (923320)]

Not all countries' space programs are about war and weapons. some are less paranoid.

The 690kg CARTOSAT and the 83kg IMS-1 are both remote sensing satellites, equipped with panchromatic (B&W) and Spectral cameras to image earth at visible and infrared frequencies. Many, if not all, indian satellites are for remote sensing/meteorological - because in a country where agriculture is the primary industry, it is paramount to track the movement of rainfall, particularly the seasonal monsoons. These weather predictions are vital for farmers to ensure a good harvest. A good harvest leads to lower food prices - in effect, this launch has a very close relationship to feeding India's poor, contrary to many trolls here.
The focus of India's space program has, thankfully, been always about peaceful purposes while making money on the side by providing a cheap option for launching amateur radio/science project satellites built by students and universities (such as the other 8 in this launch). More info about the launch here [isro.org].

As an interesting side note, the PSLV will also be used for Chandrayan-1, India's first mission to moon.

Re:Building a... MIRV?

[dhavleak (912889)]

India's guided missile program (Agni) is known to borrow heavily from it's civilian space program - this is true.

However, it's important to note India's proven track record as a non-agressor, which is especially remarkable when you consider that its surrounded by hostile parties in one way or the other.

India's first nuke test was in 1972 [wikipedia.org]. That's 36 years of indigenous nuke capability. In that time, they have been in a constant state of tension with Pakistan (and gone to war once - Kargil), had a prime minister (Rajiv Gandhi) asassinated by the LTTE (Sri Lankan militants), have parts of Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh (another state of India) occupied by China, have ULFA seperatists operating in Assam (a north east state of India), and have constant tensions at their border with Burma and Bangladesh.

Not once in this time has India used it's military in anything other than a defensive role. If India's neighbours (and indeed the rest of the world, and especially the US) showed that much restraint, the world would be a much better place.

Re:

[eln (21727)]

I don't know what you're talking about, there aren't any fiscal conservatives in the halls of power anymore. All that are left these days are borrow-and-spend politicians (Republicans have proven to be experts at this, but the Dems aren't exactly falling all over themselves trying to raise taxes or cut spending either).

But yah, no one in Washington is even remotely interested in spending money putting much of anything into space, so any superiority we may have left in regards to space travel is pretty much

Leave it to India

[elrous0 (869638)]

You ever seen how many people they can pack in a single traincar?

Japan trains in 1991

[phoneteller (1261402)]

Look at how they used to pack passengers in Japanese trains in 1991 Video of Japanese train in 1991 [beewulf.com]!!

Re:

[phorm (591458)]

It may be marked as funny, but I find it fairly true that India is definitely a country where the "more-in-less" concept seems to fit. I have a room for rent in my condo, and recently got an email from an family that is moving here and wanted to rent my room (not a small room, but it's still only a single room in a 3bdrm/1bthrm condo) for the parents and their child. When it comes to space and comfort VS saving bucks, the common mentality seems to go with the latter.


I'd imagine that the packed human-condi

You're kidding, right?

[donutello (88309)]

The Indians have it beat by a mile:

http://taz.de/blogs/wp-inst/wp-content/blogs.dir/44/files/2007/02/043%20overcrowded%20train%20India.jpg [taz.de]

AAUSAT-II

[wizards_eye (1145125)]

One of the satellites is made by students at Aalborg University.

You can follow the status here:
http://aausatii.space.aau.dk/eng/ [space.aau.dk]

Recommendations

[Wowsers (1151731)]

Someone should tell the European Union about this way of launching satellites... then the politicians might stop wasting vast amounts of European taxpayers money on their own vastly over-budget but completely worthless GPS system, using the tracking of road drivers as one excuse for it's existence.

Re:Recommendations

[JaredOfEuropa (526365)]

Politicians might stop wasting vast amounts of European taxpayers money on their own vastly over-budget but completely worthless GPS system

From Wikipedia:

Galileo is intended to provide more precise measurements to all users than available through GPS or GLONASS, better positioning services at high latitudes and an independent positioning system upon which European nations can rely even in times of war or political disagreement.

It might be redundant for many positioning applications, but completely worthless...?

According to the same source, the EU is spending 3.4 billion Euros on this. This is just half of what we're spending on "administration" this year, and considering the other truly worthless crap we are spending money on, having our own GPS system is a pretty good goal in comparison.

Re:

[ballfire (807022)]

You know, with this satellite they injected a total of 824 Kg into a 625 Km orbit.

Galileo has an orbit with a altitude of 23222Km with 675Kg a satellite. [wikipedia.org]

How could this be used to launch Galileo?

16 satellite launch ...

[kharchenko (303729)]

last year [satnews.com]. But still, it's impressive. Although I think they're putting them in SSO and not LEO just yet.

I have this picture in my head...

[jskline (301574)]

Of one day looking up and really noticing that the available amounts of sunlight has been diminishing due to the rampant expansion of tracking and communications satellites being pushed into orbit by all the nations of the earth.

Then we begin to see the outcome as diminished crops, rampant expansion of the polar ice belts, strange drops in cancer rates from excessive sunlight exposure in bikini clad Caucasian women;... And some strange little guy on the global news service saying something about "the sky is falling; the sky is falling!"...

Laugh while you can

[oliderid (710055)]

Most of the above posts make fun of India. Well I must say that this record is quite impessive considering all the fuss the ESA made over their launch of two satellites in a row few years ago.

Few things I have noticed the last years:

• they bought Jaguar from Ford few weeks ago.
• They established serious businesses competing in our fields (computer).
• Math has been an indian skills for centuries.
• The indian state is democratic.

Sure they still have a long road ahead (poverty, bureaucracy, nationalism, protectionism,akward traditions, etc.) but they are definitely on the right path.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

We need to stop ... fearing China. Things will balance out.

I think that historical evidence indicates that those who fail to fear China eventually become China. No thanks.

Watch out Springfield

[tab_b (1279858)]

Too bad it wasn't 8 satellites, then they could have named them: Anoop, Uma, Nabendu, Poonam, Priya, Sandeep, Sashi and Gheet - and then the rocket itself would have been: Apu [wikipedia.org]

Most of those sats were built by amateurs

[Muad'Dave (255648)]

Six of those ten satellites were Amateur Radio payloads [amsat.org]. At least one is based on the de facto cubesat [delfic3.nl] standard developed by California Polytechnic State University. You can now order your own off-the-shelf flight qualified cubesat [cubesatkit.com], just in time for Christmas!

The Delfi-C3 sat is relying on the Amateur Radio operators around the world to help capture telemetry and forward it to their earth station. Pretty cool, in my book.

Re:Good for India.

[Fear the Clam (230933)]

But what about those 1 billion people (ok, number out of ass, but you get the point) that are starving to death and live in horrible conditions?

Leave it to a Mac fanboi to make everything into a joke about Vista tech support.

Troll. Why not yell at the world too

[Shivetya (243324)]

because as a world there is enough wealth to end hunger.

Yet we don't because it is not so PC to remove the many reasons for that hunger. We also do not have the stomach for it (no pun intended) because it would cost us lives to remove the leadership that routinely starves their own populations.

India is coming forward rapidly, by advancing space science they advance all their sciences. They also give their people something to strive for - something they can show children that India is and what they can become. Let alone the fact that satellites provide better weather monitoring , can track crops and movement of animals. The possibilities of helping their own are a hundredfold, let alone what they can do for others.

Oh, before you troll India again I must ask, did you buy food out this week? If so, why? There are lots of poor people who could have used it in rice to feed a family... so why didn't you help? Oh, yeah, thats because its easier to be a forum troll and blame others for not doing instead of doing yourself.

Re:Good for India.

[ajs (35943)]

But what about those 1 billion people (ok, number out of ass, but you get the point) that are starving to death and live in horrible conditions?

1. 1 billion is nearly the entire population of the country (1.12 billion est.)
2. What better way to improve living conditions than to become a hub for space technology?
3. I think you may be under some misconceptions about the state of Indian rural life as compared to, for example, the state of Mississippi.

If you're not sure that you know what you're talking about, perhaps you should do some research [wikipedia.org]. If you had, you'd be able to say something like:

India has twice the poverty rate of, for example, the U.S., though that has dropped substantially since their independence and is widely seen as a potential model for a rapid exit from third-world status for other nations.

Re:Good for India.

[JaredOfEuropa (526365)]

But what about those 1 billion people (ok, number out of ass, but you get the point) that are starving to death and live in horrible conditions?

1) Commercial launches such as these pay for themselves and help defray the total cost of the India space programme.
2) High tech stuff like this creates jobs for academics and skilled workers, who'll be part of India's growing middle class. I believe that creating wealth top-down, by having wealth trickle down from an affluent and productive middle class to the poor, works a hell of a lot better than forever "giving that man a fish to eat".

Re:Good for India.

[esme (17526)]

But what about those 1 billion people (ok, number out of ass, but you get the point) that are starving to death and live in horrible conditions?

I'm always amazed by this kind of arrogance towards developing nations. This kind of comment is seen any time there's a post about the OLPC project, for example.

Do you really think it would be productive if the government of India spent its entire time trying to directly alleviate hunger and poverty? Don't you think that encouraging industries that provide high-paying jobs is a good part of a long-term strategy to improve people's lives?

More to the point, did it never occur to you as a (presumably) well-educated, technically-inclined person that education, science and technology were part of the solutions to the developing world's problems, not just a distraction?

-Esme

Re:Good for India.

[kgskgs (938843)]

But what about those 1 billion people (ok, number out of ass, but you get the point) that are starving to death and live in horrible conditions?

Every time I read a comment like this, I don't know what to say.

Do you know what is the single biggest thing that has helped poor farmers all across India? Please visit http://www.echoupal.com/ [echoupal.com]

It is a website for small farmers. Even for those farmers who don't have Internet, there are kiosks in villages where volunteers explain them and help them use the website.

Using this, the farmers network and help each other solve problems. Single biggest benefit of this has been spotting and eliminating corrupt middlemen who give unfairly low price to farmers and sell it for high price to traders. This one advantage is worth entire effort behind this initiative.

Unfortunately Western media does not find these stories interesting. They love to show poor hungry children begging for food. Then they get to portray the Western world as the noble minded donor.

The truth is even poor people want to work hard and improve their lifestyle. Information technology, Internet, communication infrastructure, is what will give them a chance. It is absolutely right thing if a poor country with a billion hungry people launches satellites. It is better than a rich country launching wars.