India's own GPS: IRNSS
As an established space power, India has been planning to develop it's own satellite-helped positioning and navigation system to help cater the domestic audience. The American version of satellite navigation system called Global Positioning System or GPS is a constellation of 24 satellites that circle the earth and provide accurate position details - like the latitude-longitude coordinates, speed, direction, and even elevation (height), etc. If you want to learn more about GPS, google it.
Russia has it's own "GPS", called GLONASS - a cluster of 21 satellites. EU is developing it's own version of GPS, called Galileo. Now, India is going ahead with developing it's own version! Awesome! The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed great expertise in developing and launching powerful remote sensing satellites. ISRO also has an established expertise in launching polar satellite launching vehicles - even offering to carry payloads for other countries for a much cheaper price than other space powers like France, etc. (Yep, you can call it "space outsourcing!")
The Indian navigation system will be known as "Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System" or INRSS for short. Now, I'm not quite sure how they should "acrnomize" it for pronunciation purposes... "In Ress"?, "Iners"?. Whatever they call it, it is a great step forward for the Indian space program.
This report in Space News, quotes ISRO spokesman S. Krishnamurthy saying, "...these satellites will be built by ISRO’s Satellite Centre in Bangalore and launched aboard indigenously built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles. The first launch is scheduled for 2008 and the entire constellation is expected to be in place by 2011."
One of the reasons for going ahead with IRNSS is to have a full control on a navigation system. Another major reason is the precision of the position data available in India through GPS and GLONASS. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense to have a navigation system that is fully under India's own control, especially considering the data could be used for military, defense, and even civil aviation. Speaking of civil aviation, India has completed a pilot project for civil aviation called GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation). More information on this available here
Besides, folks in India will have their own navigation system for civilian use! Heard of geo-caching yet? Check it out if you are interested. It's fun!
Way to go India!
Russia has it's own "GPS", called GLONASS - a cluster of 21 satellites. EU is developing it's own version of GPS, called Galileo. Now, India is going ahead with developing it's own version! Awesome! The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed great expertise in developing and launching powerful remote sensing satellites. ISRO also has an established expertise in launching polar satellite launching vehicles - even offering to carry payloads for other countries for a much cheaper price than other space powers like France, etc. (Yep, you can call it "space outsourcing!")
The Indian navigation system will be known as "Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System" or INRSS for short. Now, I'm not quite sure how they should "acrnomize" it for pronunciation purposes... "In Ress"?, "Iners"?. Whatever they call it, it is a great step forward for the Indian space program.
This report in Space News, quotes ISRO spokesman S. Krishnamurthy saying, "...these satellites will be built by ISRO’s Satellite Centre in Bangalore and launched aboard indigenously built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles. The first launch is scheduled for 2008 and the entire constellation is expected to be in place by 2011."
One of the reasons for going ahead with IRNSS is to have a full control on a navigation system. Another major reason is the precision of the position data available in India through GPS and GLONASS. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense to have a navigation system that is fully under India's own control, especially considering the data could be used for military, defense, and even civil aviation. Speaking of civil aviation, India has completed a pilot project for civil aviation called GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation). More information on this available here
Besides, folks in India will have their own navigation system for civilian use! Heard of geo-caching yet? Check it out if you are interested. It's fun!
Way to go India!
Labels: GIS
posted by Shriram at 10:28 PM Permanent Link
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