Nisar
20.11.2023
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For Prelims: About Nisar, Important points, Objective of Nisar, Importance of Nisar For Mains paper: Collaboration of ISRO and NASA in NISAR,About Jet Propulsion Laboratory, About ISRO |
Why in the news?
Recently, NASA, ISRO completed major tests ahead of the launch of NISAR early next year.
Important points:
- The test was followed by 21 days of testing in a thermal vacuum chamber, which demonstrated that the spacecraft could operate in the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space.
- NISAR is better than any aircraft flown by NASA so far.
- India-US space project NISAR is likely to be launched in 2024.
About Nisar:
- NISAR here means NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission.
- NISAR is a low Earth orbit (LEO) observatory being jointly developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
- The Integrated Radar Instrument Structure (IRIS) and the SAR payload mounted on the spacecraft bus together are called the observatory.
- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and ISRO are building this observatory.
- It is expected to be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on ISRO's GSLV Mark-II launch vehicle.
- The $1.5 billion NISAR has a mission life of three years.
- The three-year mission aims to survey all of Earth's land and ice-covered surfaces every 12 days.
- NISAR has L and S dual-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which operates with sweep SAR technology to acquire large-scale data with high-resolution data.
Objective of Nisar:
- tracking subtle changes in the Earth's surface,
- Detecting warning signs of impending volcanic eruptions,
- Helping to monitor groundwater supplies, and
- Keeping track of the rate at which ice sheets are melting.
Importance of Nisar:
- According to NASA, NISAR data will help researchers monitor a wide range of changes in unprecedented detail.
- That includes recognizing warning signs of impending volcanic eruptions, helping to monitor the effects of groundwater use such as land subsidence, and tracking the rate of melting of ocean-bound ice sheets.
- It will also track other processes including the dynamics of forests, wetlands and agricultural lands.
Collaboration of ISRO and NASA in NISAR:
- NASA is also providing a radar reflector antenna, deployable boom, a high-rate communications subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystems.
- Additionally, NASA's JPL is providing the mission's L-band SAR.
- ISRO's UR Rao Satellite Center in Bengaluru is providing the spacecraft bus, S-band SAR electronics, launch vehicle and associated launch services and satellite mission operations.
About Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL):
- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a research and development center located in Pasadena, California, United States.
- Established on October 31, 1936, by Caltech researchers, the laboratory is now owned and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
- It is administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology.
About ISRO:
- It is a space agency under the Department of Space of the Government of India, headquartered in Bengaluru city of Karnataka.
- Its objective is to harness space technology for national development by advancing space science research and planetary exploration.
- Antrix Corporation Limited (ACL) is a marketing arm of ISRO for promotion and commercial exploitation of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of technologies developed by ISRO.
Shri S.Somnath is the current Chairman of ISRO.