ISRO Launches Pollution-monitoring Satellite

Guwahati: The rapidly growing pollution in the country and the world at large has irked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as well for which today the space research organization has launched a special earth observation satellite on Wednesday. The sole purpose behind the launch of this particular satellite is to monitor the pollution created by the industries of the country.

The Indian satellite, Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HySIS), apart from monitoring the pollution-creating industries of the nation, it will also have other applications in agriculture, forestry, geology, coastal zone study and inland water studies. A satellite designed to be helpful for multiple sectors of the country, the HySIS weighs nearly 380 kgs and is launches to be placed in a 636-km polar sun-synchronous orbit. On being placed in this orbit, the satellite will be able to pass over any geographical area of the earth when the inclination of the sun is the same. HySIS will have a mission life of five years.

An ISRO official states, “The satellite will observe the surface of the earth and provide all the soil, water, vegetation, and other data. Scientists may pick and choose what they want, but pollution monitoring will be possible.”

In addition to the earth observation satellite, 30 micro and nanosatellites of eight other countries have also launched which were scheduled to be launched on Thursday at 09:58 am. All these 31 satellites are launched in two different orbits by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C43).

Of the 30 other satellites, the US alone has 22 nanosatellites and 1 microsatellite. Other countries, like the Netherlands, Australia, Finland, Canada, Columbia, Malaysia and Spain too have their satellites launched on Thursday.

The GSAT 11 satellite which is designed to be a heavy communication satellite is also scheduled to be launched from Kourou, French Guiana, on December 5. As the satellite is quite heavyweight weighing 5,854 kg, it would be too heavy to be launched by any Indian launch vehicle.

Also read: ISRO Launches its Latest Communication Satellite GSAT-29