ISRO has been busy for quite some time now. Busy setting up benchmarks after benchmarks. Known globally for its low-cost, yet pinpoint precise technology, ISRO set another record today, launching 20 satellites on a single rocket.
The space organisation actually beat its own record — one set up in 2008 wherein the space agency launched 10 satellites. With the current launch however, ISRO is continuing to show the world that low-cost, cheap space technology is pretty much a reality now, and you don’t really NASA/SpaceX like budgets to achieve feats like these.
The launch, as has pretty much been a habit with ISRO now, was done with clinical precision. The rocket followed the exact path set and devised for it by the agency and successfully placed the required 20 satellites in low earth orbits.
Apart from Cartostat 2, which is its primary payload, the PSLV C-34 is also carrying satellites from a couple of Indian universities including one from Satyabhama University ( To study greenhouse gases) and another from the College of Engineering, Pune (To provide point to point messaging). Also on board is an orbiter designed and built by Terra Bella, a Google company based in Mountain View, that is capable of capturing sub-meter resolution imagery and HD video.
Meanwhile, Cartostat 2, which is India’s primary object of interest, will be transmitting images that will then be used for cartographic (or for drawing maps) applications. Some of the uses of the data transmitted back by it will include coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring and water distribution. The data will also used for the creation of land use maps, precision study, change detection to bring out geographical and man-made features and in the manufacture of Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS).
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