ISRO

NASA

NISAR

Tapan Misra

GSLV

The flight test for the biggest collaboration project betweenand(NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) will be held over the city sky. The project involves building a 2,600 kg satellite to understand changes in the earth’s surface, icesheet collapses and natural calamities. Space Application Centre of ISRO has planned the flight testing late in March or early April to give scientists direction for the NISAR program that is scheduled to be launched in 2020.The satellite is designed to observe and take measurements of some of the planet's most complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides. Regarding the testing that is being planned in a couple of weeks, SAC Directorsaid, “The flight testing will happen right above aapnu Amdavad. It will be at an altitude of 8 to 10 km above Ahmedabad till final planning of the NISAR program. We will read data from airborne station first which will help scientists prepare for the program.The frequency and solutions will be same as real project but coverage area will be limited.” A 5 km radius of Ahmedabad city will be taken into account by the station for testing purpose. NISAR will reveal information about the evolution and state of the earth’s crust. The data will help scientists better understand our planet’s processes and changing climate. This will also help in hazard management. About their partnership with NASA, Misra said, “After we launched RISAT in April 2012, NASA evinced in-terest in developing a satellite jointly that can help observing earth in better way with new technology and that is when the journey started.”RISAT facilitates cloud penetration and imaging even without sunlight. For the airborne test model, both L and S bands have been developed by ISRO. For the final mission, ISRO will design and develop the S-band SAR, Spacecraft Bus, data transmission system, spacecraft integration and testing, launch using heavy rocket geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle () and on-orbit operations, while NASA will be responsible for design and development of L-band SAR, 12m unfurlable antenna and its deployment elements, global positioning system (GPS) and data recorder. The satellite will be able to measure earth crust movement minutely, up to millimetres.