The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is expected to formally commission its first indigenously designed Rs 245 crore Multi-Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) in next three to five months. Isro has once again proved that its solutions are cost effective. officials have said while other countries have developed similar solutions for around Rs 900 crore, Isro developed it for around Rs 245 crore.

The radar, which is capable to track 10 different objects at a time, will help the research organisation in its future missions including the space capsule recovery, reusable launch vehicle and human space programmes along with space debris tracking to protect the space assets of the country.

Isro has completed the project of the first indigenous multi-object tracking radar, a capability which is owned by a very few countries in the world at present, said MYS Prasad, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, ISRO. He also showcased the new radar at SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota, in Andhra Pradesh.

He said that ISRO, with the support of the industry, was able to build the capability with a very low cost and the MOTR it has developed is worth three times the money spend on it when it is compared with the MOTRs in other countries. The project, which received approval in 2012, was completed in three years and was able to complete in the scheduled time, which ended on February, 2015.

While the existing radars, which ISRO has six in its control, is capable of tracking tracking single objects and are used for tracking the launch vehicles, in order to meet the range safety requirements, it is essential to track all the targets of the launch vehicles simultaneously during nominal and non-nominal missions. The MOTR will be used to track multiple targets during ISRO's launches from SDSC SHAR. It can also be used for vertical wind profiling.

"This would be required in our future missions, where the reusable launch vehicle and human space programme has to re-enter into the atmosphere, different components will be detached at stages and each has to be monitored at the same time. The MOTR will help for this," said Prasad.

Regular tracking of space debris is required to update the space debris catalogue and to protect the country's space assets, the satellites from any possible collision by tacking the movement of the debris.

"Between 2010 and 2015, at least 12 times we had to deviate the position of the satellite and bring it back to orbit later, to avoid collision with debris," he said. At present, it is the space debris are tracked through NASA's help.

Unlike the normal radars with a dish antenna, the MOTR has a rectangular antenna which is stationary during operation and would radiate beam which is electronically steered to identify the objects.

The rectangular antenna comprises of 192 rectangular bricks or tiles, which has a total of 4608 radiating antenna elements connected. The antenna could be rotated 360 degree and fixed vertical or horizontal angle.

It is capable of tracking long range to 50 cm X 50 cm object size at a slant range of 1000 kilometer for objects and 30 cm X 30 cm size at a slant range of 800 kilometer in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for space debris.

The design of the radar was done by ISRO and the high end software used in the systems was also developed by its team. The software, which was developed by a six member team, has developed the software would cost around Rs 100 crore in the market now, said V Seshagiri Rao, former project director of the MOTR project. A total of 100 young engineers worked behind the whole project, of which around 80 were in the SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota, in Andhra Pradesh.

Industry collaboration

While globally there are a few companies which has been developing MOTR for several years, the radar now developed by the ISRO is technology-wise on par with the systems developed many of these companies, said Prasad. A MOTR, developed by Israel-based Elta and sold widely for defense operations across the globe, costs around Rs 800-900 crore while practically, in size and capabilities is almost equivalent to the MOTR developed by ISRO now.

US-based defense technology firms Raytheon Company, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Canada and Europe based Thales Group, Japan-based NEC and Israel-based Elta are the companies which are currently capable of making MOTRs, said B V Subba Rao, the project director for the MOTR project.

ISRO joined this group of manufacturers by developing its own technology. The feat was achieved with the help of Indian companies and all the components except the Radome, the dome structure which protects the radar antenna and related equipment from environment was imported from US.

Around 22 companies were part of ISRO's effort to set up the MOTRs, including Hyderabad-based Astra Microwave Products Pvt Ltd which produced the multi layer patch antenna, transmit/receive module units and DC-DC converters, Hyderabad-based NS Engineering which produced mechanical structure with cooling arrangement, Chennai-based Cape Electronics, which developed 300 volts DC power distribution panels. Only the Radome, a dome structure to protect the antenna from environment was imported, since it would have taken four to five years to develop it indigenously, said Subba Rao.

With the technology being implemented and tested, the ISRO will fully develop the system in an year's time and would look at technology transfer, where interested companies can buy the technology and work with the vendors to cater the market, they said. The design could be used in Airports, meteorology related operations and in defense.