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ISRO has given us many reasons to celebrate in the past, and it is back once again with good news.

They are developing an indigenous position determination system that will operate in the regions located in a 1500 km radius around India.

However, what really makes this news special is that, it will serve as the ‘replacement GPS’ in remote areas of India.

Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is a satellite based navigation system developed by ISRO with a constellation of 7 satellites and complementary ground infrastructure.

IRNSS is essential because the foreign government-controlled global navigation satellite system does not work in all situations.

4 of the 7 satellites in IRNSS constellation are already in orbit. They are IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D.

The remaining 3 satellites are targeted for launch between January 2016 and March 2016.

On the sidelines of a lecture on India’s Space Mission, Deviprasad Karnik, the director, publication and public relations of ISRO said this:

‘We will have our own position determination system using our own navigation constellation, the IRNSS series which will be operational by middle of next year. It is a kind of replacement GPS. The US is offering the GPS navigation. IRNSS is indigenous. Once the constellation is completed, we need some time to establish the accuracy part, validation and other things. The advantage is that the navigation range has been designed to span around 1,500 km radius around India. GPS is not available at all places. Signal is weak in remote areas but our own signal will be available in remote areas with better accuracy. Monitoring and effective management of fleet of trucks or ship monitoring will be done through spacecraft. For example, for ships the system can inform which route will be more effective. That will save time and fuel’

Having a position accuracy of more than 20 meters, this system is comparable to the best in the world.

It’s almost time for us to stand up and salute the guys working at ISRO, AGAIN!

Source: NDTV