India's gift satellite to SAARC likely to be launched in 18 months

Isro's Cartosat satellites to detect illegal mining

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has said that the configuration of the SAARC satellite would be soon be finalised and within 18 months the vehicle would be launched.

"The configuration of the SAARC satellite will be soon decided. Then within 18 months, the satellite would be launched," A S Kiran Kumar, chairman ISRO told reporters after the successful of launch of PSLV-C27/IRNSS-1D, India's fourth navigation satellite, from the Sriharikotta spaceport, around 85 km from Chennai.

It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mooted the idea of a satellite serving the needs of SAARC members.

Kumar said ISRO will be launching a UK satellite for a fee and two more Indian navigation satellites, a GSAT series communication satellite using an Indian rocket and a heavier communication satellite using Arianespace rocket. Isro will also launch a technology demonstrator for reusable launch vehicle this year.

"In couple of weeks time the tests on reusable launch vehicle will be over and in three months time ISRO will be able to launch the same," said Kumar.

Commenting on the third rocket launch pad, M Y S.Prasad, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre said that the construction would take around five years time. A study report has been submitted and the government has to take a decision after reviewing the report.

V K Dadhwal, director, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) said that Isro would use its Cartosat satellites to detect illegal mining.

He told reporters that the Indian Bureau of Mines have been entrusted with the task of drawing the boundary lines for the mines and once it is done, then NRSC could determine the extent of illegal mining done.

"We will not be able to quantify the amount of resources illegally mined. We can tell the area by which the miner has gone beyond his boundary", he said.