
ISRO to launch record 104 satellites on Feb 15 - option_greek
http://www.kaumudi.com/innerpage1.php?newsid=87911
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swatkat
I am interested to know how all those payload are mounted on PSLV's payload
adapter. Cartosat 2 Series is the primary payload, and remaining 103
satellites are co-passengers.

Usually, PSLV mission brochures used to depict how payloads are mounted on its
payload adapter. However, it isn't shown this time.

a) Cartosat 2 Series - primary payload.

b) 88xDove (88x3U CubeSats) - 22 QuadPack[1] deployers.

c) 8xLEMUR (8x3U CubeSats) - 2 QuadPack deployers.

d) BGUSat (3U CubeSat), PEASSS (3U CubeSat), DIDO-2 (3U CubeSat), Al-Farabi-1
(2U CubeSat), and Nayif-1 (1U CubeSat) - 1 QuadPack deployer.

e) INS-1A and INS-1B are not in CubeSat format. So, they need to be mounted
separately on payload adapter.

So, we have a primary payload + 25 QuadPack deployers + 2 nano-sats. Hopefully
we'll get some info during mission live broadcast on how these payloads are
mounted on PSLV.

[1]
[http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=0...](http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=0&article=3161&context=smallsat&type=additional)

~~~
greglindahl
Plenty of photos at: [https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/02/14/indian-rocket-set-
to-p...](https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/02/14/indian-rocket-set-to-
place-104-satellites-in-orbit/)

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trothamel
88 of these are Planet Labs's Dove satellites, which are 4kg, 3U (10x10x30cm)
satellites. From what I understand, the goal of these is to image the entire
earth every day at 3-5 meter resolution.

~~~
hak8or
Surely the usa military or intelligence wouldn't be happy with that, right?
Who would have access to this information?

~~~
jofer
The US has surprisingly few restrictions on satellite imagery until you get
below ~50cm resolution. Beyond a short list of nations/groups that the US has
strict export controls with (e.g. N. Korea), there aren't any restrictions at
all on who can be sold imagery. Other countries (e.g. Canada) actually have
considerably more restrictions on collecting and selling imagery.

~~~
zackbloom
Is the resolution of commercial imaging products limited right now by law or
tech?

~~~
planteen
It was law until recently. WorldView-3 could image at a higher resolution than
it was allowed to sell when first launched.

[http://blog.digitalglobe.com/news/resolutionrestrictionslift...](http://blog.digitalglobe.com/news/resolutionrestrictionslifted/)

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ajeet_dhaliwal
Can someone with understanding of satellite launches explain to a layman how
the satellites get into their respective orbits when launched together like
this?

~~~
trothamel
Well, most of the satellites will want to be in about the same orbit - the
fairly common sun-synchronous orbit, that passes over the same spot on earth
every day. They probably want to spread the satellites out over the orbit,
though.

I'm not sure if randomness would be enough to do this, but if not, they could
probably control things a little bit, at least for the Dove satellites (88 of
them). Since the Dove satellites can point themselves to take pictures, my
guess is that they can also choose to point themselves either perpendicular or
parallel to the orbital direction. Since there's a little bit of atmosphere
left up there, over time that should be enough to intentionally spread the
satellites out.

This is just a guess, but I know similar techniques have been used in the past
on satellites that were out of fuel - for example, Skylab.

~~~
breu
This is exactly what is done to spread the satellites in their orbits.

[https://support.planet.com/hc/en-
us/articles/212641458-How-d...](https://support.planet.com/hc/en-
us/articles/212641458-How-do-you-spread-your-satellites-out-after-launch-)

This paper covers diff drag in more detail.
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.03270](https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.03270)

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vinay427
The ISRO 2016-2017 budget is approximately $1.1 billion USD [1]. The national
budget is about $301 billion USD [2]. That means that ISRO constitutes
approximately 0.37%.

[1]: [http://www.isro.gov.in/budget-glance](http://www.isro.gov.in/budget-
glance)

[2]:
[http://indiabudget.nic.in/glance.asp](http://indiabudget.nic.in/glance.asp)

~~~
trothamel
For comparison, NASA is about 0.5% of the US budget. At the height of spending
on Apollo in 1966, it was 4.4%.

~~~
mrfusion
Does that include entitlements?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Entitlements come directly out of payroll taxes, so it's not a legitimate
comparison. You'd want to compare defense spending, as that is the largest
spending item that comes from federal income tax receipts.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _Entitlements come directly out of payroll taxes_

When the latter fail to cover the former, those entitlements will be paid out
of income taxes.

I don't think it's honest to lump out a preferred pool of spending like that.
I could similarly claim all spending linked to corporate and capital gains
taxes not be counted as part of the budget.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I mean, we could argue about this all day, no (although, the income is
separated logically, which is why I made my argument in parent comment; it
would take Congressional effort to spend payroll tax income on non-entitlement
spending)? Sure, federal tax receipts will be used to replenish social
security and Medicare, but I'm fine with that. We can afford to cut defense
spending back, as we spend more than the next 8 countries combined. That's our
own money being squandered.

[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2016/jan/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2016/jan/13/barack-obama/obama-us-spends-more-military-
next-8-nations-combi/)

------
swatkat
Payloads:

Cartosat-2 Series

INS-1A

INS-1B

88xDove

8xLEMUR

BGUSat

Al-Farabi-1

PEASS

DIDO-2

Nayif-1

Mission page:
[http://www.isro.gov.in/launcher/pslv-c37-cartosat-2-series-s...](http://www.isro.gov.in/launcher/pslv-c37-cartosat-2-series-
satellite)

Brochure: [http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c37-cartosat-2-series-
satellite/...](http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c37-cartosat-2-series-
satellite/pslv-c37-brochure)

------
zump
ABCD here, wish I could work for ISRO. Would gladly move to a country where I
don't even speak the language and get 10% salary.

~~~
winter_blue
Your loyalty should lie with the United States, not the nation of your
ancestors. This sort of ancestral-country-patriotism is not good. Let me quote
Theodore Roosevelt:

 _" There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer
to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the
very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans
born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all … The one
absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all
possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to
become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-
Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-
Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each
at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with
the other citizens of the American Republic … There is no such thing as a
hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good
American is the man who is an American and nothing else."_ Source:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenated_American](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenated_American)

~~~
zump
Why can't someone sympathize and be well-wisher for the nation of their
ancestors?

~~~
greglindahl
No reason why not -- those words were written the last time the US was having
a huge backlash against immigrants. In that case it was a backlash against
Catholics, and Europeans who weren't as white as Northern Europeans.

Today, being a hyphenated American is no big deal.

~~~
zump
The playbook remains the same, no matter how stale.

