ISRO To Launch European Satellite Proba-3 Into Space For Solar Study On December 4

Proba-3 is designed to study the sun, as part of a multi-satellite mission made up of two small satellites launched together as a single unit in an elliptical orbit. After a certain interval, the satellites will be separated and placed into a relative tandem elliptical orbit.

All this will be achieved autonomously without relying on guidance from the ground, which will also ensure that the two satellites do not collide with each other. The ESA has been experimenting with such formation flying through its multi-satellite missions.

The two satellites – Coronagraph and Occulter – will maintain formation for around six hours at a time, forming a virtual giant satellite. The Coronagraph will block the binding light from the solar disk, allowing uninterrupted observation of the sun’s corona.

Due to the high fuel costs required to maintain formation throughout the orbit, each will be divided into six hours of formation-flying manoeuvres at apogee, and the rest of the time doing passive safe drifting.

The Indian space agency, meanwhile, is also working on various earth observation satellites and technology demonstrating missions including NISAR, RISAT-1B, Resourcesat-3 series, TDS-01, TDS-02, Oceansat-3A, IDRSS series, NVS-02, SPADEX – all at different stages of development.

It is overseeing the preparation of the first uncrewed mission (G1) of Gaganyaan, India’s first manned spaceflight. It has identified its next space exploration missions – Chandrayaan-4 – to collect lunar samples from the moon and safely return it to Earth, as well as the Venus Orbiter Mission to study Venus to gain better understanding of its origin, evolutionary processes and atmosphere.