THE INDIAN SPACE Research Organisation plans to operate an oceanographic-monitoring satellite, the Oceansat, and is developing instruments for the spacecraft, which will be evaluated on missions to be performed by future Indian remote-sensing (IRS) satellites.
The IRS-P3, to be launched on the third Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in 1996, will be equipped with a modular opto-electronic scanner (MOS), designed by German space agency DLR, which will monitor the world's oceans. Another MOS instrument is being flown on the IRS-1C, which will be launched aboard a Russian Molniya booster in December.
The IRS-P4, which is scheduled to have a 1997 PSLV flight, will be a precursor of the Oceansat, equipped with passive-microwave radiometer, scattero- meter, radiometer and an ocean-colour instrument.
Source: Flight International