The Indian space sector regulator and facilitator, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) has given the authorisation to an Indian firm to build a facility that can be used to track and communicate with satellites.
Commonly known as a satellite ground station or an earth station, such facilities perform what is known as Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TT&C). This involves tracking satellites, issuing commands to satellites, monitoring their health, and downloading data from satellites.
This approval for a private satellite ground station is in line with the Indian government’s decision to permit private firms to perform all kinds of space activities.
Indian companies have already launched experimental rockets and are gearing up for space launches. Meanwhile, multiple Indian-built satellites have been launched from India and abroad. Likewise, the Indian government has now approved the setting up of a ground station by the firm AzistaBST.
Dr P K Jain, Director- Program Management and Authorization Directorate (PMAD), IN-SPACe, said, “This authorisation is yet another step by the Government to encourage and enable Indian satellite operators who will now have alternative Indian ground station service providers for their satellite operations and data reception in the UHF band.”
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While the government-run Indian space agency ISRO operates its own tracking facilities, the private one is aimed at domestic and international customers.
Many firms that operate satellites do not invest in their own ground stations, which are quite expensive to set up. Instead, they depend on those who operate ground stations and offer their service for a price. The space industry calls it Ground Station as a Service (GSaaS).
The private ground station has been approved to operate in the Ultra High Frequency(UHF) band of 300 MHz to 3 GHz. This band is primarily used for satellite communications, including data relay for remote sensing, telemetry, and control of satellites.
They support various applications such as weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, and communications for scientific research and military operations.
An Indian Earth-imaging satellite constellation
In an unprecedented move, the Indian government and private sector are to unite for building a constellation of earth-imaging satellites with multiple sensors.
Operating a constellation comprising dozens or hundreds of satellites can help in getting a comprehensive global coverage, and the capability of imaging the same location at regular intervals. Such constellations serve various commercial, scientific and strategic purposes.
This includes disaster management, agricultural monitoring, studying environmental changes and surveillance of sensitive areas.
As the first step towards building such a constellation, the IN-SPACe released an Expression of Interest (EOI).
It invites private Indian firms to build and manage a constellation under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. This long-term project involves the design, development, launch, and maintenance of a constellation of satellites equipped with advanced imaging technologies.
These satellites would be placed in Low Earth orbit (a region that is 300-2000 km above the Earth’s surface). As they are very close to the Earth, satellites placed in LEO can capture very high-resolution pictures and short videos and can transmit them in near-real-time.
Dr Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe said, “This is an initiative by IN-SPACe & ISRO towards creating a self-reliant, robust, and sustainable Earth Observation System catering to the growing demand for Earth Observation data.”
The satellites in the proposed constellation are meant to carry a combination of sensors such as panchromatic, multispectral, hyperspectral, and microwave. Once built and tested, these satellites would be placed in orbit by Indian rockets.
It must be noted that building and maintaining a satellite constellation is a constant process. In this case, the private firm would have to monitor the health of all satellites in the constellation, download the data generated by the satellites, process the data and offer it for a multitude of applications.
The private entity will also have the option of developing their own ground-based facilities to communicate with the satellites, upload commands and download data. Alternatively, they could use the ground-based facilities of Ground Stations as a Service (GSaaS) providers such as AzisatBST. Therefore, this entire project is capable of generating a significant amount of economic activity within India.
Sidharth MP
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