Kya Bidu
December 12th, 2001, 02:13 PM
Some background
Pakistan's space programme started in 1961, with the establishment of SUPARCO (Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission) working under the PAEC (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission). They launched their first rocket in 1962 to an altitude of 140 km. Approximately 150 launches have been conducted by them in the intervening 40 years. All of these launches were for atmospheric research or sounding rockets. SUPARCO currently does not have expertise to design and manufacture a satellite launch vehicle, and have to depend on foreign launchers to launch their satellites.
Their first satellite Badr A/I was launched by China on July 16, 1990, aboard its 'Long March 2' launcher. It was an 'experimental digital communications' satellite. The satellite reached 'end of life' on 21 Aug, 1990 due to onboard systems failure, and on 8 December, 1990 burned up in the atmosphere.
The second satellite Badr B/II was launched by a Russian Zenit 2 on 10 December, 2001, more than 11 years after their first satellite launch, and a delay of more than two years. It was co-launched along with the following
Meteor 3M-N1: Russian Meteorological sat.
Maroc-Tubsat: Technology Satellite from Morocco.
KOMPASS: Russian Geophysics Satellite
Reflektor: Joint Russian / USAF Satellite.
Badr B/II
The satellite itself is 51.0cm x 51.0cm x 46.5cm, with a mass of ~70 kg. It is in a near circular 1040 km sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 99.64 degrees, and orbital period of 110 minutes. The payload consists of a radiation dosimeter, an 'store and forward experiment' for email, a magnitometer, and a ccd camera. So in effect what this satellite does is measures radiation, measures magnetism, forwards email and takes badly blurred pictures - given the size of the onbaord ccd camera. :)
After the initial launch, there has been no news on satellite aquisition by ground tracking stations and data transmissions by the satellite, further there have been no other releases on the health of the satellite. If we do not see any press release in the next few days, the satellite MAY have a problem! Even the SUPARCO site does not have any updates, other than the news of satellite launch and succesful orbital insertion.
There is nothing extraordinary about the satellite, as one would naturally assume with first launches. This is a demonstrator with which pakistan hopes to build its satellite future. They have designed and constructed this in-house, and their capabilities, can only get better as far as satellite construction goes. However they are still to achieve any satellite launch capability, though the head of the SUPARCO says they will have one by 2003! I don't know how succesful they will be, but one can never know given the large Chinese inputs they are sure to receive. Launch capability means integrating several different technologies, such as fuels, guidance, orbital insertion, ground tracking, satellite construction etc... It is anybody's guess as to how succesful they can be in the space of 1 year.
Other things
Pakistan has other worries on its mind too. In 1983 they applied for and were awarded 5 slots to position geo stationary satellites. These were time bound and if by April 2003 they do not put a satellite in GSO they WILL LOOSE those slots, which can then be taken up by others. They had contracted with Alcatel of France for a GSO satellite, but AFAIK, the construction of such a satellite has not even begun yet!! If there is no satellite in the 38° orbit by April 2003, they will loose that slot! They have to find someone to construct a GSO sat and position it in GSO for them in slightly less than 1.5 years, looks impossible to me. Geosats are not available off the shelf, and they are not cheap. A geostat. launch is not cheap either.
There were also some rumors sometime back that pakistan had offered Russia about $130 mil to launch an earth observation satellite for it (possibly the RESURS-IS) which could double as a 'spy sat'. Though I'm not too sure about this. Firstly the RESURS has a resolution of 2m and that is not very useful as a spy satellite, admitedly though it is better than nothing. Secondly where would they get $120-140 million from? If it ever happened I guess they would have asked the Russians for a loan, and the Russians probably would have kicked them in their gonads and sent them packing. :D :D In all probability this is just a rumor. India too would have had a say in the matter.
All-in-all Badr B in the short term is nothing to worry about, however in the long term, if they can input enough money and scientific manpower into their space and R&D programmes (and I'm taking 100's of millions of dollars and 100's of thousands of manhours per year), then we should expect to see a half-decent paki spy satellite in the next 6-10 years. Caveat being they are not beneficiaries of Chinese largesse to their pet poodle (pakistan). BTW just FYI the ISRO projected budget this year is ~ $400 mil. It has never been below $ 100 million for the last few years, which is why we are seeing the results now.
All opinions mine of course...
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Bas kya
Pakistan's space programme started in 1961, with the establishment of SUPARCO (Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission) working under the PAEC (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission). They launched their first rocket in 1962 to an altitude of 140 km. Approximately 150 launches have been conducted by them in the intervening 40 years. All of these launches were for atmospheric research or sounding rockets. SUPARCO currently does not have expertise to design and manufacture a satellite launch vehicle, and have to depend on foreign launchers to launch their satellites.
Their first satellite Badr A/I was launched by China on July 16, 1990, aboard its 'Long March 2' launcher. It was an 'experimental digital communications' satellite. The satellite reached 'end of life' on 21 Aug, 1990 due to onboard systems failure, and on 8 December, 1990 burned up in the atmosphere.
The second satellite Badr B/II was launched by a Russian Zenit 2 on 10 December, 2001, more than 11 years after their first satellite launch, and a delay of more than two years. It was co-launched along with the following
Meteor 3M-N1: Russian Meteorological sat.
Maroc-Tubsat: Technology Satellite from Morocco.
KOMPASS: Russian Geophysics Satellite
Reflektor: Joint Russian / USAF Satellite.
Badr B/II
The satellite itself is 51.0cm x 51.0cm x 46.5cm, with a mass of ~70 kg. It is in a near circular 1040 km sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 99.64 degrees, and orbital period of 110 minutes. The payload consists of a radiation dosimeter, an 'store and forward experiment' for email, a magnitometer, and a ccd camera. So in effect what this satellite does is measures radiation, measures magnetism, forwards email and takes badly blurred pictures - given the size of the onbaord ccd camera. :)
After the initial launch, there has been no news on satellite aquisition by ground tracking stations and data transmissions by the satellite, further there have been no other releases on the health of the satellite. If we do not see any press release in the next few days, the satellite MAY have a problem! Even the SUPARCO site does not have any updates, other than the news of satellite launch and succesful orbital insertion.
There is nothing extraordinary about the satellite, as one would naturally assume with first launches. This is a demonstrator with which pakistan hopes to build its satellite future. They have designed and constructed this in-house, and their capabilities, can only get better as far as satellite construction goes. However they are still to achieve any satellite launch capability, though the head of the SUPARCO says they will have one by 2003! I don't know how succesful they will be, but one can never know given the large Chinese inputs they are sure to receive. Launch capability means integrating several different technologies, such as fuels, guidance, orbital insertion, ground tracking, satellite construction etc... It is anybody's guess as to how succesful they can be in the space of 1 year.
Other things
Pakistan has other worries on its mind too. In 1983 they applied for and were awarded 5 slots to position geo stationary satellites. These were time bound and if by April 2003 they do not put a satellite in GSO they WILL LOOSE those slots, which can then be taken up by others. They had contracted with Alcatel of France for a GSO satellite, but AFAIK, the construction of such a satellite has not even begun yet!! If there is no satellite in the 38° orbit by April 2003, they will loose that slot! They have to find someone to construct a GSO sat and position it in GSO for them in slightly less than 1.5 years, looks impossible to me. Geosats are not available off the shelf, and they are not cheap. A geostat. launch is not cheap either.
There were also some rumors sometime back that pakistan had offered Russia about $130 mil to launch an earth observation satellite for it (possibly the RESURS-IS) which could double as a 'spy sat'. Though I'm not too sure about this. Firstly the RESURS has a resolution of 2m and that is not very useful as a spy satellite, admitedly though it is better than nothing. Secondly where would they get $120-140 million from? If it ever happened I guess they would have asked the Russians for a loan, and the Russians probably would have kicked them in their gonads and sent them packing. :D :D In all probability this is just a rumor. India too would have had a say in the matter.
All-in-all Badr B in the short term is nothing to worry about, however in the long term, if they can input enough money and scientific manpower into their space and R&D programmes (and I'm taking 100's of millions of dollars and 100's of thousands of manhours per year), then we should expect to see a half-decent paki spy satellite in the next 6-10 years. Caveat being they are not beneficiaries of Chinese largesse to their pet poodle (pakistan). BTW just FYI the ISRO projected budget this year is ~ $400 mil. It has never been below $ 100 million for the last few years, which is why we are seeing the results now.
All opinions mine of course...
----
Bas kya