EOS-01 : Earth Observation Satellite | UPSC

OVERVIEW

• India’s PSLV, in its fifty first flight (PSLV-C49) was successfully launched ; EOS-01 PSLV-C49 .
• It is the 2nd flight of PSLV in ‘DL’ configuration with 2 solid strap-on motors.

• The satellite has four stages and  44.5-metre tall PSLV-C49 is shown in the image below:

PSLV successfully launches EOS-01 and nine customer satellites from Sriharikota | ISRO’s Satellite EOS-01 | UPSC

LAUNCH PAD

• PSLV-C49 lifted-off at 1511 Hrs (IST) from the First Launch Pad of SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota .
• After 15 minutes and 20 seconds, EOS-01 was successfully injected into its orbit.

• ISRO Chairman K. Sivan described the mission as a “success” and termed it “unusual” for ISRO as a rocket launch cannot happen like “work from home” !
• All engineers and technicians had to travel from different centres and work together at Sriharikota for rocket launches.

APPLICATIONS

WHAT DO EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE DO ?

• Land and forest mapping and monitoring.
• Mapping of resources like water or minerals or fishes.
• Weather and climate observations
• Soil assessment
• Geospatial contour mapping.

EOS-01 AND RISAT’s APPLICATIONS

• EOS-01, and its sister RISATs, use X-band radars that operate at low wavelengths.
• They are considered best for monitoring of urban landscape and imaging of agricultural or forest land.

• The radar images are also considered to be immensely useful for military requirements.

NEW NOMENCLATURE

• EOS-01 is nothing but another Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) that will work together with RISAT-2B and RISAT-2BR1 launched last year.
• EOS-01 was initially named RISAT-2BR2.

• With EOS-01, ISRO is moving to a new naming system for its earth observation satellites which till now have been named thematically, according to the purpose they are meant for.

• Some INSAT-series, Resourcesat series, GISAT, Scatsat, and some more are all earth observation satellites.

NINE CUSTOMER SATELLITES

• The nine customer satellites from Lithuania (1), Luxembourg (4) and USA (4) were launched under a commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL). 

NEW ROCKET

• For the launch of EOS-01, ISRO used a new variant of its PSLV rocket that has been flown only once before last year.
• In January Last year , ISRO had placed the Microsat-R satellite in orbit.
• This Microsat-R was the one that was brought down in March last year .

• This variant of PSLV does not become waste after depositing its satellite in the orbit.

• This can be used as an orbital platform for other onboard instruments to perform experiments in space.
• In effect, the fourth stage acts like another satellite, with a life span of about six months.
• For the PSLV, this was the 51st flight. Only two of its launches have not been successful.

RADAR IMAGING

• EOS-01, like its cousins RISAT-2B and RISAT-2BR1, uses synthetic aperture radars to produce high-resolution images of the land.

• It can produce high-quality images in all conditions and at all times.
• Depending on the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation used by the radar, different properties on land can be captured in the image.