SRIHARIKOTA: The payload which lifted off from India’s only spaceport on Monday is not just another launch, on just another PSLV. The C30 mission has put what is expected to be one of ISRO’s most important contribution to the field of cutting edge astrophysics and astronomy. The ASTROSAT, and its five state-of-the-art eyes in the sky, will be studying the stuff of dreams — black holes, supernova remnants, neutron stars, and maybe even dark matter!
That a PSLV launch went off with near textbook precision is fast becoming the norm and the same was true for the C30. Twenty-five minutes and 32 seconds after the PSLV-C30 lifted off from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, the mission was a success. Apart from ASTROSAT, the PSLV was ferrying the first US satellites to be carried by ISRO, crossing the half century mark in foreign satellites placed in orbit along the way.
The ASTROSAT, however, was the undeniable star. From Monday, India became only the fourth country after the US, Russia and Japan, to have operational space observatories in orbit. But the ASTROSAT is the first that will be able to observe celestial objects in multiple wavelengths — visible, ultraviolet and X-ray — at the same time. The primary strength of the observatory though, remains in observing high energy events and objects through its strong X-ray toolkit.
The gadgets in ASTROSAT’s utility belt are perfect for its mission brief. Which brings us to the most exciting aspect of ISRO’s latest space toy. The ASTROSAT’s primary focus will be celestial objects and events that are so exotic that their workings are still a matter of hypothesis. Black holes, neutron stars, supernova remnants — in effect, everything that puts out emissions of X-rays.
“Our primary focus will be in observing celestial bodies that emit high-energy radiation, which is what our X-ray payloads will be for,” said K Suryanarayana Sarma, Project Director, ASTROSAT/ADITYA-L1. By going straight out and grasping a field that is still evolving, ISRO has made the ASTROSAT something that will be in demand world over.
Data from the ASTROSAT is expected to throw light on many aspects of the cosmos that is hardly understood. “We hope that we will bring a new understanding of how all these things work. Many of the things that we are equipped to study are things that are part of upcoming science and not very well understood. The ASTROSAT will be providing observational data on them, and we hope new information,” he added.
The ASTROSAT also has in its payload, a tool that will enable it to capture more new information by studying transient events that put out high radiation. The Scanning Sky Monitor, mounted on a rotating platform, will constantly observe the sky. “The rest of the instruments will then be targeted on the target of opportunity, if it is deemed of sufficient interest,” pointed out Sarma.
While ASTROSAT’s mission brief and its toolkit is impressive, the most important contribution it is set to make to science is in how ISRO plans to disseminate data. The first six months after calibration, which will take another six months, will be a lock in period for the scientists who built the satellite. Once that first year is over, however, the data is set to be thrown open to the public.
“There will be a committee of scientists who will examine the proposals, both domestic and international, and allot time on the satellite to ones that they deem worthy. It will be a very strict evaluation process, but it will be open to university students, distinguished scientists, universities etc,” said Sarma. According to ISRO, the move will increase the scientific base of the mission exponentially.
Whatever the eventual destination of the data, ISRO has finally managed to give Indian scientists access to their very own X-ray space telescope — one that is in some aspects, like ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said, is “more advanced than international projects with launch dates two years away.” The ASTROSAT is India’s tryst with the exotic. In space.