The Indian Space Research Organization or ISRO will launch its first 300-kg radar imaging satellite, Risat, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Monday. This imaging satellite, built by Israel Aerospace Industries, has all-weather capabilities, which means it can take pictures during day and night and under all-weather conditions.
In addition to surveillance applications, the spacecraft will keep a watch on movements on the borders and help the country in anti-infiltration and anti-terrorist operations and also cautions disasters like cyclones, floods as well as landslides. Risat will come in handy for defense applications as well.
ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C12 is expected to take off at around 6.45 a.m. on April 20 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, an island by the sea 100 km north of Chennai. Around 17 minutes later, the 300-kg Risat will be put in an orbit 550 km from the earth. The co-passenger on PSLV-C12 will be a microsatellite called Anusat, a 40-kg satellite built by Chennai-based Anna University. The countdown would commence 48 hours before the take-off (Saturday morning).
Anusat will be a store-and-forward communication satellite that will enable transfer of confidential academic material like exam question papers, to get rid of leakages.
Unlike ISRO's previous remote sensing satellites that used optical imaging, Risat uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) equipped with several antennas to obtain signals that will be processed into high-resolution pictures.
