NASA and ISRO have shared an update on their first joint Earth observation mission. The NISAR satellite, short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, is expected to launch in March 2025.
NASA describes NISAR as a groundbreaking and very powerful satellite that will provide observations of the Earth’s changing surface, including alterations in forests and wetlands, ice sheets and glaciers, and the area surrounding earthquake faults and volcanoes.
In order to measure changes in the planet’s surface, including its ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice, NISAR will use the enormous reflector to send and receive microwave signals to and from the Earth’s surface twice every twelve days.
According to NASA, the mission would record alterations in the ecosystems of forests and wetlands as well as crustal motions and deformations like earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. The organization emphasized that NISAR’s worldwide and quick coverage will present previously unheard-of possibilities for disaster response, generating data to help with damage assessment and mitigation and making observations available both before and after disasters in a short amount of time.
NASA’s contribution to the cooperative NISAR mission is a 39-foot (12-meter) drum-shaped reflector. This reflector focuses microwave signals to and from Earth, allowing NISAR to gather scientific data. Before being transported to India on October 15, the reflector was at a facility in California. Before beginning its scientific operations, engineers there made sure the reflector could deploy correctly from its stowed position by applying reflective tape and taking other measures to control temperature spikes.
The reflector was transported to the ISRO Spacecraft Integration and Test Establishment for reintegration with the NISAR spacecraft for additional testing after arriving in Bengaluru on a NASA C-130 cargo plane. An official launch readiness date will be determined in collaboration with NASA and ISRO. NISAR satellite will launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota India.
-Raja Aditya
