The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)

• IRNSS is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
•  Will complete control of the Indian government.
• The requirement of such a navigation system is driven by the fact that access to foreign government-controlled global navigation satellite systems is not guaranteed in hostile situations.
• The IRNSS would provide two services,
  1.  Standard Positioning Service open for civilian use
  2.  Restricted Service, encrypted one, for authorised users (military).

DEVELOPMENT

•  ISRO opened a new satellite navigation center within the campus of ISRO Deep Space Network (DSN) at Byalalu near Bangalore in Karnataka on 28 May 2013.
•  A network of 21 ranging stations located across the country will provide data for the orbit determination of the satellites and monitoring of the navigation signal.
• Its location in low latitudes facilitates a coverage with low-inclination satellites.
• Three satellites will be in geostationary orbit over theIndian Ocean.
• Missile targeting could be an important military application for the constellation.

DESCRIPTION

• The proposed system would consist of a constellation of 7 satellites and a support ground segment.
• 3 of the satellites in the constellation will be located in geostationary orbit (GSO).
• 2 of the GSOs will cross the equator at 55° East and two at 111.75° East.
•  Such an arrangement would mean all seven satellites would have continuous radio visibility with Indian control stations.
• The satellite payloads would consist of atomic clocks and electronic equipment to generate the navigation signals.
• The system is intended to provide an absolute position accuracy of better than 10 meters throughout Indian landmass and better than 20 meters in the Indian Ocean as well as a region extending approximately 1,500 km around India.
• The ground segment of IRNSS constellation would consist of a Master Control Center (MCC), ground stations to track and estimate the satellites'

COST

• The total cost of the project is expected to be 1420 crore (US$233 million)
• cost of the ground segment being 300 crore(US$49 million)
• each satellites costing 125 crore (US$21 million 

ADVANTAGES

• IRNSS is a navigation system that will cover India, and also extend 1,500 kms from its boundaries.
• Help to build SAARC satellite and help the poor neighbouring countries.
•  used for terrestrial and marine navigation, disaster management, fleet management and for vehicle tracking.
•  IRNSS is similar to other satellite navigation service providers like USA’s GPS (Global Positioning System), Russia’s Glonass, Europe’s Galileo,Japan’s Quasi Zenith and China’s Beidou.
• It will make India independent from strategic use.

SATELLITE

1. IRNSS-1A   -- was the first navigational satellite , placed in geosynchronous orbit.was built at ISRO Satellite Centre,  the full constellation is planned to be placed in orbit by 2015.
2. IRNSS-1B  --  has been very precisely and successfully placed in its orbit through PSLV-C24.
3. IRNSS-1C -- wiill be launched soon

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