ISRO SPADEX Mission: India is preparing for a big leap in space, know why this mission of ISRO is special

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is ready to take a big leap. It will launch two satellites, SDMX-1 and SDMX-2, from Sriharikota on Monday night. These satellites will perform ‘docking’ and ‘undocking’ in space. If successful, India will become the fourth country to achieve this feat after the US, Russia and China. This mission is essential for future space exploration, including bringing samples from the Moon, the Indian Space Station and landing astronauts on the Moon. The PSLV rocket will place these satellites in an orbit of 476 km. ‘Space Docking Experiment’ (SPADEX) will be conducted in the first week of January.

Demonstration of ‘docking’ and ‘undocking’ techniques

The purpose of these ISRO satellites is to demonstrate ‘docking’ and ‘undocking’ technology in space. If understood in simple language, ‘docking’ means joining two vehicles in space and ‘undocking’ means separating them. If this experiment is successful, India will become the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat. Till now only America, Russia and China have been able to do this.

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Why is this mission of ISRO important?

Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said the mission will mark India’s entry into the special category of countries capable of mastering space docking. The SpadX mission is expected to prove to be an important step for India’s future efforts in space exploration, including bringing rocks and soil from the Moon to Earth, the proposed Indian space station and landing an astronaut on the lunar surface.

Only America, Russia and China have mastered till now

So far only America, Russia and China have mastered space docking technology. An ISRO official said the primary objective of the SpadX mission is to ‘dock’ and ‘undock’ a combination of two small spacecraft (SDX-one, which is the chaser, and SDX-two, which is the target) in low Earth circular orbit. ‘To develop and demonstrate the technology required.

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what is the purpose of the mission

The second objective of the mission is to demonstrate the transfer of electrical power between docked spacecraft which is necessary for future applications such as in-space robotics, overall spacecraft control after separation from docking, and payload operation. Jitendra Singh said that this capability is important for India’s lunar and interplanetary missions. Docking technology enables multi-launch missions and supports future human spaceflight.

Both satellites will orbit the Earth for two years

After performing ‘docking’ and ‘undocking’ experiments, both satellites will continue to orbit the Earth for separate missions for two years. The SDX-one satellite is equipped with a High Resolution Camera (HRC) and SDX-two has two payloads, a Miniature Multispectral (MMX) payload and a Radiation Monitor (RADMON). ISRO said these payloads will provide high-resolution images, natural resource monitoring, vegetation studies and in-orbit radiation environment measurements, which have multiple applications.