'Threats To India Can Be Better Mitigated': ISRO Plans To Launch 50 Satellites In 5 Years

ISRO chief S Somanath said the satellites would help in geo-intelligence gathering with the potential to track the movement of troops.

ISRO chief S Somnath

Source : PTI

Amid ISRO's growing cosmic prowess, India is planning to launch 50 satellites in the next five years for geo-intelligence gathering that will include the creation of a layer of satellites in various orbits with the potential to track the movement of troops and image thousands of kilometres of area. Speaking at an event organised by the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, ISRO chairman S Somanath on Thursday said India's present satellite fleet (54) was not enough to realise its aspiration to become a "strong nation", PTI reported.  Somnath said the fleet size needs to be ten times of what it has today. 

The ISRO chief, who oversaw the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L-1 missions, said it was important to improve the ability of satellites in order to detect changes and integrate more of AI-related and data-driven approach to analyse data and get only the necessary information. He emphasised that spacecraft are capable of observing a country's borders and neighbouring regions.

"All of it can be seen from satellites. This capability gives us enormous potential. We have been launching satellites to handle this, but there is a different way of thinking now and we need to look at it in a much more critical manner because the power of (any) nation is the ability to understand what is happening around it. Many satellites are being designed and configured," PTI quoted Somanath as saying.

"We have already configured 50 satellites to be realised in the next five years and this is going to be launched for India for supporting this particular geo-intelligence capability over the next five years plus (period)," the ISRO chief further said.

He said that if India reaches the stage of launching satellites at this scale, then threats to the country could be better mitigated. "We have found out a way by which a layer of satellites can be launched starting from GEO (geostationary equatorial orbit) to LEO (lower earth orbit) and also (in) very low earth orbit where we need very critical assessment of some situation," PTI quoted Somanath as saying.

Explaining the functioning of such satellites, the ISRO chairman said such capability would help "cover entire borders in everyday cycles".

"We will have communication between satellites, so that if some satellite detects something, which is at GEO at 36,000 kms, it can have a large view. If you find some activity happening, you can task another satellite in the lower orbit (to check) much more carefully and then give more information. We are also looking at imaging, not a very small area (but) thousands of kilometers of area," he said.