Digantara space mapping testbed launched by SpaceX mission

The Pushan-alpha space mapping testbed from Space Situational Awareness (SSA) startup Digantara Research and Technologies was successfully launched into orbit by Elon Musk’s SpaceX Transporter 6 mission late on Tuesday night.

At 8:26 p.m. India time, the Digantara payload-carrying Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, US, launched the Transporter-6 mission to the Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).

In the Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO), Pushan-alpha will serve as a testbed for space weather to improve precision-driven SSA applications. This Bengaluru-based company’s second payload launch in almost six months will enhance the information obtained by its ROBust Integrating (ROBI) proton fluence metre. In June, ROBI was launched aboard the workhorse PSLV C53 of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

The Hindu solar deity Pushan, who guards travellers while they are on the road, inspired the mission’s name. Extending radiation observations to SSO, evaluating mid- to high-energy particle radiation from the South Atlantic Anomaly, and looking into any relationships between atmospheric drag and particle environment for improved orbit and debris modelling are some of its three main goals.

Solar radiation and geomagnetic storms, two examples of space weather or disturbances, are produced by the Sun.

“The sustainability of space has been seriously questioned as a result of an increase in the number of satellites being sent into orbit. Since the beginning of space travel, there has been a lack of data related to situational awareness in space. With our locally developed technology and infrastructure, we hope to fill this long-standing data gap, said Digantara founder and CEO Anirudh Sharma in a statement provided to Business Today.

Digantara

Through its Space Mission Assurance Platform, Digantara, a company founded in 2018, is attempting to provide end-to-end infrastructure to meet the challenges of space operations and traffic management (Space-MAP). With products given through a data feedback loop using multi-modal data sets to serve as a foundational layer for space operations and astrodynamics research, the company hopes to provide Space-MAP as a one-stop solution for space launches internationally.

Sharma had previously told BT that this would be similar to developing a reckoner like Google Maps for space.

Digantara intends to send out two additional SSA missions this year. The business also signed a deal with Uttarakhand’s government to build the nation’s first commercial space situational observatory, which will be operational by the second quarter of 2023. In order to build capabilities for both military and civilian purposes, this will also support its space-based sensors in their mission to monitor satellites and trash in orbits ranging from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO).

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