The PSLV-C58/XPoSat mission was a major success for the ISRO.
C58 Mission launched on January 1, 2024.
Primary Payload:
XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite): The first dedicated scientific satellite from ISRO for studying X-ray polarization in celestial objects.
Scientific Objectives:
Measure the polarization of X-rays in the energy band 8-30 keV from around 50 potential cosmic sources.
Conduct long-term spectral and temporal studies of cosmic X-ray sources in the energy band 0.8-15 keV.
Carry out simultaneous polarization and spectroscopic measurements with its two payloads, POLIX and XSPECT.
Additional Payloads:
10 co-passenger satellites: Carried for various academic institutions and private companies in India and abroad.
Mission Highlights:
Successful launch: The PSLV-C58 rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9:10 AM IST and placed XPoSat in a desired orbit.
Orbital maneuvers: The PS4 stage of the rocket was re-started twice to reduce the orbit to a 350
km circular orbit for optimal operation of XPoSat and the Orbital Platform (OP) experiments.
POEM-3 experiments: 10 experiments from ISRO and IN-SPACe were conducted on the OP platform, testing new technologies and gathering valuable data.
Significance:
The PSLV-C58 mission marks a significant step forward in India's space research program.
XPoSat will provide valuable data for understanding the nature and behavior of cosmic X-ray sources, contributing to our knowledge of the universe.
The successful launch and deployment of multiple satellites demonstrate ISRO's growing capabilities in space technology.
Fourth stage of the rocket transforming into a rudimentary satellite and orbital testbed with various payloads.
The science-technology skew is a reminder that ISRO among the world’s spacefaring organisations has unique needs and priorities.
This is exemplified by the second part of the C58 mission.
After launching XPoSat in a 650-km circular orbit around the earth, the fourth stage of the rocket lowered itself into a 350-km-high orbit.
Unfurled solar panels, becoming a rudimentary satellite and orbital testbed for the 10 payloads it carried.
These are a radio payload by the K.J. Somaiya Institute of Technology and a device to measure ultraviolet radiation from L.B.S. Institute of Technology for Women.
A ‘green’ cubesat propulsion unit, a ‘green’ monopropellant thruster,
A tantalum-based radiation shield,
A heater-less hollow cathode,
A nanosatellite platform, all from private entities.
An interplanetary dust counter, a fuel-cell power system, and a high-energy cell from ISRO centres.
This is only the third time ISRO has operated the PSLV fourth stage in this way.
The C58 mission represents a union of the aspirations of professional scientists, aspiring students of science, and India’s private spaceflight sector.
This again is a vignette of the demands of ISRO itself as it navigates an era in which a permanent lunar station seems inevitable, drawing as much on technological capabilities as — based on scientific missions — humankind’s knowledge of the universe.
Balanced ratio of scientific to technological missions of ISRO
Two missions the ISRO has launched in the five months since its success with Chandrayaan-3 have both been scientific in nature.
The Aditya L-1 space probe to study the sun and the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) to study polarised X-rays emitted in astrophysical phenomena.
ISRO launched the XPoSat, in a two-part mission, onboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on its C58 flight on January 1.
The relative timing of these launches may be a coincidence but it is heartening because the ratio of scientific to technological missions ISRO.
Those science-oriented missions have all been exceptional in their own right.
XPoSat is only the second space-based experiment to study X-ray polarisation, and at higher x-ray energies than the other, NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer.
Its POLIX payload, realised by the Raman Research Institute, will track X-rays in the 8-30 kilo-electron-volt (keV) energy range and observe emissions from around 50 sources in five years.
The XSPECT payload, by ISRO’s U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, will study X-rays of energy 0.8-15 keV and changes in continuous X-ray emissions.
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