India to launch Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite

India plans to launch an advanced Remote Sensing Satellite, Cartosat-2A, on April 28 along with a Third World Satellite (TWSAT) and eight nano satellites on board home-built polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) from its spaceport of Sriharikota.

ISRO sources said that Cartosat-2A is follow-on of Cartosat-2, launched in January last year. Cartosat-2A will carry a panchromatic camera capable of providing scene-specific spot imageries for cartographic and other applications. "It has better than one metre resolution", an ISRO official said.

TWSAT would be a co-passenger, along with eight nano satellites, which have come from countries including the Netherlands, Canada and Germany, ISRO sources said.

Speaking on the sidelines of a function here, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said, "third world satellite is essentially for developing countries who can receive data with lost cost terminals."

ISRO sources said TWSAT is the first satellite in the micro satellite series envisaged at providing a 100 kg class satellite platform for carrying payloads for earth imaging, space science, atmospheric and ocean studies.

TWSAT will carry a multi-spectral camera. Data generated will be transmitted to user terminals, which will be pc-based systems along with RF downlink and antenna systems.

The data will be provided free to research organisations, universities and institutions in the developing countries, sources said further.

Source : http://www.zeenews.com/