Asteroid-spotting orbiter circling Earth
2013-02-25 19:26
Bangalore - India launched a rocket on Monday carrying
seven satellites into orbit, including a Canadian orbiter that will scan for
asteroids that could be hurtling toward Earth.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off from the
Sriharikota rocket launch centre located on an island off the coast of the
southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
The launch, witnessed by Indian President Pranab
Mukherjee at the space mission control centre, "was perfect", Devi
Prasad Karnik, an official of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation,
told AFP.
The suitcase-sized Canadian satellite that the Canadian
Space Agency calls a "sentinel in the sky", will circle the globe
every 100 minutes, scanning space to pinpoint asteroids that may come close to
Earth.
Information from the satellite could help deflect
asteroids whose trajectory might threaten Earth, Canadian space officials say
Earlier this month, an asteroid whizzed safely past Earth
the same day a much smaller, previously undetected meteor hit Russia, injuring over
1 000 people.
Near-Earth Object Space Surveillance Satellite or Neossat
"will be the only space telescope dedicated to searching for
asteroids", Canadian satellite scientist Alan Hildebrand was quoted as
saying by India's Hindu newspaper.
The Canadian satellite will also scan for chunks of asteroids,
comets and space debris - leftovers from old space missions - that can cause
collisions.
The rocket was also carrying an Indo-French satellite
called "Saral", or Satellite with Argos and Altika - two climate
monitoring tools developed for analysing ocean currents and sea surface heights
by French space agency CNES.
"We will obtain crucial data for climate models and
global ocean currents" from the satellite, said CNES project head Pierre
Sengenes.
Learning more about global ocean circulation is key in
understanding how global warming is affecting the planet, scientists say.
The other satellites being carried into space included
another one from Canada, two from Austria and one each from Denmark and
Britain.
The Indian mission was the 23rd for the country's Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV.
India, which aims to send its first manned flight into
space in 2016, has emerged as a significant player in the lucrative global
commercial satellite-launch market, according to space experts.
The Indian space agency has launched 35 foreign
satellites since 1999 while the maximum number of satellites ever launched by
the PSLV in a single mission stands at 10.
