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Mahesh

06/02/25 09:46 AM IST

Story of NavIC

In News
  • India’s space agency recently reported the partial failure of its NVS-02 navigation satellite due to the non-firing of its engines in space.
Satellites in NaViC
  • It is estimated that only four IRNSS satellites are fully operational currently – 1B, 1F, 1I (the replacement for 1A after the launch of 1H, the original replacement, failed), and 1J (the replacement for the partially failed 1G).
  • ISRO’s 2023-24 annual report says that following the launch of NVS-01 on May 28, 2023, five NavIC satellites are operational – IRNSS-1B, 1C, 1F, and 1I, and NVS-01 (IRNSS-1J).
  • However, according to some estimates, 1C is only partially operational due to the presence of the old series of atomic clocks that were reported to be malfunctioning.
  • First-generation IRNSS satellites launched after July 2016 – that is, 1H and 1I – carried modified versions of the original clocks provided by a European supplier under a Euro 4 million deal for an estimated 45 clocks.
  • 1J, which is operational, and 1K, which reported an engine failure last month, belong to the next generation of IRNSS satellites, and are, on that account, called NVS-01 and NVS-02 respectively.
  • These satellites are equipped with a mix of indigenous and foreign clocks instead of the defective clocks used in the first generation satellites.
Significance
  • The NavIC satellites provide two types of services – Standard Positioning Service which is for general and commercial use, and Restricted Service which is meant for the defence forces – over the Indian landmass and neighbouring regions.
  • The indigenous system provides positioning data “at all times with position accuracy better than 20 metres during all weather conditions, anywhere within India and a region extending about 1,500 km around India on dual frequencies in L5 and S band.
  • A primary reason to develop an indigenous satellite navigation system like the IRNSS despite the existence of global systems such as the GPS (US), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (Europe), Beidou (China), and QZSS (Japan), is the reliability that it offers in defence use.
  • Since the first Global NSS systems (GPS and GLONASS) were primarily developed for military purposes, the military applications are one of the drivers for these systems. …GPS offers encrypted Precise Positioning Service which is available only to the US military and its allies.
  • GNSS is used for different types of military applications such as military navigation and target acquisition.
    For NavIC to become ubiquitous in the Indian subcontinent, ISRO will have to sell its capabilities to general positioning service providers such as mobile phone and vehicle manufacturers, etc.
Source- Indian Express

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