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News:The Indian Space Research Organization has signed a pact with Indian Institute of Astrophysics to establish an optical telescope under Project NETRA.
Facts:
About Project NETRA:
- Project NETRA is an early warning system in space to detect debris and other hazards to Indian satellites.
- Under the project,the ISRO plans to put up many observational facilities: connected radars, telescopes; data processing units and a control centre.
- They can spot, track and catalogue objects as small as 10 cm up to a range of 3,400 km and equal to a space orbit of around 2,000 km.
What is the need of Project NETRA?
- India has 15 communication satellites active in the geostationary orbit, 13 remote-sensing satellites active in low-earth orbit (2,000 km radius) and eight navigation satellites in medium-earth orbit.
- Hence,the project plays an important role in protecting Indian satellites from space debris and other hazards.
Importance of the Project:
- The project would make India a part of international efforts towards tracking, warning about and mitigating space debris.
- The project will also give India its own capability in space situational awareness (SSA) like the other space powers.
Additional information:
About DRDO’s NETRA:
- Apart from ISRO, Defence Research Development Organisation(DRDO) also operates NETRA (Network Traffic Analysis).It is a software network used to analyse internet traffic.
- It is used by Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and other intelligence agencies of Government of India.
