Digantara to set up India’s first private SSA observatory in Uttarakhand

Source: The post is based on the article “Digantara to set up India’s first private SSA observatory in Uttarakhand” published in TOI on 24th August 2022.

What is the News?

India’s first commercial Space Situational Awareness(SSA) Observatory will be set up in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand.

About India’s First Private Space Situational Awareness(SSA) Observatory:

To be Setup by: Digantara, a Bengaluru-based space sector start-up. 

Location: Garhwal region of Uttarakhand 

Purpose: The observatory will assist in tracking any activity in space including that of space debris and military satellites hovering over the region.

Working: The observatory will help to monitor events occurring in deep space, especially in the geostationary, medium-Earth, and high-Earth orbits. The high-quality observations made will be complemented by observations of its partner ground-based sensor network.

– With this data, India would be able to reduce the potential for collisions between satellites and other spacecraft by making more accurate predictions of their location, speed, and trajectory.

Significance: The observatory will fill the crucial gap in SSA observations in the region as there is a lack of such facilities between Australia and Southern Africa.

– It will also give India indigenous capabilities to monitor space activity over the subcontinent providing a strategic advantage.

What is Space Situational Awareness(SSA)?

Space Situational Awareness(SSA) refers to the knowledge of the space environment, including the location and function of space objects and space weather phenomena. 

SSA is generally understood as covering three main areas: 1) Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) of man-made objects, 2) Space Weather (SWE) monitoring and forecast and 3) Near-Earth Objects (NEO) monitoring (only natural space objects).