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ISRO set to launch satellite with corrected clocks:
Context:
- Indian Space Research Organisation will soon launch a replacement navigation satellite fitted with corrected atomic clocks to make up for the satellite, IRNSS-1A, which failed in mid 2016.
Explanation:
- The upcoming IRNSS-1H will be sent up towards the end of August.
- Its launch became urgent after all three rubidium atomic clocks on IRNSS-1A failed in mid-2016.
- Three more clocks failed later across the fleet of seven satellites, which together had 21 atomic clocks.
The malfunction:
- The malfunctions struck the orbiting satellites even as ISRO completed putting the seventh and last regional navigation spacecraft, 1G, in orbit in April, 2016.
- Notably, 1A can still send low-powered messages and weather data that are useful to fishermen.
- The first regional navigation spacecraft was put in orbit in July 2013.
Navigation Indian Constellation:
- The Rs. 1,420-crore fleet, now called NAViC or Navigation Indian Constellation, is India’s own GPS-like system to give accurate information about location and time of persons or objects, in the same way as the older U.S. Global Positioning System or Russia’s GLONASS.
