Cartosat-2 was an

Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...

in a

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

and the second of the

Cartosat The Cartosat is a series of Indian optical Earth observation satellites built and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The Cartosat series is a part of the Indian Remote Sensing Program. They are used for Earth's resource ...

series of satellites. The satellite was built, launched and maintained by the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...

(ISRO). Weighing around 680 kg at launch, its applications were mainly be towards

cartography Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

. It was launched by the

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite ...

PSLV C7 launch vehicle on 10 January 2007.

Satellite description

Cartosat-2 carried a state-of-the-art

panchromatic A panchromatic emulsion is a type of photographic emulsion that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, and produces a monochrome photograph—typically black and white. Most modern commercially available film is panchromatic, and the t ...

(PAN) camera that took black and white pictures of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

in the visible region of the

electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the full range of electromagnetic radiation, organized by frequency or wavelength. The spectrum is divided into separate bands, with different names for the electromagnetic waves within each band. From low to high ...

. The swath covered by this high resolution PAN camera was 9.6 km and their spatial resolution is less than 1 metre. The satellite could be steered up to 45° along as well as across the track. Cartosat-2 was an advanced

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

satellite capable of providing scene-specific spot imagery. The data from the satellite was used for detailed mapping and other cartographic applications at cadastral level, urban and rural infrastructure development and management, as well as applications in Land information system (LIS) and

Geographic information system A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and Geographic information system software, software that store, manage, Spatial analysis, analyze, edit, output, and Cartographic design, visualize Geographic data ...

(GIS). The first imagery, received on 12 January 2007, covered a length of 240 km from Paonta Sahib in Shivalik region to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. Another set of imagery of about 50 km length covered Radhanagari to Sagoan in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. Analysis of the first imagery received at National Remote Sensing Agency's data reception station at Shadnagar, in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

, confirmed excellent performance of the on-board camera. Cartosat-2's

camera was able to produce images better than 1 metre in resolution, compared to the 82 cm panchromatic resolution offered by the Ikonos satellite. India had previously purchased images from Ikonos at about US$20 per square kilometre; the use of Cartosat-2 will provide imagery at 20 times lower cost. At the time of Cartosat-2's launch, India was buying about per year from Ikonos.

End of life

After 12 years of service in a circular orbit of almost 630 km altitude Cartosat-2 would have taken about 30 years to de-orbit naturally. With 25 kg of propellant remaining it was decided by ISRO's Directorate for Space Situational Awareness and Management (DSSAM) to decommission the spacecraft and lower the perigee using left-over propellant so that it meets

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is an office of the U.N. Secretariat that promotes and facilitates peaceful international cooperation in outer space. It works to establish or strengthen the legal and regulatory fram ...

(UNOOSA)'s space debris mitigation guidelines. Between 6 March to 3 September 2020, perigee was lowered incrementally by performing 26 perigee reduction burns putting the spacecraft in 630 × 390 km orbit. This was ISRO's first

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

satellite to be decommissioned in this manner. Orbit of Cartosat-2 is expected to decay naturally within 10 years. The satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere and was subsequently destroyed on 14 February 2024 at 10:18 UTC over the southern Indian Ocean.

References

External links

Cartosat-2 website
{{Orbital launches in 2007 Cartosat Spacecraft launched in 2007 Spacecraft launched by PSLV rockets Spacecraft decommissioned in 2019 Spacecraft which reentered in 2024

Satellite description

End of life

See also

References

External links