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India to develop its version of GPS

India will develop its own version of the Global Positioning System by launching seven satellites in the next six years, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said.

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HYDERABAD: India will develop its own version of the Global Positioning System by launching seven satellites in the next six years, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair said here on Thursday.
   
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), expected to be functional by 2012, will be used for surveying, telecommunications, transport, identifying disaster areas and public safety among others.

The satellites will be placed at a higher so-called geostationary orbit to have a larger signal footprint and lower number of satellites to map the region, he said.

The first satellite of the proposed constellation, developed at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore, is expected to be launched in 2009.

Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Nair said India had the capability to launch a mission to Mars but there were no concrete proposals for research on the Red Planet.

"The technological capability exists. We can use the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) to send a 500 kg payload to Mars," he said.
   
However, he said to undertake a manned mission to Mars a very powerful rocket system was required to propel the spacecraft to the planet.

On putting man in space, he said ISRO was preparing a project report on undertaking a human spaceflight. "We will submit the report to the government by March for its approval," he said.
    
On Chandrayaan-I, he said the mission objective was to find the basic signature of evolution of the earth, explore the terrain and look for minerals and explore the possibility of setting up a base which could be used for future planetary missions.

He said during the IAC he held bilateral talks with heads of seven space agencies, including that of the US, Russia and China.
   
"The meetings were more of the sort of status review of the cooperation that already exists," he said.
   
To a question, Nair said India is respected among the international community for developing its space programme independently.

"The world is highly appreciative of our space applications programme and others, including the developed nations, are trying to copy it," he said.
   
Nair said most of the space faring nations want to replicate India's success in the field of telemedicine and tele-education.

Asked about the government announcement of launching 60 missions in the next five years, he said ISRO will be able to achieve that target by outsourcing satellite building operations.

"Currently, we have about five to six launches every year and we can scale it by more and more outsourcing," Nair said.

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