Hyderabad: Responding to criticism from some quarters that the debris from Mission Shakti, the anti-satellite missile, that India tested recently will pose a threat to international space stations, senior scientists working with the DRDO on the anti-satellite missile programme said there were one lakh pieces of debris floating in space.
“Satellites launched by different countries turn into debris. Are they not a threat? Why is India’s anti-satellite missile only a threat?” queried a scientist, who worked on Mission Shakti.
The Aeronautical Society of India, the premier body that works on aeronautical dynamics, and Defence Research and Development Laboratories (DRDL) scientists met on Sunday at the DRDL in connection with Mission Shakti.
Congratulating the DRDO Labs and members associated with Mission Shakti, Dr G. Satheesh Reddy, the chairman of DRDO and Aeronautical Society of India, said, “The A-SAT test has demonstrated Indian technological capabilities to carry out such a critical mission with very high degree of precision.”
Dr Reddy said that critical systems including software and sensors were indigenously developed and a team of scientists from various specialisations have worked in complete synergy day and night for six months culminating in the successful launch. The most important challenge during the mission was to ensure that all the systems cohesively responded to the ever changing dynamics.
The chairman was speaking to a cluster of scientists working with DRDO Laboratories.
Highlighting the objectives and criticalities of Mission Shakti, senior scientist U. Rajababu, programme director, ‘AD’ mission, said, “The high altitude and high velocity interception poses many technological challenges in respect of seekers for early detection and trajectory correction systems for finer corrections before engagement. When the relative velocity of the systems involved is around 10 km/second there is a pertinent need for high levels of precision.”
“The booster needs to provide the requisite velocities, the technologies such as dome opening, heat shield etc need to be precise and smooth, apart from the highly accurate and secured data communication systems. Using accurate sensors and onboard seeker, the A-SAT missile was guided towards the target to ensure direct hit without employing any warhead,” he said.
