ISRO to expand research facilities in critical areas

Bangalore: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to expand its research capabilities by setting up more than half a dozen critical research facilities across its various installations. ISRO's move comes even as it targets doubling of its transponder capacity over the next one-and-a-half years.

The new capabilities will include a hypersonic wind tunnel which will conduct studies in re-entry technologies and a plasma wind tunnel, which will study behaviour of materials at high speed. This facility would be set up at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Trivandrum.

Other critical facilities to be set up are a thrust chamber testing facility at Mahendragiri for high-thrust cryogenic engines and a new mission control centre at Sriharikota which will look at multiple mission preparations simultaneously.

A national database for emergency management and a multi-mission earth observation centre for satellites will be set up at Hyderabad. Also coming up at the 530 acre campus of the Science City at Chitradurga will be an advanced research and development centre for spacecraft.

With an increase of PSLV and GSLV launches, Dr. Radhakrishnan said: ''We are trying to integrate the sub-systems of rockets at Sriharikota since they are currently manufactured in different parts of the country.''

The project would take about two-three years, he added.