- = ISRO Launch Vehicles =
Indian Space Research Organisation
Server sky's best first use is rural computing in the developing world, and India's rural half billion could connect with their cell phones, through antenna panels on cell towers, to a modest server sky array. 12 low-population arrays can provide overlapping coverage to villages in northern mountain valleys. Using small 5300 5 gram thinsat arrays, spot size would be larger, but adequate for gigabit communication per village and small town. Assuming 50% extra weight for extra delta V to m288 and for apogee insertion motors (reusable in the future as ballast), and 3 spare launch bundles for backup, the entire system could launch with one 600kg-to-LEO booster, or with fifteen 40kg-to-LEO boosters.
Server sky thinsat arrays are both much lighter than big-iron comsats, they are 7 times closer to earth than GEO, and can focus on much smaller ground spots. While a GEO comsat can focus on regions, server sky can focus on city blocks, and multiplex both transmit beams and receiver pointing.
ISRO's Launchers
|
first launch |
LEO kg |
GTO kg |
GEO kg |
|
PSLV |
1993 |
1860 |
1200 |
|
high success rate |
GSLV |
2001 |
|
|
2200 |
|
GSLV III |
2013 |
10000 |
5000 |
All vehicles launch from the Satish Dhawan Launch Centre (formerly the Sriharikota High Altitude Range ) at 13°43′12″N in Andhra Pradesh, 80 km north of Chennai (on India's southeast east coast). All these vehicles are larger than needed; perhaps they can launch many more than 12 arrays, selling them to other operators. Keep in mind that the 70% or so of arrays around the earth from India can serve other parts of the globe until they return to India's sky.