Bhaskara satellites
Also called: Bhaskara-I · Topic: Remote Sensing, GIS and GNSS · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"
Meaning
The Bhaskara satellites were India's first experimental earth observation satellites. Bhaskara-I was launched in 1979 and Bhaskara-II in 1981. Both flew on Soviet rockets. They carried TV cameras to photograph the land and microwave radiometers, which record natural microwave energy given off by the earth and sea. They were test missions, and they gave ISRO the experience it needed to build the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) series.
Example
The lessons from Bhaskara-I and Bhaskara-II led to IRS-1A. It was launched on 17 March 1988 from Baikonur and was India's first full remote sensing satellite.
Don't confuse with
- IRS satellites: the regular series that began in 1988, with multispectral cameras (LISS) made for routine resource mapping. Bhaskara satellites were only experiments.
Related concepts
- Landsat
- SPOT
- Sentinel satellites
- Indian Remote Sensing satellites
- LISS
- Resourcesat
- Cartosat series
- Oceansat
- RISAT
- INSAT-3DS