Ans. With the docking of satellites as part of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX), India became the fourth country to accomplish such a difficult achievement after the United States, Russia, and China.

On December 30, ISRO placed two satellites — SDX01, the Chaser, and SDX02, the Target — in a low-Earth circular orbit and later separated them by around 20 kilometres in space. The Chaser satellite was scheduled to approach the Target satellite by strategically reducing the distance between them to 5 km, 1.5 km, 500 m, 225 m, 15 m, and 3 m before the final docking.

Challenges involved in docking

— Strong or gusty winds, lightning or an electrically charged atmosphere, and oncoming or ongoing cyclones or storms are all potential disruptions to the docking procedure.

— Enhanced high energy radiation or solar energetic particles caused by strong Sun flares can blind sensors and interfere with electronic control systems.

— The sun’s magnetic storms, known as coronal mass ejections or very high-speed solar wind streams, can disrupt the space environment, causing communication and location mistakes. If these occur when docking is being attempted, a new set of uncertainty emerges that are difficult to manage.

— The peak phase of the solar activity cycle has more sunspots and is usually associated with more severe space weather conditions. This renders any space manoeuvres unconducive, particularly docking (or undocking), which needs minuscule relative velocity and perfect alignment of their docking ports to avoid collision or damage.

Potential implications for future missions

— Docking will be a critical move in future space missions like as Chandrayaan-4 and the establishment of the Bharatiya Antariksha Station (BAS), where several components must dock in space.

— The SpaDeX demonstration emphasises the importance of investing more to provide stronger space weather forecasts in near real-time, much as weather forecasts are critical on Earth to preserve lives and important infrastructure from severe weather.

— Space weather forecasts and near-real-time assessments of space environmental conditions are important when planning a key job in orbit during this solar maximum phase.

This technology is critical for India’s space objectives, such as Indian on the Moon, sample return from the Moon, and the construction and operation of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS). Following successful docking and rigidization, electrical power transfer between the two spacecraft will be demonstrated before undocking and separating the two satellites to begin functioning of their individual payloads for the mission’s projected two-year duration.

Useful Links

Quick Links