Satellite & Space Missions

Biography

Vinod Kumar is Deputy Division Head and Deputy Project Director, AOCS at Control, Dynamics and Simulation Group, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bengaluru. He joined ISAC in 1997 where he has been involved with the design and development of Attitude and Orbit Control Systems (AOCS) of over three dozen satellites in the last nearly 20 years. Dr. Vinod has developed crucial technologies for satellites. He has developed a critical mirror motion compensation technique for ISRO’s meteorological satellite series, which achieved the ultimate pointing accuracy and stringent jitter stability of 1 micro-degree/s. This pivotal technique enables the Indian Met. Department to do accurate weather forecasting by observing oceans and clouds precisely with geostationary satellites; snow-cover mapping and snow-depth estimation for the Defence. He has developed a fault detection, isolation and reconfiguration techniques for GEO satellites which has become the backbone of ISRO’s fleet of spacecraft including Mars Orbiter Mission. This onboard autonomy continuously protects the satellites from losing the earth-lock, monitors the health of the satellites, and reports to the MCF/ISTRAC ground station. Also, because of this autonomy, the GEOSAT communication satellites provide uninterrupted mobile and Direct-to-Home communication services, ensuring continuity of revenues for the ISRO. In his doctoral research, he developed autonomous navigation (autonav) techniques for collocated geostationary satellites at a desired longitude using Indian Regional Navigation Satellites System (IRNSS). ISRO is contemplating to mechanize his absolute and relative autonav techniques by placing crosslink antennas on the collocated satellites for inter-satellite communication, and facilitate real-time sharing of IRNSS observables. His autonav technique for the collocated geostationary satellites is of tremendous value because it relieves the MCF/ISTRAC ground engineers from ground-based tracking and orbit determination of the satellites. Dr. Vinod has over eighteen publications in national and international conferences and reputed journals. His additional technical interests include terrain navigation, pulsar navigation, and interplanetary missions. Before joining the ISAC, he worked on aircraft control systems. Still earlier he held a faculty position at Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra; Haryana.

Abstract

Abstract : Real-Time Autonomous Attitude and Orbit Control system for Satellites: A Necessity