Master Control Facility at Bhopal Inaugurated

A new Master Control Facility (MCF) has been set up at Bhopal for monitoring and control of geosynchronous satellites. On April 11, 2005, Mr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, inaugurated the new facility at Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. Mr Vijay Singh, Chief Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh, presided over the inaugural function.

INSAT is one of the largest domestic communication satellite systems in the Asia Pacific region comprising eight satellites — INSAT-2E, INSAT-3A, INSAT-3B, INSAT-3C, INSAT-3E, GSAT-2, KALPANA-1 and EDUSAT. The system has 150 communication transponders operating in different frequency bands, namely, C-band, Extended C-band and Ku-band. Besides, INSAT system also incorporates a Very High Resolution Radiometer on three of these satellites (KALPANA-1, INSAT-2E and INSAT-3A) and an additional Charge Coupled Device camera on INSAT-2E and INSAT-3A for obtaining meteorological images for weather monitoring and forecast.

All the satellites in INSAT system are being monitored and controlled from the primary control centre, at Hassan in Karnataka (MCF-Hassan), which was established during 1980-81. MCF-Hassan has the overall radio visibility coverage from Persian Gulf in the west to Australia in the East (of about 150 degrees of the Geo-arc). The geographical advantage, together with a low radio noise environment, made MCF-Hassan ideal for controlling the geostationary satellites positioned over Asia-Pacific region.

MCF-Bhopal

MCF-Bhopal will help MCF-Hassan to support the operational requirements of an increasing number of satellites in INSAT system. MCF-Bhopal offers the same radio visibility coverage advantage as MCF-Hassan. MCF-Bhopal consists of a Satellite Control Centre, a Satellite Control Earth Station and Power Complex. Special
operations like station-keeping, management of eclipse operations and payload operations to suit the requirements of INSAT users will also be carried out from the new facility. It is initially configured to monitor and control two geostationary satellites, but the number of satellites controlled is expected to grow to six in the next few years. The location of MCF-Bhopal will enable in-orbit testing of satellites, especially for their spot beam coverage.

Simultaneous satellite ranging from MCF-Bhopal and MCF-Hassan, which are separated by a distance of 1000 km, will also improve the ranging accuracy from the present 5 km to about 150 m. This increased accuracy improves satellite orbit determination and thus will help in co-locating three or more satellites at the same orbital slot.

With ISRO planning to launch more satellites into geostationary orbit in the coming years, MCF-Hassan, along with the new MCF-Bhopal, will play an important role in INSAT system.