Another milestone achieved as ISRO rocket accomplishes zero orbital debris mission

Bengaluru: ISRO announced on Monday that its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully completed a zero orbital debris mission, marking another milestone. This achievement occurred on March 21 when the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-3 (POEM-3) re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, meeting its “fiery end.”

“The PSLV-C58/XPoSat mission has practically left zero debris in orbit,” the space agency said.

According to ISRO, after completing the primary mission of injecting all satellites into their desired orbits, the terminal stage of PSLV was transformed into a 3-axis stabilised platform, the POEM-3.The stage was deorbited from 650 km to 350 km, which facilitated its early re-entry, and was passivated to remove residual propellants to minimise any accidental break-up risks, it said. POEM-3 was configured with a total of nine different experimental payloads to carry out technology demonstrations and scientific experiments on the newly developed indigenous systems. Out of these, six payloads were delivered by Non-Government Entities (NGEs) through Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN’SPACe).

The mission objectives of these payloads were met in a month. Through the POEM, which serves as a very cost-effective platform for carrying out short-duration space-borne experiments, ISRO has opened up new vistas for academia, startups, and NGEs to experiment with their new payloads, it said. This novel opportunity has been effectively utilised by numerous startups, universities, and NGEs for carrying out experiments in space, which included electric thrusters, satellite dispensers, and star-tracking.

POEM also incorporates new features such as total avionics in single-chain configuration, industrial-grade components in avionics packages including Mission Management Computer, standard interfaces for electric power, telemetry & telecommand, and new in-orbit navigation algorithms making use of rate-gyro, sun sensor, and magnetometer, the space agency said.

For the effective conduct of experiments onboard in POEM-3, the body rates were stabilised to less than 0.5 deg/s throughout, and innovative schemes like controlled dumping of residual propellant after the main mission were introduced for minimizing disturbances due to passivation, it added. ISRO said PSLV-C58/XPoSat is the third such

mission in the series, with POEMs being successfully scripted each time.