'ASTROSAT' is a satellite launched by ISRO for
2015
'ASTROSAT' is a satellite launched by ISRO for
- A.
Research on climate condition
- B.
Better Tele-communication
- C.
Astronomy research
- D.
None of these
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: ISRO categorises its satellites by primary mission purpose. Earth-observation and weather satellites - the INSAT-3D/3DR pair, which carries imagers and atmospheric sounders for meteorological monitoring, and the RISAT series, which carries synthetic-aperture radar for surface, disaster, and agricultural monitoring - track climate and surface conditions; communication satellites (the INSAT/GSAT series) relay broadcast, telephone, and data traffic; and dedicated space observatories carry specialised telescopes to study celestial objects across the electromagnetic spectrum.
Application: AstroSat was launched by ISRO on 28 September 2015 aboard the PSLV-C30 rocket from Sriharikota. It is India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory, carrying five instruments: four of them - the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), the Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC), and the Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Imager (CZTI) - are co-aligned to observe the same celestial target simultaneously across ultraviolet, visible, and X-ray bands, while the fifth, the Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM), independently scans wide areas of the sky to track transient X-ray sources. This instrument suite places AstroSat's mission purpose squarely in astronomy research.
The other options describe different ISRO satellite categories:
Research on climate condition describes ISRO's earth-observation satellites - the INSAT-3D/3DR pair (imagers and atmospheric sounders for meteorology) and the RISAT series (synthetic-aperture radar for surface and disaster monitoring) - a different payload class from a dedicated astronomical observatory's telescopes.
Better Tele-communication describes the INSAT/GSAT communication satellite series, which carry transponders for broadcast and data relay - again a different function from AstroSat's astronomical instruments.
None of these does not apply here because AstroSat's documented mission purpose, multi-wavelength astronomical observation, is exactly one of the offered options.
So AstroSat was launched by ISRO for astronomy research.