XPosat

Latest Context

At the recent 'User Meet of XPoSat' at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru, S Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), spoke to students and scientists.

• He emphasized the significance of using data from science-based space missions successfully and urged Indian scientific institutes to find talented students and encourage them to engage with cutting-edge data technologies like XPoSat.

Facts about XPoSat

• XPoSat stands for X-ray Polarimeter Satellite.
• This ground-breaking polarimetry mission from India aims to study the various dynamics of astronomical sources under extreme conditions.
• After NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), which was launched in 2021, it is only the second polarimetry mission in the world to use X-rays.
• The ISRO and the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, Karnataka, collaborated on XPoSat.

Scientific Payloads of XPoSat:

• XPoSat will carry two scientific payloads: Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays (POLIX) and X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing (SPECT) in a low Earth orbit.
• The POLIX payload will make it possible to quantify polarimetry characteristics including the degree and angle of polarisation in photons with medium X-ray energies between 8 and 30 keV that come from celestial sources.
• The SPECT payload will provide useful timing and spectroscopic data for X-ray photons with energies between 0.8 and 15 keV.

Significance in Understanding Astronomical Sources:

• An effective diagnostic tool for understanding the emission processes from diverse astronomical sources is provided by polarimetry studies.
• The complicated emission mechanisms presented by astronomical phenomena, such as black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, and pulsar wind nebulae, constitute a challenge to our existing knowledge.
• The limits of the current understanding of astronomical emission mechanisms are expected to be overcome by integrating polarimetric observations with spectroscopic and timing measurements.

Status of XPoSat:

• The XPoSat project is in its advanced stages and is expected to launch sometime in 2023. Testing for the mission is almost finished.

Other Upcoming Missions of ISRO:

1. Aditya-L1: Scheduled for June-July 2023, India's first dedicated solar observatory mission.
2. Chandrayaan-3: Scheduled for June 2023, it is a follow-up mission to chandrayaan-2.
3. Shukrayaan-1: India's first orbiter mission to Venus.
4. Gaganyaan Mission: A manned space mission that will put astronauts 400km in orbit.
5. NISAR: It stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar. A jointly run NASA and ISRO Earth observation mission that will provide information on environmental changes worldwide.

Prelims

Q. Which of the following pairs is/are correctly matched? (2014)

Spacecraft Purpose

1.Cassini-Huygens Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth

2.Messenger Mapping and investigating the Mercury

3.Voyager 1 and 2 Exploring the outer solar system

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Ans: (b)