ISRO signs for third collimator to test remote sensing satellites

Bangalore, Mar 22 (UNI) The Space Application Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has contracted with AMOS of Belgium for its third high Technology Collimator used for testing lenses in cameras on board remote sensing satellites.

The contract was signed by representatives of AMOS and SAC, Ahmedabad, in the presence of Belgian Walloon Region Minister for Economy, Employment and Foreign Trade Jean Claude Marcourt.

Collimators were optical instruments similar to telescope, but work in the opposite way. When an object was placed in the focal plane of a Collimator, it appeared far away, virtually at infinity.

These instruments were used to test spacecraft instruments either astronomical or aiming at earth observations.

SAC had received two such instruments from AMOS, which was also engaged in the design, manufacturing and installation of a space simulator (a vacuum chamber of 6.5 metre in diameter and ten metre long along with thermal panel).

A delegation led by Mr Marcourt visited the ISRO site in Marathahalli on the outskirts of the city and overviewed the installation of the simulator.

Mr Jean Louis Van Belle, a senior diplomat of Belgium in India, told UNI that Belgium, the fourth leading member of the European Space Agency, was keen to have a formal inter-governmental tie-up for joint space programmes. A Belgian experimental satellite, Proba, was already flown by the PSLV. A general inter-governmental framework was likely to be formalised in May this year with a high-level Belgium delegation, expected to visit India later this year, he added.

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