NAVIGATION WITH INDIAN CONSTELLATION (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Sci & Tech)

Context: The Navigation with Indian Constellation or (NavIC), which consists of seven satellites and India’s version of the American GPS (global positioning system), will soon be integrated into Aadhaar enrolment devices.

Key Points

• Currently the Aadhaar enrolment kits that are used to collect and verify personal details are linked to GPS. 
• NavIC offers two services: Standard Position Service (SPS) for civilian users and Restricted Service (RS) for strategic users. 
• These two services are provided in both L5 (1176.45 MHz) and S band (2498.028 MHz). 
• Newer satellites will have an additional band called L1 that will be compatible with civilian use.

NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation)

• About: It is an Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

• Origin: NavIC was originally approved in 2006 and became operational in 2018.

• Developed by: Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

• Objective: to provide reliable position, navigation and timing services over India and its neighbourhood.

• IRNSS consists of eight satellites: 3 satellites in geostationary orbit and 5 satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

• Total 9 satellites were launched out of which the very first (IRNSS-1A) is partially failed because of some issue in its Atomic Clock. 

• Coverage: covers the whole of India’s landmass and up to 1,500 km (930 miles) from its boundaries.
• Globally certified: certified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a global body for coordinating mobile telephony standards.