Date:17/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/17/stories/2008101759911200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

ECIL’s antenna ready for Chandrayan-1 launch

Special Correspondent

Designed and commissioned by Electronics Corporation of India Limited

It will be inaugurated on Friday by ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair on the outskirts of Bangalore
The antenna will provide telemetry, command and science data reception functions for all missions

HYDERABAD: As the countdown for India’s moon mission has begun, the large 32-metre antenna designed and commissioned by Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) is fully ready to track Chandrayan-1 through its odyssey to the moon.

Chairman and Managing Director of ECIL K. S. Rajasekhara Rao has said that the antenna would be inaugurated on Friday as part of the Indian Deep Space Network facility by Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation G. Madhavan Nair at Bylalu on the outskirts of Bangalore. As part of the Indian Deep Space Network, this antenna would provide telemetry, command and science data reception functions for all space missions. The challenge of realising this fully steerable 300-tonne structure has been achieved in record time using indigenous technical skills, Mr. Rao said.

The antenna system consists of 32 metre diameter parabolic main reflector in cassegrain configuration. The paraboloid reflector is illuminated by a series of precision machined mirrors arranged in beam waveguide configuration.

The antenna system operates in S & X bands and can be upgraded to Ka band for future deep space missions. The feed system handles a 20 KW CW power.

The antenna system being the first of its kind in India will also support futuristic inter-planetary missions and join the select band of a few, who possess such competence at international level, he added.