Isro to set up new centre to protect Indian satellites from space debris

  1. Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has set up the Space Situational Awareness Control Centre in Bengaluru.
  2. The control centre would host a range of activities related to the protection of Indian space assets from (a)inactive satellites (b)pieces of orbiting objects (c)near earth asteroids and (d)adverse space weather conditions.
  3. It would also assimilate the tracking data of inactive satellites from indigenous observation facilities and generates useful information from bare observations through analysis.
  4. Space Situational Awareness & Management(SSAM) has become an internationally significant area due to the rise of man made space debris and the increased collision threat with operational spacecraft.
  5. Space debris are artificial material that is orbiting Earth but is no longer functional.They consists of dead satellites, spent rocket motors, nuts and bolts etc.Space debris is a threat to active satellites and spaceships as they pose risk of collisions.