India’s satellite navigation system is on its way

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, which was launched fully on Thursday, is possibly the most important step that India has taken towards achieving sovereign strategic autonomy in many years. Once operational, this indigenous system will significantly reduce India’s dependence on satellite navigation systems (commonly known as SatNav systems) that are run by other countries — primarily the US and its Global Positioning System. America's GPS currently supports India's existing SatNav system, Gagan (GPS-Aided GEO Augmented Navigation). Gagan mostly caters to space scientists and the commercial aviation industry but IRNSS will have a wider user-base and, importantly, will function independently; though, of course, it will still be compatible with the GPS as well as with Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (known as Glonass). The purpose of a SatNav system is to accurately track the location or positioning of an object. This object can be anything — a vehicle, an individual, a delivery package, a mobile phone or even a bird or an animal fitted with a receiver and transmitter. Today, SatNav systems are integral to a wide variety of activities. Some of them are as basic as the use of the Google Maps application on our phones and some much more complex such as the technology used to navigate our mass transit systems, be they under-ground, on land, over water or in the air. SatNav systems also play an important role in emergency services, disaster management and help with weather forecasting; they are used for geological surveys and mapping activities, in archaeological studies as well as for photographic geo-coding. Increasingly, SatNav systems are also being used for social networking. This list can go on but it should suffice to say that SatNav systems underline just about every activity in our daily lives and, given that this trend will only grow stronger in the days to come, it is the fitness of things that India has developed its own SatNav system.

Named Navic (Navigation with Indian Constellation), in deference to the mariners who have for centuries been guided by the sun and stars, this system brings India into yet another elite club among space-faring nations. Apart from the US and Russia, who already have functional global SatNav systems, only China and the European Union are working on similar projects. China's Beidou and the EU's Galileo are expected to be fully operational by 2020. In comparison, Navic is expected to be fully operational by the end of this year though it is only fair to mention that the Indian system, with seven satellites, the last of which was put into orbit on Thursday, is smaller than its European and Chinese counterparts, which, when completed, will have 30 and 35 satellites respectively. Currently, the GPS has 31 satellites while the Glonass has 24.

Also, while GPS, Glonass, Beidou and Galileo have or will have global coverage, Navic will be a regional system, extending up to 1,500kms outside India's borders. Also, while the others have a precision radius of 10cms (China's Beidou) to five metres (America's GPS), for Navic it is 20 metres on the civilian/commercial band and 10 metres on the military band. But these are early days and India will surely bridge these gaps over time.