Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. In its original sense, ‘nanotechnology’ refers to the projected to the INS AT fleet in orbit, including 24 C-band transponders, six extended C-band transponders, two S-band broadcast satellite service transponders and mobile satellite service transponders. The satellite beams commercial television signals to customers in India.

Subsequently, an Ariane 5 rocket carried the Indian-built satellite INSAT-3A to space from Kourou on April 9, 2003. The 3,000-lb. satellite carried a communications, weather imaging, and search-and-rescue pay load. It measured about 9 by 6.5 by 6 ft., while its solar panels spanned about 43 ft.

RESOURCESAT-1, launched on October 17, 2003, was the tenth satellite of ISRO in IRS series. It was intended to not only continue the remote sensing data services provided by IRS-1C and IRS-1D, both of which have far outlived their designed mission lives, but also to vastly enhance the data quality. Its mission life was five years.

GSAT-3, well known as EDUSAT was launched on September 20, 2004. As the first dedicated Educational Satellite, it provided the country with satellite based two way communication to class room for delivering educational materials. This Geo-synchronous satellite was developed on I-2K bus and was co-located with METSAT and INSAT-3C at 74 degree East longitude.

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CARTOSAT-1, the first India Remote Sensing Satellite capable of providing in-orbit stereo images, was launched on May 5, 2005. The images are used for Cartographic applications meeting the global requirements. Cameras of this satellite have a resolution of 2.5m and can even distinguish a small car. The satellite provides stereo pairs required for generating Digital Elevation Models, Ortho Image products, and Value added products for various applications of Geographical Information System (GIS).

INSAT-4A, the first in INSAT-4 Satellites series provides services in Ku and C-band frequency bands. The Ku transponders cover the Indian main land while C-band transponders cover an extended area. This spacecraft was placed at 83 dog Eat along with INSAT-2E and INSAT-3B, by Ariane launch vehicle (ARIANE-5V 169) on December 22, 2005. The life of this satellite is estimated to be twelve years.

ISRO conducted a Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) to demonstrate the technology of an orbiting platform for performing experiments in microgravity conditions. SRE-1 mission provided a valuable experience in fields like navigation, guidance and control during the re-entry phase, hypersonic aero thermodynamic, development of reusable thermal protection system (TPS), recovery through deceleration

The first Indian satellite to be put in space was Aryabhata, which dates back to April 19, 1975. It was followed by the launch of Bhaskara- I, an Earth observation satellite, on June 7, 1979. While these two satellites were launched form sites outside India, India launched its own satellite for the first time on July 18, 1980. It was the Rohini-1 satellite carried aloft on a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket from the Sriharikota Island launch site. Since then, India has invested a great deal of its space development work in complex applications satellites.

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India’s two main interests are satellites for remote sensing and communications. These are used for weather pictures, disaster warnings and feeds to 552 television and 164 radio stations on the ground. By the end of 1985, the Rohini-3 communications satellite launched in August 1983 had extended nationwide television coverage from 20 percent to 70 percent of the population. Today it is about 90 percent.

One of the satellites in India’s Stretched Rohini Satellite Series, SROSS-C, was launched on an Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) on May 20, 1992. It was India’s first astrophysics observatory. The 235-lb. satellite had a gamma ray burst detector composed of high voltage scintillation detectors focused on the southern sky. Unfortunately, the satellite fell from orbit after only 55 days. Its replacement, SROSS- C2, was launched on May 4, 1994.

One of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rockets blasted off on April 18, 2001, from the Sriharikota Island launch site placed a 1.5-ton experimental communications satellite called GSAT-1 into geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above Earth. GSAT- 1 was a communications satellite with digital audio, data and video broadcasting using two S-band, one high power C-band and two indigenous C-band transponders.

On October 22, 2001 India launched its Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C3) from Sriharikota to a 350-mi.-high orbit. The 2,440-lb. satellite carried a panchromatic camera for Earth-imaging and tested new payload technologies, ranging from communications to remote sensing. The satellite was monitored by ISRO’s Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore along with its small network of tracking stations at Lucknow, Mauritius, and Bearslake, Russia.

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The Indian National Satellite, INSAT-3C, designed and built by the ISRO was launched on a European Space Agency Ariane-4 rocket on January 24, 2002. The satellite added much communications capacity using e-mail filters. Firewalls are programs that protect a user from unauthorized access attacks while on a network. They provide access to only known users, or people who the user permits.

The advent of multi-user systems has made security dependent on passwords. It necessitates that passwords to sensitive data be kept secure. So, they not only need to be changed frequently, but they also have to be kept sufficiently complex. Moreover, safe surfing must be followed by all users on a network. This involves keeping ones e-mail address private, not chatting on open systems, which do not have adequate protection methods, visiting secure sites, accepting data from only known users, downloading carefully, and only from known sites.

A commonly employed method to prevent cyber attack is the frequent checking of one’s computer for viruses and worms. Also any external media such as floppy disks and CD ROMS should always be virus checked before running. For people using e-mails, they should employ e-mail filters, which monitor the inflow of mails to the inbox and delete automatically any suspicious or useless mails, thus, reducing the chances of being bombed or spoofed.

Due to the brisk pace at which the information highway is entering our homes, we are all at increasing risk of being affected by cyber crime. Since, everything about our lives is in some manner affected by computers, it is high time that we understand that cyber crime is not the problem of only those people who use computers, but it is everyone’s problem.