Chennai gets India’s first Police Drone Unit

Chennai Police Department has established a ‘Drone Police Unit’ to monitor large gatherings, real-time checking of vehicle registration data, and identifying suspects.

Outgoing Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) C Sylendra Babu inaugurated the project. According to a press release from Greater Chennai Police, the cost of the project is approximately Rs3.6 crore.

In this unit, a total of nine drones are available under three categories: Quick Response Surveillance Drone (6), Long Range Survey Wing Place (2), and Heavy Lift Multirotor Drone (1). All these drones are AIenabled and can be deployed up to 5-10 km from the ground station.

Allterra and NeoGeo Win Karnataka's Land Mapping Contract

Allterra and NeoGeo has got the drone-based Land Parcel Mapping contract from Karnataka government through an open tender process.

The project covers an area of 68,000 sq km in 10 districts – Gadag, Koppal, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Chikkamagaluru (Chikmagalur), Vijayapura (Bijapur), Yadgir, Raichur, Bidar, Kalaburagi (Gulbarga). Aereo (formerly Aarav Unmanned Systems) will be the technology partner for both geospatial organizations.

In a statement, Aereo said the project envisages the deployment of around 60 survey-grade Post Processing Kinematic (PPK) drones to capture highresolution images to produce maps with a resolution better than 5 cm per pixel. On an average, the drone fleet will map an area of 1,75,000 acres in a day.

The Department of Survey Settlement and Land Records (SSLR) will use these Ortho-Rectified Images (ORIs) to prepare digital land parcel maps that will play a vital role in ground truthing updating landing ownership records, and enabling infrastructure development across the state.

Pixxel Space Inks MoU with Agriculture Ministry

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare signed a MoU with Pixxel Space India. It aims to develop various geospatial solutions on free of cost basis for the Indian Agriculture Ecosystem using Pixxel’s hyperspectral datasets.

The aim of the project is to leverage hyperspectral data sampled from Pixxel’s path finder satellites to develop analytical models focused on crop mapping, crop health monitoring, crop stage discrimination and soil organic carbon estimation.

Government will develop use cases with hyperspectral data provided by Pixxel. MNCFC (Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre) on behalf of the DA&FW (Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare) will associate with Pixxel team to develop and implement suitable methodologies.

Secretary, DA&FW expressed that such collaboration with a young startup company would go a long way in developing innovative geospatial solutions using advanced satellite imaging technology. The new technology will reduce reliance on manual surveys and measurements which are time consuming and prone to errors.

ISRO to Transfer SSLV to Private Sector

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that it will transfer its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) to the private sector. SSLV is intended to provide on-demand services for launching satellites weighing less than or equal to 500 kg into a low-earth orbit. To facilitate the transfer of SSLV to industry, ISRO has opted for the bidding route.

SSLV, the sixth launch vehicle and has already carried out two development flights, in August 2022 and February 2023. In August last year, the maiden flight of the SSLV was interrupted due to vibration disturbance for a short duration on the Equipment Bay deck during the separation of the second-stage.

In February, ISRO successfully launched SSLV and positioned ISRO's EOS07 satellite, Janus-1 from US-based firm Antaris', and Chennai-based space start-up Space Kidz’s AzaadiSAT-2 into a 450-km circular orbit.

Chandrayaan-3 Takes Off for Lunar Exploration

India is set to make its second attempt at landing a spacecraft on the moon with the Chandrayaan3 mission. The launch on July 14 was carried out successfully with the lander and rover projected to land after 42 days.

The first attempt had been unsuccessful as Chandrayaan -2’s lander and rover crashed on the moon’s surface during the last stage of descent. If Chandrayaan – 3 lands successfully, India will become only the fourth country in the world – After the US, China, and Russia to have done so.

Beginning with Chandrayaan – 1 which was launched in 2008, ISRO’s moon missions have been aimed at lunar explorations. It made more than 3,400 orbits around the moon and was operational for at least 312 days.

With Chandrayaan – 2, ISRO planned to send a lander and rover that would’ve been stationed on the moon for exploration activities. It was launched in July 2019 and was only a partial success due to the lander’s crashing at the last stage. Chandrayaan – 3 looks to rectify the mistakes of the past and demonstrate India’s growing technical space capabilities. The lander and rover have been studded with 4 scientific payloads that will study lunar quakes, changes in plasma near the moon’s surface, thermal properties of the lunar surface, and passive experiments to help accurately measure the distance between Earth and the moon.

Russia Launches Luna-25 to Find Water on the Moon

Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years on August 11, a bid to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar South Pole, where scientists believe water ice may be present.

The Luna-25 lander blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in eastern Russia and is expected to reach the moon on August 21.

The lander will spend a year on the lunar surface, collecting data and searching for water ice. Carrying 31 kg (68 pounds) of scientific equipment, with a mass of 1.8 tons, Luna-25 will take rock samples from a depth of up to 15 cm to test for the presence of frozen water.

Roscosmos said that it would take five days to fly to the moon with the craft spending 5 to 7 days in lunar orbit before descending to one of three possible landing sites near the South Pole.