BENGALURU: Isro, which recently undocked the two satellites part of its Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission on March 13, has successfully completed another experiment — the “rolling” or “rotating” experiment — which involved circumnavigation of one of the satellites and bringing it back to the same spot. This experiment, being likened to the Chandrayaan-3 “hop” experiment the space agency conducted on Moon in terms of learning it provides for future missions, would help Isro validate multiple softwares, ground station control and more. Isro chairman V Narayanan confirmed to TOI that the experiment was carried out last week, and said: “We’ve completed the rolling experiment.
The satellites have a lot of propellant...
I have only told [the teams] one thing, please do everything [on] simulation on ground [first]. Let us be very careful. Let us not make any mistakes as a wealth of data can be generated [through various experiments].
What was done So, what exactly did Isro do? Imagine you and your friend outside a coffee shop on Church Street (Bengaluru). After a long hug (docking), your friend has taken a few steps away (undocking) from you while still in your line of sight. Now, your friend either does a somersault or runs around making a circle, returning to her/his original position.
That’s what happened with the satellite in the latest experiment. During the whole time, the satellite performing the experiment was in the line of vision of the other .
