New Delhi, Oct 26: India plans to expand its regional satellite navigation system NaVIC in a bid to increase its use in the civilian sector and also by ships and aircraft travelling far from the country’s borders.
The Navigation with Indian Constellation (NaVIC) uses seven satellites to provide real-time positioning and timing services in India and an area extending up to 1,500 km from the country’s borders.
However, several satellites of the constellation have outlived their lives and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) now plans to replace at least five of these with the improved L-Band, which would enable it to offer better global positioning services to the public. “
We have five more satellites in production, they have to be launched periodically to replace the defunct satellites. The new satellites will have L-1, L-5 and S Band,” ISRO Chairman S Somanath told .
WATCH VIDEO: Elon Musk Twitter Deal Explained: Simple Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/26N5ZxUN2tM
NavIC or Navigation with Indian Constellation has been developed by ISRO and is viewed as the best alternative to GPS which is run by the US Government. Currently, NavIC is used for emergency location tracking and vehicle tracking.
But the main focus for NavIC was always going to smartphone navigation, which helps users to get their Uber booking or order food via Swiggy or Zomato to their location. NavIC will provide two types of location services—the standard positioning service as well as the encrypted service for security agencies as well as military access.
A recent report from Reuters suggested that the Indian Government wants smartphone brands like Xiaomi, Apple and Samsung to make their phones compatible with NavIC. As a part of its self-reliance mission, NavIC is supposedly going to be better for navigation in India, as it originates from the country, the report adds.
The NavIC system relies on 7 satellites, of which 3 are geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites and 4 are geosynchronous orbit (GSO) satellites.
(With PTI inputs)
Read all the Latest Tech News here
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
