Top scientist accuses ISRO of delay in Indo-Israeli mission

Bangalore, Feb 27 (PTI) A top astrophysicist,
spearheading an Indo-Israeli venture to launch a set of three
telescopes aboard an indigenous satellite, has accused the
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) of delay in
undertaking the mission, and expressed fears that relevance of
data might be in jeopardy.
Tauvex is an Indo-Israeli ultraviolet imaging
experiment that will image large parts of the sky in a
particular wavelength region. The instrument consists of three
equivalent 20-cm UV imaging telescopes with a choice of
filters for each telescope.
It is a collaborative effort of the Bangalore-based
Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Principal investigators:
Jayant Murthy and Kameswar Rao) and Tel Aviv University
(Principal investigators: Noah Brosch and Hagai Netzer) with
the scientific data open to all Indian and Israeli scientists.
Speaking to PTI, Jayant Murthy said, "We have always
had a very difficult time understanding ISRO schedules and
have not been kept in the loop regarding when the launch will
be. The flight date was first supposed to be late 2005 and has
continually slipped."
However, an ISRO spokesman, when contacted, declined
to comment on the issue.
"The official date which was conveyed to us (now) was
early June (this year). Further slippages are of great concern
to us because the TAUVEX payload is sitting in the ISRO clean
room where we have no control over its environment. UV
payloads are very sensitive to contamination," Murthy said.
He said both IIA and Tel Aviv University are very
pleased with the support given to them by the GSAT-4 project
team. These international collaborations are critical for
science which should truly transcend borders.
"Through this project, and others, we have an exposure
to the latest scientific results and data. However, we are
concerned that, at the same time, there is not a sufficient
appreciation for the timeliness of scientific data. Science
advances throughout the world and our delays do have serious
consequences to the further relevance of our data", Murthy
said.
According to him, Tauvex has been in the clean room of
ISRO since early December.
Asked specifically, if he was referring to delay by
ISRO in launching the payload, he said: "Yes, we have been
delayed by ISRO's inability to launch on time."
TAUVEX, which comprises three UV band telescopes
developed by Tel Aviv University and Israel space agency
(ELOP), is slated to be launched into a geostationary orbit as
part of ISRO's GSAT-4 mission later this year.
Murthy said the payload was first developed as part of
a much larger Soviet satellite, but, when that mission was
indefinitely delayed, Dr Brosch of Tel Aviv University and
himself proposed a secondary launch by ISRO and the
organisation accepted this for launch on a communications
satellite GSAT-4.
"While the other payload looked down, we could observe
the sky," he said.
The main purpose of the instrument is to take deep
observations of the sky in three bands in the Ultra Violet.
"We would focus on regions of the sky near the poles
where we will obtain observations of more than one lakh
seconds in selected areas," Murthy said.
"In many ways, this complements the GALEX mission of
NASA which observes a much larger area of the sky, but with
only two bands as opposed to our three and the upcoming
ASTROSAT mission which can follow up with better spatial
resolution and sensitivity those objects we discover," he
said.
"The instrument has come from the Tel Aviv University
and the main contractor (ELOP) and we, at IIA, provide the
software and science and mission planning. We will both share
equally the data and the resulting science." PTI