India as taken its first step into being called the elite country. This happened when India launched its own navigation system. This became official when India launched its seventh satellite of the GPS system, NAVIC. The full form if NavIC is Navigation with Indian Constellation. The name NavIC was given because it meant the term ‘sailor’ or ‘navigator.’ The word comes from the Sanskrit word ‘navik.‘
What Is NavIC?
NavIC is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system. It provides accurate real-time positioning and timing services. NavIC covers India. As well as, the region extending 1,500 km (930 mi) around it. So far, NavIC has plans for further expansion.
With NacIC, ISRO has not only bought another thing that Indians can be proud of, but it can also be making it easier for them to navigate and have more accurate navigations.
Where Is It From?
The Origin Of NavIC is India. That’s the short answer and in fact the only answer. The operator of this GPS system ISRO. The full form of ISRO is the Indian Space Research Organisation. The NavIC is used for military as well as commercial purposes and is currently operational. NavIC based trackers are compulsory on commercial vehicles in India. It is planned to become available in consumer mobile phones in the first half of 2020, which so far only a few phones support it.
Accuracy Of NavIC
1 m or 3 ft 3 in (public)
10 cm or 3.9 in (encrypted)
This is the accuracy of NavIC. Pretty accurate, honestly. The NavIC satellites have been orbiting the earth since the year 2018. The system of NavIC was expected to be operational since early 2018. NavIC will in the future, provide two levels of service. The first level will be the “standard positioning service”, which will be open for civilian use. The second level will be a “restricted service” (an encrypted one) for authorised users (including the military).
The Space Applications Centre in 2017 said NavIC will provide standard positioning service to all users with a position accuracy up to 5 m. The GPS, for comparison, had a position accuracy of 20–30 m. Unlike GPS which is dependent only on L-band, NavIC has a dual-frequency. (S and L bands). When a low-frequency signal travels through the atmosphere, its velocity changes due to atmospheric disturbances.
How Much Does NavIC Cost?
NavIC, for which the first launch took place on 1st July 2013. The last launch took place on 12th April 2018 with a total of nine launches cost Rs. 22.46 billion, which is roughly equal to $315 million USD.
Background
The system was developed due to many reasons. One of the reasons was because access to foreign government-controlled global navigation satellite systems is not guaranteed in hostile situations. India has previously experienced this. This has happened to the Indian military in 1999. United States denied the Indian request for Global Positioning System (GPS) data for the Kargil region. The GPS during the Kargil war would’ve been very helpful and would have provided vital information. The Indian government approved the project in May 2013.
As per National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2020, United States Secretary of Defense in consultation with Director of National Intelligence will designate NavIC, Galileo and QZSS as allied navigational satellite system.
