Did you know these 8 achievements of ISRO which made India stood parallel to America and Russia?

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched a record 20 satellites in a single mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre with PSLV- C34 in Sriharikota today which led India as a 3rd country in the world to do so. The satellites included Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 19 co-passenger satellites from US, Canada, Germany, Indonesia and two Indian academic institutions.

Image Source: ISRO

US has launched 29 satellites in 2013 and Russia 33 in 2014. India ranks 3rd by launching 20 satellites in 2016 today. It’s not the first time that ISRO is successful in launching satellites in a single mission. It has previously also launched 10 satellites in 2008 in a single mission and now it’s a new achievement in the field of space science.

 

ISRO’s other achievements are:

1. ISRO had launched it’s first rocket in 1963.
2. Within 9 years of it’s establishment ISRO was successful in launching it’s first satellite in the orbit of the Earth in 1975.
3. In 2009 ISRO bagged another achievement by sending humanless satellite to the Moon which led India stand parallel to US and Russia.
4. In 2014 ISRO made history by successful launch of “Mangalyan”defeating American Space Agency NASA as the cost of India’s “Mangalyan” was much inexpensive than NASA.
5. India’s cost of satellite launching is 60% lower than the cost incurred by any other foreign space agency.
6. ISRO has been successful in launching all the foreign satellites so far.
7. More than 57 space agencies from 20 countries are taking help from ISRO for their satellite launching since 2009.
8. India is going to soon launch it’s own “Made In India” Satellite Navigation System IRNSS like GPS. All the required satellites for the same have already been successfully launched.

Image Source: ISRO

We congratulate to team ISRO for their achievements so far and wish them goodluck for all their future endeavours and making India shine.

 

ISRO’s Rocket Science Can Now Pump Blood – Major Make In India Innovation For Heart Transplantation

Spin off of the space technology into an artificial heart (LVAD, a blood pumping device) by Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) can now save lives.

In an major Make In India Innovation for the artificial heart a team of ISRO’s Rocket Scientists at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) have been successful in building a small device that can pump blood while spinning off the material and technology used in rocket science.

A team of about two dozen experts like metallurgists, electronic engineers, flow mechanics and conduction specialists have worked for over six years to build the pump and they describe it as work in progress. The device is a mechanical pump that can be implanted in a person’s chest to assist a weak heart pump blood through the body.

This Made-in-India low cost Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) weighs 100 gm and will help people who need heart transplants, replicating the function of a part of the heart that pumps blood.

The device is made of biocompatible titanium alloy and can pump blood at the rate of 3 to 5 litres per minute. Similar imported heart pumps cost crores of rupees, but the ISRO version is expected to cost only Rs. 1.25 lakh.

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It is being tested right now by a team of surgeons on animals and is expected to be ready for use on humans only after a few years of extensive testing. The device was recently tested on five pigs at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram for a six-hour experiment which doctors said was successful.

“Material used in a rocket, the mechanism used in a rocket, electronics used in a rocket are combined to form the device… which is useful as a first step towards heart transplantation. This device was tested in a pig, and it was found that the pig was alive after fitting it. The other organs of the animal were intact. This shows that it is a very good alternative for an artificial heart,” says Dr K Sivan, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

In a paper submitted to an international journal in 2011, a scientist from VSSC said: “LVADs are mechanical circulatory devices placed between the left ventricle and aorta that take over the function of a failing heart either partially or completely.”

An advanced cardiac or heart failure may cause a drop in the output of the heart from its normal resting output of about five litres of blood per minute to around two litres a minute. As the output reaches this level, the kidneys, liver, and brain are damaged irreversibly, the paper reads. The LVAD is designed to pump blood at the rate of 3 to 5 litres per minute.

 “This is one of the examples of how work that is done for rocket technology or satellite technology can help human beings. This is an alternate system in case the human heart has difficulties in pumping blood. It provides a bypass pumping system that can definitely help human lives,” said Dr Kiran Kumar, ISRO chairman.

The titanium used is biocompatible and weighs only 100gm. Other studies show LVADs can be used as an alternative to transplant in case of terminally ill patients whose body condition render them unsuitable for transplants.