Components used in Chandrayaan-3s landing on the moon
Smiths Interconnect is proud to support India’s historic recent moon landing by providing key components for the Chandrayaan-3 space craft, as India becomes the first country to land a spacecraft successfully near the South Pole of the Moon.
Smiths Interconnect’s space-qualified products enabled the ISRO ground controllers to monitor and command the probe using two way or ‘bi-directional’ radio links - without which the successful landing of the craft would not have been assured.
Julian Fagge, President at Smiths Interconnect, said: “At Smiths Interconnect we have a deep history of collaboration with the ISRO that has lasted over 25 years, so it is with great pride that we were able to play a role in this historic mission providing high reliability components, cables and connectors. ISRO is crossing new frontiers with its soft landing on the lunar surface and we look forward to supporting the ISRO in their future interplanetary missions.”
Smiths Interconnect has a long-standing relationship with the ISRO, working with the organisation for nearly three decades, and supplying them with tens of thousands of parts for space flight for use in geostationary broadcast, earth observation and several deep space missions – including all three Chandrayaan missions.
Smiths Interconnect connectivity solutions used in the Chandrayaan-3 mission include:
- Ferrites, used in S-band Telemetry Tracking and Control systems.
- HRM Space qualified Thermopads used in the payload receiver section of the craft
- KNB connector series used in the digital cards – part of the craft’s communication system.
- Lab Flex 200Q cables – space-flexible assemblies used to connect onboard RF subsystems wherever they could not fit the in-house semi-rigid assemblies, also forming part of the craft’s communication system.
Smiths has also supported the ISRO on the following major Satellite Missions:
- GSAT Series (Communication Missions)
- NISAR (NASA/ISRO Synthetic-aperture radar Missions)
- IDRSS (Indian Data relay Missions)
- IRNSS -RISAT (Navigational / Weather surveillance Missions)
- ADITYA L1 (ISRO first-ever Solar Mission)
- Chandryaan series (Moon Mission)
- High Throughput satellites - Upcoming
- Gaganyaan (Human Spaceflight Programme) - Upcoming
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Thermopad®
Totally passive, surface mountable temperature variable attenuator. It requires no bias or control voltages and does not generate distortion.
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KNB/KNC Series ESA Qualified
Based on the KN series MIL-DTL-55302 compliant connectors an ESA version of the KNB/KNC connectors has been created, which also offers signal contacts designed for demanding applications.
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MW Waveguide Loads
The breadth of waveguide products includes devices operating from 1.0 to 52.0 GHz and includes isolators and circulators, combiners, transitions and terminations. Each product is designed for specific applications and optimized to handle an appropriate amount of RF power. The highest power devices are based on differential phase shift technology while lower power devices are supplied based on traditional junction technology, Smiths Interconnect offers a broad choice of standard junction and differential 4-port waveguide isolators and circulators.
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Phase Stable Cable Assemblies
Lab-Flex T cable is the ultimate solution for those testing conditions which require the minimum phase change during temperature and mechanical flexure.