Chandan Sinha

🚨 𝗛𝘆𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗱-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁-𝗴𝗲𝗻 𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗜𝗖, 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗤𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳! 🛰 Sanyark Space is developing a constellation of NAV-COM (navigation + communication) satellites to provide Positioning, Navigation & Timing services at centimeter-level accuracy, acting as a more advanced version of NavIC and GPS, while also offering communication (IoT/M2M) services! They plan on building a constellation of initially 40 satellites in Low Earth Orbit to secure coverage in India, South Asia and the Middle-East, and in the future, expand it to 240 satellites for global coverage. In today's age, satellite navigation forms the basis of countless technologies and services we use daily that we usually take as granted. However, all modern day GNSS constellations are situated either in Geostationary or Medium Earth Orbits very high above Earth. This causes the signals arriving from those satellites to become extremely weak by the time they reach the Earth's surface. As a result, PNT services offered by these constellations have the following shortcomings: • Jamming and spoofing: The weak signals can easily jammed or spoofed, even by using small and cheap jammers or spoofers. Between Nov 2023 to Nov 2025, India's DGCA recorded 1,951 incidents of GPS interferences affecting major airports and aviation hubs across India. • Urban "canyon effects": Buildings and infrastructure block weak signals in cities where navigation services are often most needed and precision is most critical. • Inability to meet today's demands: Modern applications such as autonomous vehicles (ADAS 2+), advanced drones and defence systems, resilient maritime/aviation operations etc. require centimeter-level positioning accuracy which current systems cannot consistently deliver. These are the problems that Sanyark Space has set out to solve with their NAV-COM constellation. As their satellites will operate in Low Earth Orbit between 500-1,000 km above Earth, it will result in more than 100x stronger signal strength on Earth compared to others such as NavIC located at 36,000 km altitude, making it dramatically more resistant to jamming and spoofing. The stronger signal strength also means the signals can penetrate through buildings in urban landscapes and constrained environments where traditional GNSS systems struggle. Additionally, the shorter distance from Earth means faster signal travel, reducing latency and allowing for better real-time positioning. The most important part of any navigation satellite is the on-board atomic clock which provides extremely precise measurements of time crucial for determining the position of users through radio signals travelling at the speed of light. Instead of using heavy and expensive atomic clocks used on NavIC and others, Sanyark will be using a hybrid approach using compact and inexpensive chip-scale atomic clocks on board their satellites and synchronize them using timing information received from atomic clocks at ground stations as well as existing NavIC or other GNSS satellites. Although these chip-scale atomic clocks will be sourced from foreign vendors, Sanyark Space is also collaborating with IIT Tirupati who are developing their own chip-scale atomic clocks, and eventually they plan to use indigenously manufactured ones when they become available. The use of timing information from ground and existing GNSS sats will allow their satellites to remain functional even in the case of their on board clocks experiencing any issues. Sanyark's critical focus remains on making this architecture interoperable with others, meaning hardware designed to receive signals from NavIC and other GNSS satellites can also be used to seamlessly receive signals from their constellation. (1/2) Read 2nd part in the replies below for details reg. first orbital mission, launch date, and more...