India will launch the world’s first stereographic mapping satellite into orbit. The most innovative feature of the 1.6-tonne Cartosat-1 is its pair of cameras, which will give stereo images of the earth’s surface that can distinguish features down to 2.5 metres across. They will directly generate three-dimensional maps that have until now been achievable only indirectly, by combining data from a large number of satellite passes over the same place. “Such a stereographic imaging system does not exist in the civil sector anywhere else,” says Mr Nair, chairman of the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

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