The PSLV-C16 will put into orbit three satellites — India's remote-sensing satellite Resourcesat-2; an India-Russian satellite named Youthsat; and a mini-satellite, X-Sat, from the Nangyang Technological University of Singapore.
Resourcesat-2, weighing 1206 kg, has a rare combination of three cameras with high, medium and coarse resolutions. The high resolution cameras can take both black & white and colour pictures. It can take images of land as wide as 70 km. The images can be used for locating ground water or minerals, estimate crop acreage, find out the health of the crops, identify rich fishing zones in the sea, categorise wastelands that can help in their reclamation, map coastal zones, keep a watch on water-bodies such as reservoirs, lakes and canals, and so on.
Resourcesat-2 has an additional payload called Automatic Identification System from Canada. This can provide information on the position of ships, their speed etc. The satellite has a mission life of five years.
The 92-kg Youthsat has three payloads — one from Russia and two from the ISRO. They can be used to study the ionosphere, solar X-ray fluxes and their effect on the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere.
The 106-kg X-Sat is a remote-sensing satellite. It can take images of the earth, process them and transmit more refined images to the ground.
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