POEM 3 Mission

Why in news

Recently, ISRO’s PSLV-C58/XPoSat mission achieved near-zero debris in Earth’s orbit by converting the final stage into the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-3 (POEM-3), which then safely re-entered the atmosphere rather than remaining in orbit after completing its mission.

 What is POEM?

• POEM is an innovative space platform developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).
• It repurposes the fourth stage of a PSLV rocketinto a stable orbital station for conducting in-space scientific experiments with diverse payloads.
• Its inaugural use occurred during the PSLV-C53 mission in June 2022.
• Normally, the fourth stage of the PSLV becomes space debris after deploying satellites, but in the PSLV-C53 mission, it served as a stabilised platform for experiments.
• According to ISRO, POEM has a dedicated Navigation Guidance and Control (NGC) systemfor attitude stabilisation, which stands for controlling the orientation of any aerospace vehicle within permitted limits.

 POEM-3 Mission:

• It was launched as part of the PSLV C-58 missionon 1^st January 2024.
• After deploying the XpoSat satellite, the fourth stage was transformed into POEM-3 and lowered to a 350-km orbit, significantly reducing the risk of space debris generation.