INDIAN STUDENTS TO LAUNCH PICO-SIZED PHOTO SATELLITE

Engineering students from Bangalore and Hyderabad who teamed up to develop STUDsat will see the pico-sized satellite in orbit on May 10, thanks to the ISRO...

MIRROR BUREAU


Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K Radhakrishnan says, “We are proud to launch a satellite developed entirely by students. The satellite will be put into orbit along with ISRO’s Cartosat-2B and will be carried by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) either on May 10 or May 15.”

WHAT IT WILL DO

STUDSAT is a PICO Satellite weighing less than 1 Kg with a volume of 1.1 litres and is designed to operate in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 680 Km. The payload of the satellite consists of a CMOS camera capable of capturing images with a ground resolution of approximately 90 metres.
The satellite will send images and telemetry data from orbit to the ground station. The mission life of the satellite is estimated to be six months with a total development cost of Rs 55 lakh.
After the launch, the students will take over the ground station at NMIT. STUDSAT will send 30 minutes of data everyday and the images will be used for vegetation study and remote sensing applications.

GROUND STATION

Currently, the design, development and fabrication of the satellite are complete and the satellite is currently undergoing a final environment test for takeoff. Meanwhile, at ground station NASTRAC (Nitte Amateur Satellite Tracking Centre), the students’ team will be able to receive telemetry data sent by other satellites. The ground station is capable of communicating with more than 250 amateur satellites across the globe. Further NASTRAC may also track and communicate with International Space Station (ISS), according to the students involved in the project.

FEATHERLITE SATELLITE

According to the students, this is the lightest satellite ever manufactured and will ride on the PSLV. It comprises a communications system, a power system, an attitude control system and an on-board computer and camera. The satellite will orbit the earth at an altitude of 700 Km and take images of our planet. At 90 metres, the images will boast the best resolution by any PICO satellite in the world.
STUDSAT (STUDent SATellite), a studentinitiated satellite project, has been designed and developed for the first time in the country by a consortium of seven engineering colleges from Bangalore and Hyderabad.