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I N N OVAT I O N COR N E R S T U D S T A T

ODYSSEY

Undergraduate students design and build a complex miniature satellite, rally their colleges to pay for it, and once the space agency launches it, they track and monitor it in space.BY HEMANT KUMAR

2010!

ASPACE

37www.ibef.org OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2010

S T U D S T A T I N N OVAT I O N COR N E R

The time: 9.22am, July 12, 2010.

The place: The Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, a spindle-shaped island on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh.

All eyes on a steaming rocket, loaded with fuel and ready to go.

“... 3...2...1 ... Lift Off!”As the giant rocket shot off the launch

pad and tore into space, scores of students exploded into ecstatic applause. But that morning they were not cheering India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle as ordinary spectators. Hearts pounding wildly and misty-eyed with elation, they knew they had achieved something extraordinary. A satellite they had designed was on board the soaring rocket. They had a stake in the launch as real as the scientists who were manning the controls.

Called Studsat, for student satellite, the tiny satellite was designed and built by 45 engineering students from 10 colleges in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

It all started in 2007, when four students of an engineering college attended an inter-national conference on aerospace engineer-ing in Hyderabad. An idea was born: we will design a satellite of our own and send it into space. But how? Enter the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The students approached their colleges with the idea, and the colleges went to ISRO. To cut a long story short, ISRO liked the idea and asked for a detailed presentation, with design parametres. A series of meet-ings later, the concept, design and fabrication details were thrashed out. By now, there were 45 students on the team, from 10 different colleges of Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Eventually, seven colleges, led by the Nitte Meenakshi Insti-tute of Technology of Benga-luru, formed a consortium to manage the ambitious project.

Studsat employed several frontline technologies and it took the stu-dents about a year and a half to design, build and test the satellite and its complex sub-systems.

On its 16th flight, the powerful PSLV rocket ejected the Studsat into a sun-

project have decided to continue with the institute to build the next two satellites that will have two-three additional instruments for astronomical, atmospheric and terres-trial studies, including terrain mapping.

Studsat’s mission is experimental in nature and the main aim is for the stu-dents to have a hands-on experience of the design, fabrication and realisation of a space mission at a minimum cost. It was the first, but more are on their way. Stu-dents at IIT Kanpur and Mumbai are build-ing two small satellites, while two more are being built at colleges in Chennai. All four satellites are scheduled for launch next year. Space is at a premium on launch rockets, especially when the flights are paid for by foreign customers. But ISRO has done well to accommodate experimental satellites on board. Also, its insistence that colleges shoulder the responsibility of designing and building the satellites has ensured that they have a long-term commitment to pro-moting space research.

synchronous orbit, 630 km above the Earth. The command centre received the first signal from the satellite two hours later, the same day. Studsat is the smallest operation-al satellite ISRO has ever launched.

The satellite was built for less than a quar-ter-of-a-million dollars, including the cost of the support infrastructure to track and monitor its movement. Studsat carries a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera and four small solar panels mounted for power supply. The CMOS is a chip that holds data without external power source. Weighing just under a kilo, the

near-cubical, palm-sized satellite has a body made of space-qualified, high grade aluminum alloy. It functions

as a remote sensing satel-lite, clicking panchromatic images of earth's surface with a resolution of 90 metres, the best achieved by any ‘pico’ category satellite in the world. The images will help determine the conditions of the landmass, its vegetation, moisture content or dryness in the soil for agriculture and other farming activity. Studsat is expected to have a lifespan of six months to a year.

The students have also designed a ground station to communicate with the satellite. Called NASTRAC, for Nitte Amateur Satel-lite Tracking Centre, the station is a techno-logical marvel in itself.

Many of the members associated with the

Weighing just under a kilo, the near-cubical, palm-sized satellite has a body made of space-qualified, high grade aluminum alloy

Studstat IS A SATELLITE

DESIGNED AND

BUILT BY 45

ENGINEERING

STUDENTS