India's First student-made satellite to take off in April

**rk4u** · 03-21-2009 08:49 PM

India's first student-made satellite will take off from Sriharikota either on April 5 or 6, riding piggyback on ISRO's Risat satellite until it separates and flies into its own designated orbit.

Called Anusat, the micro-student satellite will be launched by the four-stage PSLV. It has been designed and developed by 37 aerospace engineering students with the help of 10 of their teachers of the prestigious Madras Institute Of Technology, the alma mater of former President and rocket scientist A P J Abdul Kalam.

"This is the first time we are launching a satellite made by students and the idea is to motivate the younger generation to work for India's space missions," ISRO's chief spokesperson S Satish said.

Madras Institute of Technology's R Dhanraj told TOI that the satellite will operate in the low earth orbit at an altitude between 600 and 800 km. It is equipped with a "store and forward" payload and the data will be received both at the Chennai tech university as well as Pune University. The satellite will mainly be used for amateur communication purposes, providing students with a hands-on experience about space sciences and technology.

ISRO officials said the agency has been promoting the development of micro-satellites at universities to familiarise students in critical areas like structures, thermal management, controls, guidance, power systems, command and data handling and communications.

Chennai's Anna University, of which the Madras Institute of Technology is an affiliate, was the first institution in India to seriously take up ISRO's offer to design and develop a micro-satellite. IIT-Mumbai and IIT-Kanpur are also in the process of designing and developing micro-satellites.

The Anusat programme, initiated in 2002, is the brainchild of R Vasagam, former vice-chancellor of Anna University. Vasagam was previously the director of ISRO's Apple satellite project.

**luvUall** · 03-22-2009 11:34 AM

Dude, seriously a good news and a good break in our Space history, with a satellite prepared by students.

And I feel IITians shud feel shame that, they are not the first to do this.
We say IITs are great, top Engineering colleges in world, blah blah....

Any way, we R indians...

**rk4u** · 03-22-2009 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by luvUall

Dude, seriously a good news and a good break in our Space history, with a satellite prepared by students.

And I feel IITians shud feel shame that, they are not the first to do this.
We say IITs are great, top Engineering colleges in world, blah blah....

Any way, we R indians...

yeah...the bottom line is that these guys have done such a wonderful job...something prepared by them is going into outer space...man...tats amazing!!!

**phani007** · 03-25-2009 01:23 PM

Gud Improvement in thinking

**99099** · 03-30-2009 12:56 PM

kool...amazing

**rk4u** · 04-01-2009 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by phani007

Gud Improvement in thinking

Originally Posted by 99099

kool...amazing

yeah thats true...i also read somewhere that IITians are also working on a project to send a probe into space....these are really awesome developments...