EDUSAT (Satellite)

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EDUSAT or GSAT-3 was launched in September 2004 by the Indian Space Research Organisation. EDUSAT is the first Indian communication satellite built exclusively to serve the educational sector. It is mainly intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite-based distance education system for the country.

EDUSAT carries five Ku band transponders providing spot beams, one Ku band transponder providing a national beam and six extended C band transponders providing national coverage beams.

September 20, 2004, India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV successfully launched EDUSAT the country's first thematic satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services, into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota. It was the first operational flight of GSLV (GSLV-F01) and the third in the GSLV series. EDUSAT is now orbiting the Earth in GTO with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 180 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 35,985 km with an orbital inclination of 19.2 deg with respect to the equator. The orbital period now is 10.5 hours.

The 414 tonne, 49 m tall GSLV, carrying the 1950 kg EDUSAT, lifted off from Sriharikota at 4:01 pm. About seventeen minutes after lift off, EDUSAT was successfully placed in GTO. At 4.8 seconds before the countdown reached zero, the four liquid propellant strap-on stages, each carrying 40 tonne of hypergolic liquid propellants (UH25 and N2O4), were ignited. At count zero and after confirming the normal performance of all the four strap-on motors, the mammoth 138 tonne solid propellant first stage core motor was ignited and GSLV blazed into the sky. The major phases of the flight included the first stage burn-out at 104 seconds, the strap on burn-out at 150 seconds, ignition of the second stage at 150 seconds, heat shield separation at an altitude of 115 km and 227 seconds into the flight, second stage burn-out at 288 seconds, ignition of the 12.5 tonne cryogenic stage at 304 seconds and its shut down at 999 seconds after attaining the required velocity of 10.2 km per second.

EDUSAT was put into orbit at 1014 seconds about 5000 km away from Sriharikota. The separated cryogenic stage was subsequently reoriented and passivated.

Solar Array Deployment

Soon after its injection into to GTO, the two solar arrays of EDUSAT were automatically deployed. The deployment of the arrays as well as the general health of the satellite were monitored by the ground station of the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command network (ISTRAC) located in the Indonesian island of Biak. The Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka has since taken control of EDUSAT for all its post launch operations. Ground stations at Lake Cowichan (Canada), Fucino (Italy) and Beijing (China) are supporting MCF in monitoring the health of the satellite and its orbit raising operations.

Its designated orbital slot is 74 degree East longitude in the GSO. There, it will be co-located with KALPANA-1 and INSAT-3C.

EDUSAT was developed by ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. The payloads were developed by Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. Master Control Facility at Hassan is responsible for all post launch operations of the satellite.

The successful launch of EDUSAT by the first operational flight of GSLV further demonstrates its reliability and the end-to-end capability of the country to establish space systems to undertake large-scale application programmes for the benefit of the society.

[edit] SATELLITE BASED EDUCATION IN INDIA

A major initiative towards providing satellite based tele-education facilities to Engineering colleges in the country was launched today (January 1, 2008) jointly by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in association with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. This EDUSAT network provides satellite-based tele-education facilities to students and teachers of the engineering colleges across the country. The teaching end is set up at IIT, Bombay by ISRO which will provide satellite bandwidth and install ground equipment at various recipient institutes across the country, while IIT, Bombay will arrange for delivering full fledged courses on various engineering topics through its faculty on this network. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in this regard was signed between ISRO and IIT, Bombay during November 2007. To begin with, IIT, Bombay has scheduled 13 full-fledged courses on this channel. About 50 colleges including IITs, several National Institutes of Technology (NIT), VJTI, Mumbai, Samrat Ashok Technological Institute, Vidisha, Sona College of Engineering and Technology, Salem and Delhi College of Engineering, which already have the compatible ground terminal equipments, will start receiving these programmes from tomorrow onwards (January 2, 2008). New institutes who wish to join this programme will be provided ground equipments soon. In the EDUSAT Network, ISRO has set up more than 45 broadcast and interactive networks covering 20 states including North-Eastern states and Islands of the country. More than 30,000 classrooms have been provided connectivity through EDUSAT and the number is still growing steadily. It may be recalled that EDUSAT spacecraft was launched on September 20, 2004. During the inaugural function, which was arranged simultaneously at ISRO Headquarters, Bangalore and IIT, Bombay through satellite link, Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, Shri A Bhaskaranarayana, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, Prof H P Kincha, Vice Chancellor, Visveswaraya Technological University (VTU) and senior officials of the Department of Space participated in the function at ISRO Headquarters. Mr F C Kohli, senior executive from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Prof Ashok Mishra, Director, IIT, Bombay, Shri P Panneerval, Principal Secretary, Government of Gujarat, Dr (Ms) Joyce Sankaran, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra and Directors and representatives of various NITs and IITs were present on this occasion at IIT, Bombay.

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