StudSat

StudSat is a CubeSat satellite designed by students. This project was conceptualised and project managed by undergraduate students across India.^[2] STUDSAT-1 is a picosatellite, a miniaturised satellite, successfully launched on 12 July 2010 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre into a sun synchronous orbit. The mission's objective was for students to have a hands-on experience with the design, fabrication and realisation of a space mission at a minimum cost. Experimental in nature, the mission life was stated to be six months.

StudSat-1 was the first picosatellite launched by India, as well as the smallest satellite launched indigenously by any Indian organisation.^[3]

History

The project was initiated by a group of four students from different Engineering colleges of Hyderabad and Bangalore who attended International Astronautical Congress, 2007, Hyderabad, India after meeting Mr. D. V. A. Raghavamurthy (Project Director, Small Satellites, ISRO Satellite Centre) at the congress. From then the team expanded slowly, ultimately completing the conceptual design. Following the financial budget analysis, the students approached the management of their respective colleges for sponsorship. The colleges, in turn, approached Indian Space Research Organisation for preliminary review of the project. ISRO scientists approved the preliminary design review after having a set of meetings with detailed presentations by the students. The initial four member team expanded to around 45 students from 10 different colleges. Seven of the colleges formed a consortium to provide the financial sponsorship for the project. The colleges are bound by an internal MOU, led by Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore as representative college to sign official MOU with ISRO. The project team is led by Dr.Jharna Majumdar as the project coordinator.^[4]

STUDSAT is successfully placed in the orbit and received the first signal on 12 July 2010 at 11:07am IST.

Studsat consortium

Studsat consortium consists of seven Engineering colleges from Hyderabad and Bangalore bound by an MOU in order to sponsor the project financially. The consortium comprises the following colleges:

• Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore.[Lead College]
• M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore.
• Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, Bangalore.
• B M S Institute of Technology, Bangalore.
• Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad
• Institute of Aeronautical Engineering, Hyderabad.
• Vignan Institute of Technology & Science, Hyderabad.
• RNS Institute of Technology, Bangalore.

Description

The satellite resembles a small rectangular cube, with length dimensions of (10 cm x 10 cm x 13.5 cm), a weight of almost 950 g, and a volume of 1.1 L. The satellite was launched in 700 km Sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite will perform the function of a remote sensing satellite and take images of earth's surface with a resolution of 90 meter, the best achieved by any "PICO" category satellite in the world. The satellite consists of the following subsystems

• Communication sub-system.
• Power generation and distribution sub-system.
• Attitude Determination and Control sub-system.
• On Board Command and Data Handling.
• Payload(Camera).
• Mechanical Structure.

A Ground Station^[5] has been designed in order to communicate with the satellite. The Ground Station NASTRAC (Nitte Amateur Satellite Tracking Centre) which is established in NMIT was inaugurated by Dr K. Radhakrishnan, the current chairman of ISRO.^[6] All the above subsystems are designed by students indigenously.

Current status

The CDR has been conducted in NMIT where several scientists notably Prof U.R.Rao former chairman of ISRO have evaluated the design.^[7] The CDR has been approved by ISRO. The satellite has been launched by PSLV-C15 on 12 July 2010. The team has taken over control of the satellite from the ground station established at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT) in Bangalore. The satellite is no longer in contact with the ground station.

Two Line Element Set (TLE) of StudSat-1 are:

• 1 36796U 10035B 12227.08525431 .00001146 00000-0 15376-3 0 2565
• 2 36796 098.0573 303.0904 0014305 346.6376 013.4443 14.81257111113029

Source: AFSPC NASA's NSSDC Master Catalog entry for STUDSAT

StudSat-2

The Team STUDSAT is continuing the legacy and building twin Nano-satellite for proving the concept of Inter-satellite link (ISL). The design of the Twin-Satellites STUDSAT-2A and STUDSAT-2B, are of dimensions 30cms*30cms*20cms and weighing less than 10 kg. The main goal of the STUDSAT 2 project is to develop a low-cost small satellite, capable of operating small scientific or technological payloads where real time connectivity is provided by inter-satellite links.

Achievements

The team has presented a paper titled "Studsat- A Student Pico-Satellite for Imaging" in International Astronautical Congress, 2008 which was held in Glasgow, Scotland.^[8] The team won Hans Von Muldau Award for the best team project awarded by International Astronautical Federation and sponsored by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt.^[9] The Team has also done a National Record (INDIA) by entering into LIMCA BOOK of RECORDS-2011 Edition for creating the smallest Indian satellite.

See also

• StudSat-2
• Anusat
• Jugnu
• List of CubeSats
• Pratham Satellite

References

External links

• Team StudSat homepage

Indian spacecraft Satellites Communication Completed GSAT 1 2 3 (EDUSAT) 4 5P 6 7 8 10 12 14 16 HAMSAT INSAT 1A 1B 1C 1D 2A 2B 2C 2D 2DT 2E 3A 3B 3C 3D 3E 4A 4B 4C 4CR Kalpana-1 (METSAT) Planned GSAT 5 6A 7A 9 11 13 15 SAARC Satellite Earth observation Completed Bhaskara I II Cartosat 1 2 2A 2B IMS-1 IRS 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E P1 P2 P3 Megha-Tropiques Oceansat 1 2 Resourcesat 1 2 RISAT 1 2 Rohini RS-D1 RS-D2 SARAL Technology Experiment Satellite (TESS) Planned Cartosat-3 NISAR Oceansat-3 Resourcesat-3 Experimental APPLE Aryabhata Rohini RS-1 Rohini Technology Payload (RTP) Navigation Completed IRNSS 1A 1B 1C 1D Planned IRNSS 1E 1F 1G Student satellite Completed ANUSAT Jugnu SRMSAT StudSat Youthsat Planned Pratham Spacecraft Scientific SROSS A B C C2 Astronomical Completed Astrosat Planned Aditya Lunar Exploration Chandrayaan programme Completed Chandrayaan-1 Planned Chandrayaan-2 Inter-planetary Exploration Completed Mars Orbiter Mission Planned Mangalyaan 2 Venus Mission Human space flight Indian human spaceflight programme SRE-1 SRE-II SRE-III Orbital Vehicle CARE List of Indian satellites List of Satish Dhawan Space Centre launches List of ISRO missions Future spacecraft in italics.