Students Ready to Build Another CubeSat

Hyderabad: School students from Hyderabad, who built a small satellite that would have been looking at India from sky if not for the failure of Isro's PSLV-C62, are ready to take up a new technological project than the one lost on Monday.

A team of three from including the project’s director and cofounder of Blue Blocks Montessori (Tellapur) Pavan Goyal and two high school students, Sanshray Padhy and G Sanjay Ramraj were at Sriharikota to witness the launch of the rocket on Monday.

While regretting that the CubeSat they had built through more than two years of hard work could not reach space, the students remain optimistic about rebuilding everything from the knowledge they had gained.

“Our learning in the process of building our very first Cubesat has been immense. With all this learning we now know how to build the next satellite with a lot more precision and care. We are determined to continue our hands-on learning in space technology and make the next cubesat,” said Sanshray, one of the team leaders of the 17 member school team which built the CubeSat.

According to mentors, unlike most school-level STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) initiatives, the project did not involve pre-assembled kits or simulated exercises. The students worked from first principles, designing and assembling the CubeSat payload hardware and writing the firmware required for real-time telemetry. Commercial off-the-shelf sensors were integrated and soldered by the students themselves to study thermal behaviour in the vacuum of space. Technical guidance was provided by scientists from Take Me 2 Space.

“Despite the mission not being a success, the entire experience was magical as we watched the launch of PSLV-C62 from the site. Students were excited and were emotional as the payload they built was onboard. Even though they regret the loss of vital data owing to the mission's failure they are ready to rebuild another much advanced satellite with the experience they gained. Even the TakeMe2 Space is ready to help us become part of the new mission,” informed Pavan, while returning back to Hyderabad from Sriharikota.