Chennai/ Pune: The day will be etched in the memory of students of city-based Sathyabama University and College of Engineering, Pune as two satellites developed by them were part of 20 payloads that were sent into orbit by Isro.
Sathyabamasat, weighing 1.5 kg, will monitor the concentration of greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere and the life of the mission is six months. The University has also set up a ground station to receive the data from the satellite.
“The project commenced in November 2009 and 40 students over 5 batches were involved in this project,” B.Sheela Rani, Project Manager, Sathyabamasat and Vice-Chancellor, Sathyabama University, said.
The satellite will be used to collect data on green house gases (Water vapor, Carbon monoxide, Carbon dioxide, Methane and Hydrogen fluoride). -
Swayam, the cube shaped satellite by College of Engineering Pune, weighs less than 1,000 grams and aims to ensure point to point communication even in remote places.
"This is a very emotional and amazing moment for us as over 170 students burnt midnight oil while working on the project for last eight years, and today the institute has taken a giant leap into space,” said Dr P B Ahuja, Director of COEP, who was at the spaceport along with the project team at the launch.
He said the project had started in 2008 with students from various streams coming together and working on it. “It happened due to sheer hard work and determination,” he added.
He said the unique feature of the satellite is that it has a passive system and does not draw any electrical power for stabilising and orientation towards the earth magnetic field.
“The team has devised an ingenious passive stabilisation system which employs a pair of hysteresis rods and a magnet to stabilise the satellite, thus eliminating the need to use bulky and power hungry magnetorquers,” he said, adding the feature was appreciated by Isro. He further said within moments of launch, 'Swayam' was separated at 515.3 km in orbit.
