Isro's PSLV-C62 to Launch Hyderabad Teens' Weather Satellite
Technical guidance for the project was provided by city-based aerospace start-up TakeMe2 Space, while adult intervention during engineering tasks was deliberately kept to a minimum.
Hyderabad: A group of school students from the city has designed and built a flight-ready CubeSat payload that is set to be launched aboard PSLV-C62 of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on January 12 from Sriharikota, marking a rare instance of adolescents completing an end-to-end aerospace engineering cycle.
The launch manifest for Project SBB-1 (Satellite Blue Blocks-1) was signed on January 6, formally integrating the 10 cm x 10 cm CubeSat into the PSLV-C62 mission. The project was executed by 17 students aged between 12 and 15 from Tellapur-based Blue Blocks Montessori School, who spent five months on building the satellite payload.
Working from first principles, the students designed and assembled the CubeSat hardware and wrote 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.
Showcasing the prototype, the students explained how the satellite would function from an altitude of around 450 km. “There are different types of sensors, including magnetometer, accelerometer and gyroscope, apart from sensors that will capture temperature, humidity and pressure data. This is the functional prototype we are carrying. The one being sent to space is already on its way for integration with the Isro rocket," Aahan Hemal Mehta, a Class 7 student, told Deccan Chronicle.
Technical guidance for the project was provided by city-based aerospace start-up TakeMe2 Space, while adult intervention during engineering tasks was deliberately kept to a minimum.
“We didn’t want to just watch a launch; we wanted to be on the rocket. Debugging the code when the sensors failed to communicate was the toughest part,” said Sanshray Padhy, one of the student team leaders, during a press briefing at Mediaplus Auditorium.
Blue Blocks co-founders Pavan Goyal and Munira Hussain travelled to Ahmedabad to complete the final administrative formalities, clearing the student-built payload for integration with the launch vehicle on January 6. Munira said the initiative stood apart from conventional school-level STEM projects.
“There were no pre-assembled kits or simulated exercises. The students worked from first principles, designed and assembled the CubeSat payload hardware, and wrote the firmware required for real-time telemetry,” she said.
Pavan Goyal said the project demonstrated that age was no barrier to advanced engineering. “They are not future engineers. They are flight-ready engineers today,” he remarked.
He said the initiative has attracted international attention, with the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo inviting him to present the project’s methodology, while the student team has also been selected to present a technical review of their CubeSat at the AMI Conference in Mexico.
