Chennai: ‘Sathyabamasat’, a nano-satellite developed by students and faculty of the Sathyabama University in Chennai to be part of India’s record launch of 20 satellites on June 22. This satellite weighing 1.5 kg will monitor the concentration of greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere.
“The project was commenced in November 2009 and 40 students over the 5 batches were involved in this project,” said B.Sheela Rani, Project Manager, Sathybamasat and Vice-Chancellor, Sathyabama University. “The payload of the satellite ARGUS 1000 IR Spectrometer, will look for the greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere,” she said.
The mission life is six months and beyond that it can be used as a simple transponder for amateur radio communication by invoking loopback. The University has also set up a ground station to receive the data from the satellite.
The PSLV-C34 rocket will carry the Catosat-2 series satellite and 19 other satellites from countries like USA, Indonesia, Germany, Canada. The rocket will be launched from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9.25 a.m.
“This is the highest number of satellites being sent in a single mission. In 2008, we launched 10 satellites,” ISRO officials said. The countdown details of the mission will get finalised Saturday.
NASA had sent 29 satellites into the orbit in a single launch in 2013 which is a world record. ISRO had originally planned to send 22 satellites in the mission. But two satellites from other countries didn’t arrive and so the launch is restricted to 20 satellites. The total weight of all the 20 satellites carried on board is about 1,288 kg.
The Cartosat-2 series satellite which weighs 727.5 kg is the primary satellite of the mission. It will provide regular remote sensing services using its Panchromatic and Multispectral cameras.
