Mission type | Remote Sensing Technology |
---|---|
Operator | STUDSAT Consortium |
COSPAR ID | 2010-035B [1] |
SATCAT no. | 36796 |
Mission duration | 6 months (planned) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | CubeSat |
Manufacturer | Consortium of 7 Engineering Colleges from Bangalore (4) and Hyderabad (3) |
Launch mass | 0.950 kg (2.09 lb) |
Dimensions | 10 cm x 10 cm x 13.5 cm |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 12 July 2010, 03:52:00 UTC [2] |
Rocket | Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15) |
Launch site | Satish Dhawan, FLP |
Contractor | ISRO |
End of mission | |
Last contact | 2011 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit [3] |
Regime | Sun-synchronous orbit |
Perigee altitude | 602.5 km |
Apogee altitude | 620.4 km |
Inclination | 98.18° |
Period | 96.8 minutes |
STUDSAT (STUDent SATellite), [1] is a CubeSat satellite designed by students. This project was conceptualised and project managed by undergraduate students across India. [4] STUDSAT is a picosatellite 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 was the first picosatellite launched by India, as well as the smallest satellite launched indigenously by any Indian organisation. [5]
The project was initiated by a group of four students from different Engineering colleges of Hyderabad and Bangalore who attended International Astronautical Congress (IAC), 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 (ISRO) 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 Memorandum of understanding (MOU), led by Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore as representative college to sign an official Memorandum of understanding with ISRO. The project team is led by Dr. Jharna Majumdar as the project coordinator. [6]
STUDSAT is successfully placed in the orbit and received the first signal on 12 July 2010 at 11:07 am IST (??:07 UTC).
STUDSAT consortium consists of seven Engineering colleges from Hyderabad and Bangalore bound by a Memorandum of understanding in order to sponsor the project financially. The consortium comprises the following colleges:
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. The satellite was launched in 625 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:
A ground station [7] has been designed in order to communicate with the satellite. The ground station NASTRAC (Nitte Amateur Satellite Tracking Centre) which is established in Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT) was inaugurated by Dr K. Radhakrishnan, the current chairman of ISRO. [8] All the above subsystems are designed by students indigenously.
The satellite has completed its mission life. The CDR was conducted in NMIT where several scientists notably Prof. Udupi Ramachandra Rao former chairman of ISRO have evaluated the design. [9] The CDR had been approved by ISRO. The satellite was launched by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15) on 12 July 2010. The team had 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:
Source: AFSPC
The Team STUDSAT is continuing the legacy and building twin nanosatellite for proving the concept of Inter-satellite links (ISL). The design of the Twin-Satellites STUDSAT-2A and STUDSAT-2B, are of dimensions 30 cm x 30 cm x 20 cm 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.
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. [10] The team won Hans Von Muldau Award for the best team project awarded by International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and sponsored by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt. [11] The Team has also done a National Record (India) by entering into LIMCA BOOK of RECORDS-2011 Edition for creating the smallest Indian satellite.
A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of 10 cm (3.9 in) cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than 2 kg (4.4 lb) per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats are deployed into orbit from the International Space Station, or launched as secondary payloads on a launch vehicle. As of December 2023, more than 2,300 CubeSats have been launched.
Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering is an autonomous private engineering college in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. It was established in 1963 under the Rashtreeya Sikshana Samithi Trust (RSST) and was one of the earliest self-financing engineering colleges in the country. It is affiliated with the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum. In 2008, the college was given autonomous status.
A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under 1,200 kg (2,600 lb). While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites can be built small to reduce the large economic cost of launch vehicles and the costs associated with construction. Miniature satellites, especially in large numbers, may be more useful than fewer, larger ones for some purposes – for example, gathering of scientific data and radio relay. Technical challenges in the construction of small satellites may include the lack of sufficient power storage or of room for a propulsion system.
Udupi Ramachandra Rao was an Indian space scientist and former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. He was also the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad and Nehru Planetarium at Bengaluru and chancellor of the Indian Institute for Space Science and Technology (IIST) at Thiruvananthapuram. He is known as "The Satellite Man of India". He pioneered India's first satellite launch Aryabhata in 1975.
G. Madhavan Nair is an Indian space scientist and a former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and Secretary to the Department of Space, Government of India. His tenure saw commencement of Indian Human Spaceflight Programme and launch of extraterrestrial exploration mission Chandrayaan-I.
AstroSat is India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space telescope. It was launched on a PSLV-XL on 28 September 2015. With the success of this satellite, ISRO has proposed launching AstroSat-2 as a successor for AstroSat.
ITUpSAT1, short for Istanbul Technical University picoSatellite-1, is a single CubeSat built by the Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Istanbul Technical University. It was launched on 23 September 2009 atop a PSLV-C14 satellite launch vehicle from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh in India, and became the first Turkish university satellite to orbit the Earth. It was expected to have a minimum of six-month life term, but it is still functioning for over two years. It is a picosatellite with side lengths of 10 centimetres (3.9 in) and a mass of 0.990 kilograms (2.18 lb).
K. Radhakrishnan a.k.a Koppillil Radhakrishnan is an Indian space scientist who headed the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as Chairman of Space Commission, Secretary of the Department of Space, Government of India. Under his leadership, India became the first country to reach Mars in its first attempt.
UWE-2 was a follow-on picosatellite technology demonstration project within the CubeSat family standard, developed and built by students of the University of Würzburg, Germany. The overall objective is to demonstrate the capabilities of attitude determination and control in picosatellites.
Parivakkam Subramaniam Veeraraghavan is a well known space scientist and rocket technologist of India. He has served as the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and as the Director of ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), Thiruvananthapuram. One of the most senior scientists at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Veeraraghavan is known for his contributions to launch vehicle technology, especially in the areas of integration & checkout and Inertial Systems of ISROs launch vehicles. Presently, he is holding the honorary position of Prof. Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor in VSSC, ISRO since January 2013.
SARAL is a cooperative altimetry technology mission of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES). SARAL performs altimetric measurements designed to study ocean circulation and sea surface elevation.
Cartosat-2B is an Earth observation satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit and the fourth of the Cartosat series of satellites. The satellite is the seventeenth satellite in the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series to be built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
StudSat-2 is a nanosatellite under development with Studsat-2 Consortium and Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) for proving the concept of Inter-satellite link (ISL). The Twin-Satellites STUDSAT-2A and STUDSAT-2B weighing less than 10 kg (22 lb) are of dimensions 30×30×15 cm. 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.
M.Y.S. Prasad is an Indian scientist and the former director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre Sriharikota Range (SDSC-SHAR). Govt. of India’s Civilian Award Padma Shri for the year 2014 for his distinguished service in Science and Technology.
CUTE-1.7 + APD II, or CUTE-1.7 + APD 2, is a Japanese nanosatellite which was launched in 2008 as a follow-up to the CUTE-1.7 + APD satellite. It was built and is operated by the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Swayam is a 1-U picosatellite (CubeSat) developed by the undergraduate students of College of Engineering, Pune. They have successfully completed assembly of the flight model having a size of 1-U and weight of 990 grams under the guidance of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in January 2015. The structural design of the satellite, design of its electronic and control systems as well as the manufacturing of the satellite was carried out by the students. The project was completed over a span of 8 years and more than 200 students worked on it. The Satellite was launched by ISRO on June 22, 2016, along with Cartosat-2C by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-34 from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, India. The satellite is to be placed in low Earth orbit (LEO) around Earth at a height of 515 km.
Dhruva Space Private Limited is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. Founded in 2012 by Sanjay Srikanth Nekkanti, the company is engaged in the development of small satellites in the commercial, governmental and academic markets. It provides full-stack space-engineering solutions across launch, space and ground segments – namely, the building, launching and operation of satellites.
SathyabamaSat is a micro experimental satellite developed by students and faculty of Sathyabama University, Chennai to collect data on greenhouse gases. It was launched along with the Cartosat-2C satellite atop PSLV-C34. It was launched June 22, 2016.
Ananth Technologies Limited is an Indian aerospace manufacturer that provides hardware and software services. The company manufactures electronics and mechanical subsystems for launch vehicles, satellites, spacecraft payloads, and ground systems. It also builds satellites and provides launch services through a partnership with NewSpace India Limited. Ananth Technologies was established in 1992 and is headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. The company also has an office in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and a satellite manufacturing facility near Bangalore, Karnataka.