As part of 75th year of independence, ISRO to launch 75 satellites built by Indian academia
Categories: SCIENCE NEWS Technology
Indian academia is gearing up to build 75 satellites, that are expected to be launched by ISRO rockets between August 15, 2022, and 2023.Initiated by the Indian Technology Congress Association (ITCA), the project aims to bring together universities, engineering colleges and schools that will design, build, integrate and test their student-built satellites. Back in 2021, a handful of Indian academia had built 3 satellites known as 'UNITYSat', which was launched as a co-passenger in ISRO's PSLV C51, Amazonia mission. According to Dr Annadurai, some of the major lessons that students learned from building UNITYSat are being implemented in the ongoing project of building 75 satellites.To test the new systems that are being incorporated in the upcoming satellites, an engineering model will be flown in the coming months. Once the validation is completed successfully, the students will be trained to build the nano-satellites and carry out the related tasks, with the support of an Indian space start-up. To cut short the time to fabricate 75 satellites and make the mission frugal, the start-up is expected to provide satellite-building kits, to the students. Once placed in orbit by the PSLV rocket, each satellite is designed to remain in earth orbit for up to a year and provide data to the ground stations. This is being done to keep the mission going, even if a few satellites fail. This concept also has the potential to be improvised, even beyond this 75 satellites mission, Dr Annadurai added. In the next year, ITCA and ISRO will mentor the students, provide their technical support, review the progress of the mission and suggest corrections as necessary. The project monitoring committee comprising of experts from within and outside ISRO is to meet every few weeks to track the progress of the mission and ensure its facilitation.