Bengaluru: STUDSAT (Student Satellite) is a unique satellite technology endeavor undertaken by Under-graduate students in India. STUDSAT-1 is the first Pico-Satellite launched by India, and more so special, as it is a project undertaken by under-graduate students from consortium of 7 engineering colleges and multidiscipline across south India, led by Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bengaluru under the technical guidance of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

The idea for a project of this kind crystallized during the International Astronautical Congress, 2007, between four students from different academic institutions, from Hyderabad and Bengaluru, after their epochal interaction with Prof U R Rao and various inspirational scientists from ISRO.

Starting then, the team was formed involving more like minded students across different engineering colleges and disciplines to complete the entire conceptual design of the satellite. The idea and design of the Project STUDSAT were presented in International Astronautical Conference – 2008, Glasgow. It was in the same conference in the previous year that the idea of STUDSAT was initiated. The paper was awarded the Best Student Team Award – Hans Von Muldau Award. It was the first time an Indian team had won an award at this global arena.

Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology could timely recognize the team strength extended their support whole heartedly by providing state-of-the-art facilities for the students to perform the tasks with no hindrances. As a result the Centre for Small Satellite Research (CSSR) was established at NMIT. An Industry Standard Clean Room facility was established at NMIT. Prof. U. R. Rao himself visited to inaugurate the same. A resourceful Software Lab, a sophisticated Ground Station,NASTRAC, Nitte Amateur Satellite Tracking Centre, with Amateur Satellite tracking facilities and a HAM license, had been provided to facilitate the completion of project. Apart from these, equally important things like accommodation, travel, food and stipends were proactively taken up by NMIT.

As a culmination to all the efforts from the Students for three years, STUDSAT-1 a Pico satellite which weighed around 970 gm was put into its lower earth orbit of 637 km by PSLV-C15 on July 12, 2010 from Sriharikota at 09:43 IST. This was a remarkable event in the Space Expedition of India, when the first Indian Pico satellite was put into orbit successfully. By 11.02 IST, on the July 12, STUDSAT-1 while making its first PASS over the Ground Station – NASTRAC, transmitted beacon signals which were received and decoded. Thus, indicating the normal functioning of the Satellite as a whole.

STUDSAT-1 was handed over to ISRO amidst Honorable Governor, Sri H.R.Bharadwaj, Karnataka and Prof. U.R Rao on April 17, 2010. It was a proud moment for the student team to witness such a remarkable event.

As mentioned before, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology has a state of art of tracking and receiving facility for amateur satellites. NASTRAC is designed to track satellites working in UHF and VHF frequencies. This State of Art was developed by undergraduate students of Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology initially to track and receive data from the cube satellite STUDSAT-1.NASTRAC was inaugurated by Dr. K Radhakrishnan, Honorable Chairman, ISRO on March 30, 2010.

NASTRAC works as fully fledged ground station past four years. NASTRAC also tracked two other Indian University Satellites, SRMSAT from SRM University, Chennai and JUGNU from IIT-Kanpuron October 12, 2011. In the year 2013, STRaND-1 UK satellite was tracked on request from the University of Surrey. Continuing its activity NASTRAC has tracked VELOX -1 which was launched by PSLV C 23 on June 30, 2014.

Summary of STUDSAT-1

STUDSAT-1

1. India’s first Student Picosatellte
2. Weighing less than 1Kg
3. Mission to capture image of earth and establish communication link
4. Objective to promote space technology among Students Fraternity
5. Successful launch on July 12, 2010 through PSLV C-15 from Sriharikota

Achievements

•HANS VON MULDAU- Best Team 2008 59th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Scotland
•National Record for making India’s First Pico Satellite awarded by Limca Book of National Records in the year 2011
•A patent was filed for the Unique Ground Station, NASTRAC, Nitte Amateur Satellite Tracking Centre at NMIT

STUDSAT-2

Continuing the legacy of Project STUDSAT -1, Project STUDSAT -2 was conceived. A new consortium was formed with Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology as the lead college and the participating colleges being NMAM Institute of Technology, from Nitte, Siddaganga Institute of Technology from Tumkur, Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology from Bangalore, M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, R.N.S Institute of Technology and Sri Siddhartha Institute of Technology from Tumkur.

The STUDSAT-1 mission enriched the STUDSAT-2 team with knowledge and expertise required to make such a mammoth endeavor a success. Learnings from the same helped the new team to identify the mission objectives for STUDSAT-2. These were the first ever proposed by any Student Satellite missions.

The Objectives are:

1.Demonstrate Inter Satellite Communication
2.Demonstrate In-Orbit Separation.
3.De-orbiting the Satellite using Drag Sail after mission life
4.Earth Imaging

As evident from the STUDSAT-2 mission objective the mission design requires complex satellite bus design. The team could come up with indigenously developed modules, to name a few.

1.Tetrahedral Reaction Wheel Actuation System.
2.Magnetic Torquer Coils for Detumbling of the Satellite
3.Satellite Separation Mechanism.
4.On Board Processor Redundancy

Project STUDSAT-2 has completed the initial design review from ISRO with good comments regarding the work and progress of the project.

Student Satellite Training Program (SSTP)

After launch of STUDSAT-1, India’s First Pico Satellite, to continue the legacy of student satellite in India, Team STUDSAT conducted a workshop Student Satellite Training Program (SSTP-1) in August 2010 with participation from 10 engineering colleges. The workshop aimed to share the knowledge and experience gained by members of STUDSAT-1 to the student community. As an outcome of the workshop a consortium of 7 engineering colleges across Karnataka was formed to execute Project STUDSAT-2. In the present phase of Project STUDSAT-2, Team recruited around 100 students from seven engineering colleges.

Apart from being a platform for students to learn in depth about space technologies, SSTP also gives the Team a chance to demonstrate their work to the apex ISRO fraternity. Hence understanding the need of students and the Team in particular SSTP-2 was conceived in Aug 2014. The focused topics were System Engineering, Launch Vehicle technology, Tracking and Command, Usage of Space Data and Applications.

During the period of these two years (2014-16) the team worked hard to stand up against the strict mission constraints stated under ISRO Standards. The progress and learning as a result of these continuous efforts was remarkable and the Team finalized the mission specification and the respective subsystem flow could be designed. The outcome was seen in the form of International Publications among the most coveted platforms, like IEEE Aerospace Conference, International Astronautical Congress, IEEE Metrology for Aerospace etc.

The team is hosting SSTP-3 with a vision is to strengthen its Research Centre’s (CSSR) technical capability in order to make the mission STUDSAT-2 a success. ISRO scientists have been invited to render subsystem specific expert talks followed by sessions from Leading Space Industry Experts. Focused areas are:

Subsystem Specific

•Payload
•Communication
•Control and Digital Electronics
•System Integration and Engineering
•Structures and Mechanism

Industry-Institute Partners

•Centum Electronics
•Dhruva Space
•STUDSAT-1 Team (Web Conference)

As seen in the Industry-Institute Partner section, a web conference session has been planned withSTUDSAT-1 team. The team members are placed across the globe in organization like NASA, ESA, IS I Space, Lockheed Martin, University of Surrey etc. This would give the STUDSAT-2team an opportunity to understand the Space Industry across the globe.

Achievement

STUDSAT-II

•The team won the best concept Paper award at International Workshop on Small Satellite and Sensor Technology for Disaster Management (2014)
•Best Project Award “STUDSAT-2” on Shrishti 2012 National Level Student Project Exhibition.
•A patent was filed for innovative actuation mechanism, “Tetrahedral Reaction Wheel” for fine attitude control
•Under the umbrella of Student Satellite Program there are many research activities providing much Internship to students, around 50 UG Projects and 25 International Publications till date and many more to come.