After the disappointing failure of its recent space venture, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is now planning to launch a satellite in May this year that for the first time will solely be developed by students and would cost around Rs.55 lakh.
The satellite has been developed by a team of students from around seven engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad. It will be used to capture high-resolution images from space that will be made available to students.
The satellite named STUDSAT will be put in the Low Earth Orbit around 680 kilometers above the earth by ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.The satellite has a volume of just 1.1 litres and weighs just one kilogram.
Source from ISRO has reported that the satellite is in the Pico category and would be attached on the back of the PSLV along with three other satellites.
The STUDSAT has a built in camera to produce high-resolution photographic data for the purpose of remote sensing applications and vegetation studies for six months. This data would be commercially sold and would be inaccessible for students but will be given free to students to conduct research such as land mapping.
Five satellites
S. Satish, ISRO's Head of Public Relations, said the PSLV-16 would put five satellites into orbit. These include 1. Cartosat-2B (a remote sensing satellite with resolution of 0.8 m), 2. Alsat (an Algerian satellite), two Canadian nanosatellites, and the StudSat.
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