IIT B Students Will Soon Launch Satellite Pratham!

IIT B students have got a green signal from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch their satellite Pratham - a student project of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay.

According to the project manager Jhonny Santosh Jha, the satellite will be launched on board most probably between September and December 2011. He also said that the satellite has four-month lifespan, weighs 10 kg and costs Rs 1.5 crore. The satellite Pratham will measure ‘total electron count of the ionosphere'.

Once the satellite is launched, it will revolve in the 817-km polar sun synchronous orbit. Jhonny Santosh Jha also said that negotiations for satellite launch are on with ISRO headquarters in Bangalore as well as the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvanathapuram. ISRO will test the satellite before the final launch.

The prime aim of satellite Pratham project is to help students and faculty gain experience in space technology. The project will also engage students from other universities in IIT-B's satellite mission, by setting up ground stations in their universities, which will receive data from Pratham.

Satellite Pratham was opened for students from ten universities across the country, including representatives from the Institute of Physics of the Globe near Paris through videoconferencing.
Some of student satellites launched by ISRO include Anusat of Anna University in Chennai, StudSat, a combined venture of students of Bangalore and Hyderabad, YouthSat, a Indo-Russian student venture, and X-Sat of Singapore.

Source: Prachi Srivastava (Shiksha Team)
Date: 18th May,2011