StudSat

StudSat is a CubeSat satellite designed by students. This project was conceptualised and project managed by undergraduate students across India. STUDSAT-1 is a picosatellite, a miniaturised satellite, 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-1 was the first picosatellite launched by India, as well as the smallest satellite launched indigenously by any Indian organisation.

History

The project was initiated by a group of four students from different Engineering colleges of Hyderabad and Bangalore who attended International Astronautical Congress, 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 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 MOU, led by Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore as representative college to sign official MOU with ISRO. The project team is led by Dr.Jharna Majumdar as the project coordinator.

StudSat-2

StudSat-2 (STUDent SATellite-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.

Team STUDSAT is coming up with another milestone, Project STUDSAT-2, India's First Twin Nano Satellite Mission to prove Inter Satellite Communication. The student group which was inspired by the Project STUDSAT-1 are the pioneers to this project. Project STUDSAT-2 consisting of two Nano Satellites STUDSAT 2A & 2B has multiple cutting edge technologies. The satellites are in along-the-track constellation architecture with the STUDSAT-2A sending position and velocity data to the STUDSAT-2B through Inter Satellite Link.