Satellite Projects by Indian Students

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched more than hundred satellites for various applications like communication, Earth observation, Astronomy, Navigation, Lunar studies and interplanetary mission from its inception. Addition to its own programmes, it induced Indian student community to make satellites by guiding, providing facilities to test the subsystems and satellites. It also launches these satellites by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The student satellite projects provide the design, fabrication, assembly and testing experience of electrical and mechanical systems to university students. It provides experience in project management, budget, schedule and mission planning & operation also. Indian students have launched more than nine satellites so far and some more are under development. Due to this inspiration many Universities/Colleges had flown their satellites through balloons for testing their capabilities. Some students launched their satellites through other space agencies also. This paper presents the salient features of these satellites and technologies used in Indian Student satellites.

Due to this, student satellites are in mini, cube, pico, nano and micro satellites categories with payloads catering to specific applications. These satellites were designed, fabricated and assembled at corresponding institutions using their funds. ISRO supported in test activities by providing access to its test facilities at UR Rao Satellite centre because the test facilities like thermo vacuum chamber and vibration table are costly. Free launch support was also provided by Polar Satellite Launch vehicle (PSLV). The

ANUSAT
ANna University SATellite (ANUSAT) is the first satellite designed, fabricated and tested by Indian students [2]. It was a cooperative mission of Anna University, Chennai, and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) [3]. This satellite was designed and fabricated at Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) campus of Anna University. Most of the sub systems in this satellite are made up of Commercial Off-The-Self (COTS) components.
The Fig.2 shows the satellite and the Table-2 provides the salient features of the ANUSAT. Objective  To encourage the involvement of the Anna University faculty, researchers and students in Space technologies to work as a team.  To gain hands-on experience a micro-satellite development

Payload
The ANUSAT Payload was designed to relay the data collected from one place to another place. The payload was designed and fabricated by the Anna University.

STUDSAT
STUDSAT was the second student satellite of India fabricated by a consortium of colleges from Bangalore and Hyderabad. The consortium was led by NIITE Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT), Bangalore. Other colleges contributed by designing and fabricating different subsystems [4]. The list of colleges involved in this project is as follows. Bangalore

Payload
The STUDSAT payload is a CMOS detector based camera designed to get 90m spatial resolution. Ground station An independent ground station called NASTRAC was setup in Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology. It received the Telemetry Data and confirmed the satellite is in mission mode.

JUGNU
Jugnu is a nano satellite designed and fabricated by students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur [5]. It is a 3U cubesat aimed to image the earth for Agriculture and disaster monitoring purpose. The Fig.4 and Table-4 provides the view and salient features of the STUDSAT. The JUGNU payload is a near infrared (NIR) camera with 640 x 480 pixel area array detector operating in 700-850 nm spectral range. It has an F/4 optical system with 35 mm focal length. The acquired data can be stored in 2 Gb Triple modular redundant memory.   Payload SRMSAT Payload is a grating spectrometer for monitoring Earth-based sources and sinks of anthropogenic and natural sources of greenhouse gases.

Ground Station
The SRMSAT team setup aground station at the SRM University Kattankulathur campus and tracked the satellite

SWAYAM
Swayam a passive stabilization communication Satellite was developed by undergraduate students of College of Engineering, Pune. The payload flown on this satellite is to support point to point communication [6]. User can send and receive messages from one point to other point on the earth. The view and salient features of the satellite are provided in Fig.6 and Table-6 respectively.

Payload
The payload was designed to support message store and forward.

SATYABAMASAT
The satyabamasatellite was designed and fabricated by the students of Sathyabama university, Chennai to measure the concentration of green house effect gases [7]. The satellite is shown in Fig.7 and the salient feature of the satellite are provided in Table-7

Objective
 To maximize the learning experience of the students  To provide a real-time design and development experience for the students on compact space systems.  To monitor the concentration of green house gases present in the atmosphere.  To obtain the pollution model for India through the data collected using spectrometer payload.  To interpret the acquired data and represent the concentration of greenhouse gases in PPM.

Payload
It is an imaging camera (ARGUS 1000) operated in Infrared spectral region. The payload is operated only over the regions where the experimentations are interested, and it delivers the data to the On-Board Computer (OBC) for transmission, when it crosses the radio window of ground station, which is being built in Sathyabama University campus, Chennai, India.

Ground Station
Ground station is established in Sathyabama university, Chennai.

PISAT
PISAT was designed and fabricated by a consortium of Indian colleges led by PES University, with the support of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) and IE (Institution of Engineers) of India to provide a hands-on environment for students in all aspects of satellite building and operations [8].

Objective
 To develop, design a space system in university environment with our students and young faculty.

Payload
The PISAT payload is a 166 gm CMOS based camera with 10-bit radiometric resolution. It has an area array detector with 2048 H x 1536 V pixels. This covers 185 km x 135 km area with 90 m spatial resolution. Ground station PISAT team has developed a ground station with 3/7m paraboloid antenna with prime focus.

PRATHAM
This satellite was designed and fabricated by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay Students [9,10].

Payload
The PRATHAM Payload is designed to derive the total electron count in the ionosphere.

Ground Station
Separate ground station is established at roof top of Aerospace department. in IIT Mumbai. Atharva college of engineering also established a ground station for Pratham One ground station was setup in France by French students to receive data from Pratham.

Payload
The NIUSAT payload is a four spectral band wide field Sensor. It covers 50 x 50 km and 25m resolution from the altitude of ~500 km

Ground station
The NIUSAT ground station consists of mission control centre and Payload data processing centre. It has a three meter antenna which supports UHF downlink and VHF Uplink.

KALAMSAT-V2
The KalamsatV2, payload named after former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam is the first to use the fourth stage of PSLV as an orbital platform. 24 th January 2019. This payload was developed by students and Chennai-based Space Kidz India. The satellite is the smallest weighing 1.2 kg and has a lifespan of two months.

III.
SATELLITES UNDER DEVELOPMENT(MOU WITH ISRO)

PARIKSHIT
Parikshit is being developed by Manipal Institute of technology, Manipal, Karnataka. MOU is signed with ISRO for the launch of this satellite [12].

Objective
 The objective is to study the precipitation of high energy electrons and protons from Van-Allen radiation belts to lower altitude of 600-900 km due to resonance interaction with low frequency EM waves.

Payload
IITMSAT will carry Space based Proton Electron Energy Detector (SPEED) instrument as payload to measure proton and electron fluxes in the Earth's magnetosphere.

IV.
CONTINUATION SATELLITES PROJECTS Some educational institutions are proposing to launch satellites. Satellites and the Institutions are listed in Table-11

STUDSAT-2
The studsat-2 project is proposed with two nanosatellites to prove the capability of nanosatellites in docking experiment in space [17][18].

PISAT-2
PISAT-2 is proposed with imager which may point towards space for the study on stars.

SRMSAT-2
SRMSAT-2 is proposed to reach moon and have a study on the moon surface [19]. Indian institute of space science and technology (IIST) which is under Indian Space research Organization is carrying out many space related research in collaboration with other universities in India and abroad. Mainly it focuses in developing new technologies required for future satellites and launch vehicles.

SATELLITES LAUNCHED WITH BALLOONS
Many colleges have started the satellite systems study and testing their systems by launching them using balloons. Some colleges are mentioned below as samples.

PERIYAR MANIAMMAI INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY)
A team of girls of Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science Technology (Deemed to be University), Vallam, launched a satellite using helium-filled balloon. The satellite was capable of sending live telemetry consisting of data and flight parameters to the control station at PMIST premises.

VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (VIT)
Twelve payloads with satellite bus were launched using a helium-filled balloon by school students during the National Space Challenge-2020 (NNSC)from Vellore Institute of Technology(VIT). The balloon was expected to reach an altitude of 20 kilometers.

VII.
CONCLUSION The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has created Space systems awareness among Indian Students and helped in design, fabrication, testing and launch of satellites developed by Indian students. Now many colleges continuing the space study autonomously.