ISRO to launch micro-satellites for research works

New Delhi, Mar 12 (UNI) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch micro-satellites in the near future, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan today said in the Lok Sabha.

In a written reply, he said these micro-satellites will be launched by PSLV as piggy backs along with Indian satellites.

These Micro satellites are Rubin-8 satellite weighing 7 kg from Germany for communication experiments, NLS-4 Cluster of 6 Satellites weighing 25 kg from University of Toronto, Canada for Scientific research and technology demonstrations and NLS-5 satellite weighing 14 kg for University of Toronto, Canada for communication experiments.

A cluster of 3 Nano-satellites called CUBESEATS all weighing together 6 Kgs from Netherlands for scientific observations and technlogy experiments and X-SAT satellite weighing 120 Kgs from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore for technology demonstrations are the other micro sattelites.

He said the launch of these satellites by PSLV will not involve additional expenditure since they are launched along with Indian primary satellites and use very small spare capacity of the rocket.

Mr Chavan said the micro-satellites are used for testing new technologies of miniaturisation or for conducting applications experiments.

The launch of micro-satellites by Indian launch vechiles promotes international co-operation and also provides revenues as per prevailing international rates, he added.

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