Coimbatore college students develop satellite for ISRO

Coimbatore, Jan 27: Students of Sri Shakti Institute of Engineering and Technology, here, have designed and developed a satellite at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore. It would be inaugurated by chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Dr R Sivan on January 28.

The formation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre in June last by Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspired 12 students of the institute to collaborate with ISRO and develop 'SriShaktiSat', the institute chairman Dr Thangavel told reporters here on Wednesday.

After installing Sri Shakti Sat Ground Station in collaboration with Serbia-based Community for Space Programme Development, the institute became a member of the Satellite Networked Open Ground Station (SATNOGS) project, he said.

Thangavel said SATNOGS aimed at providing technologies for a distributed network of low earth orbit satellite ground stations. Srishaktisat would be weighing only 460 grams but can perform like any other nano satellites weighting upto 10 kgs, he said.

The satellite would be used as a technology demonstrator for Internet of Things in space and for inter-satellite communication, he said. After the virtual inauguration, the satellite would be handed over to ISRO in February for its use, he added.