Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology has developed a satellite which the Indian Space Research Organisation will launch on February 28.
The college’s 12 students with support from faculty had developed the satellite, Sri Shakti Sat, at around ₹2 crore. The satellite would be a part of the UNITYSat, which would also include satellites built by two other institutions – one in Chennai and another in Nagpur, said its chairman S. Thangavelu at a press meet held here on Wednesday.
The journey to develop the satellite started around 10 years ago when the college started postgraduate courses in VLSI and a few other disciplines and after a few other education institutions launched satellites.
In the run-up to building the satellite, students and faculty from various disciplines worked together, experimented, went back to learning a few basic concepts and in the process the college had gained immensely in that it now wanted to offer papers on building satellites.
The college had also learnt techniques to improve the teaching-learning process, Mr. Thangavelu added.
K. Gopalakrishnan, academic and governing council member, said the satellite was for technology demonstration – to study on-board command, data handling, electronic power and communication system at low earth orbit.
The satellite weighed around 500 gm and would be pushed into orbit by ISRO’s PSLV C-51.
ISRO scientists had helped the college develop the satellite and would launch it at no cost. The space organisation had also helped the college in testing the satellite for various parameters.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan said most of the components the college had used to build the satellite were bought off the shelf and were manufactured in the country. Likewise, the college had also used open source software.
Mr. Thangavelu said the college had also built a ground station to communicate with the satellite. ISRO Chairman K. Sivan would inaugurate the station from Bengaluru on Thursday.
