Placed in precise orbit by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV C-16, Singapore's first ‘locally built' experimental micro-satellite, X-SAT, has started transmitting images to a dedicated facility here.
The imagery data is being beamed to the 13m X-band antenna at the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing, and Processing, according to the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) here. In collaboration with the city-state's foremost applied Research & Development organisation, DSO National Laboratories, the NTU had embarked on this project to catalyse academic interest in the extraterrestrial domain.
Nearly 10 hours after the PSLV C-16 hurled X-SAT into its planned orbit on April 20, the NTU's Research Techno Plaza succeeded in establishing contact with the satellite. And, about two weeks after the launch, the first set of imagery data was received in early May, the university said in a statement.
Systems normal
In an earlier statement, the NTU said the telemetry received from the satellite showed that all its core systems were working normally. The solar panels were operating well after having been deployed as planned.
The 105-kg X-SAT, which has life span of three years, would orbit the earth at a space altitude of 800 km. With three payloads, the micro-satellite was designed to take photographs of the earth and enable the gauging of soil erosion and environmental changes.
In-orbit tests
A series of in-orbit tests would be carried out in the next few months to keep the project on course. X-SAT is also programmed to monitor forest fires and oil pollution at sea.
