ISRO said on January 27 its space platform, POEM-3, has successfully achieved all its payload objectives.
POEM-3 (the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-3) uses the spent PS4 stage of the PSLV-C58 rocket that launched XPoSat on January 1 this year.
ISRO said POEM-3 flew with nine payloads from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Physical Research Laboratory, academia, and space start-ups.
By the 25th day in orbit, POEM-3, which the space agency described as a unique and inexpensive platform, completed 400 orbits.
Over this period, each payload was put into operation, as planned and performance was demonstrated.
POEM-3 is a three-axis-attitude controlled platform with power generation and telecommand and telemetry capabilities, for supporting payloads, it was noted.
It is predicted that POEM-3 will continue orbiting for approximately 73 more days before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
"With the likely re-entry of POEM-3 in the next 75 days, the PSLV-C58 XPoSat mission will be leaving zero debris in space", ISRO said.
The experiments of ARKA200 (Xenon Based Electric Propulsion) and RUDRA (HAN based Green Propellant Thruster) from Bellatrix, and LEAP-TD (Satellite Bus with VHF/UHF Downlink & UHF Uplink – Tested using IIST ground station) from Dhruva Space were completed.
Payload data is collected regularly for WeSAT (Solar irradiance and UV Index study) from LBS Institute of Technology for Women, BeliefSat0 (Amateur Radio satellite) from K J Somayia Institute of Technology, RSEM (Radiation Shielding experiment) from TakeMe2Space, and DEX (interplanetary Dust particle experiment) from PRL for every orbit.
A 100W Fuel Cell Power System (FCPS), and Si-C based High Power Li-Ion (10AH/32V) Battery from VSSC were also demonstrated.
Thus all payload objectives were fully met, ISRO said, adding, in missions of POEM-1 to POEM-3, it has flown a total of 21 payloads from various institutes and industries.
After achieving all objectives, more experiments with POEM-3 are planned for generating data for future missions including upcoming POEM configurations.
With the orbital decay and reentry of POEM-3 in three months, PSLV-C58 XPoSat mission will be leaving zero debris in space, ISRO added.
