Chennai students’ sat to fly into space tonight

CHENNAI: Behind every successful PSLV launch lies a trail of debris, one of which — the fourth stage of the rocket — hovers in space after injecting the satellite into orbit. When Isro launches PSLV’s 46th flight, at 11.37pm on Thursday from Sriharikota, the floating space junk will, for the first time, turn into a part of a satellite to help city students conduct space experiments. A 10cm cubesat ‘Kalamsat’ developed by the students, that will stay secured to the fourth stage of PSLV, will be tested for its communication module and electronics.

According to Isro, the fourth and final stage (PS4) of PSLV will inject the primary payload Microsat-R at an altitude of 277.2km. After the satellite separates, the twin engines of the stage are ignited and cut off twice as it increases velocity raising to an altitude of about 450km. Once it reaches its destination, solar panels and li-ion batteries will power the stage and the cubesat will be activated. PS4 is the smallest of the four stages and its main job is to inject the payloads into their respective desired orbits with precision.

Earlier Isro chairman Sivan was quoted in reports saying the revived last stage will stay ‘alive’ for six months and that students could use it for experiments for free.

19-year-old Rifath Sharook, who is part of the 15-member student team that designed Kalamsat, said the satellite weighing 1.2kg, will have a communication module, an onboard computer, solar panel and a new set of electronics, compared to their earlier satellite. Sharook and his team earlier built the world’s lightest satellite at 64grams, also called Kalamsat, flown by a Nasa sounding rocket in 2017.

“This time we have designed the module and the electronics ourselves. It was fabricated in Chennai and Bengaluru. We will be testing our systems and the electronics in this mission and it’ll help students build cost-effective satellites,” he said.

Vijaylakshmi Narayanan, another team member and an engineering graduate, said they decided to use aerospace grade aluminium for the satellite to help withstand the gravitational forces in space. “We designed the structure using a 3D model software and analysed it using simulation software,” he said.

Mylswamy Annadurai, retired Isro scientist and Chandarayaan-1 project director said student satellites, which otherwise lasts only for a few minutes in the atmosphere, will have increased lifespan this way. “Previously, small student satellites were sent in a balloon. They don’t even reach an orbit. Now, they can reach an orbit or two enabling experiments,” Annadurai said.