Star institute in a new orbit

The Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur (IIT-K) is set to put its own satellite,Jugnu,in orbit,in 2010. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch the nano-satellite from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The images of weather,water bodies,crops and soils transmitted by Jugnu to the base station at IIT-K will come handy in studying weather and agriculture trends and help in taking precautionary measures against natural calamities.

IIT-K will be the first educational institute in the country to have its satellite. The institute’s team working on the project has started assembling the engineering model of Jugnu. It has developed 11 sub-systems and is waiting for some components to arrive from the US and Ahmedabad. The actual flight model of Jugnu will be quite identical to the engineering model. After testing the flight model for three months,ISRO will launch the nano satellite in a polar orbit.

ISRO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the institute on the Jugnu project in January 2008. The cost—Rs 2 crore—is being jointly funded by ISRO and IIT-K. A team of 12 professors and 45 students headed by Professor and Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering,Nalinaksh S Vyas,are working on the project.

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Jugnu will take 14 to 15 revolutions of the earth every day,capturing images of different areas. It will transmit images to the base station for about 20 minutes three times a day.

Vyas said the cost-effective nano-satellite will play an important role in future space research.