The Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur has set up a base station within its premises for nano-satellite Jugnu, which will be launched in a polar orbit by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) early next year. The nano-satellite, designed and developed by the IIT-K, will be handed over to the ISRO by December.

“The base station will transmit and receive data packets from the satellite,” said Shantanu Agarwal, Project Associate of Jugnu. The data packets will include transmission of images, health status of the satellite and commands related to the details of locations of which the images will be taken. “We are through with the setting up of the transmission device and antenna, and are confident of completing all the related tests in the next few weeks,” Agarwal said. The satellite, which will be placed in an orbit around 700 kms from the Earth, will remain in space for one year. The nano satellite will encircle the earth 15 times in a day.

“Jugnu will transmit images to the base station thrice a day and on each occasion the image transmission period will be between three minutes and seven minutes,” he said. “Though the images will not help us in making climatic predictions but it will definitely be useful in fighting natural calamities and finding solutions to the present problems,” Agarwal added.

A team of 12 IIT-K professors and 55 students has been working on the project since December 2007, although the official confirmation for the project was given by the ISRO only in January 2009.

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