StudSat

STUDSAT
Mission type	Remote Sensing; Technology
Operator	STUDSAT Consortium
COSPAR ID	2010-035B
SATCAT no.	36796
Mission duration	6 months (planned)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	CubeSat
Manufacturer	Consortium of 7 Engineering Colleges from Bangalore (4) and Hyderabad (3)
Launch mass	0.950 kg (2.09 lb)
Dimensions	10 cm x 10 cm x 13.5 cm
Start of mission
Launch date	12 July 2010, 03:52:00 UTC
Rocket	Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15)
Launch site	Satish Dhawan, FLP
Contractor	ISRO
End of mission
Last contact	2011
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Sun-synchronous orbit
Perigee altitude	602.5 km
Apogee altitude	620.4 km
Inclination	98.18°
Period	96.8 minutes

STUDSAT (STUDent SATellite),^[1] is a CubeSat satellite designed by students. This project was conceptualised and project managed by undergraduate students across India.^[4] STUDSAT is a picosatellite successfully launched on 12 July 2010 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre into a Sun-synchronous orbit. The mission's objective was for students to have a hands-on experience with the design, fabrication and realisation of a space mission at a minimum cost. Experimental in nature, the mission life was stated to be six months.

STUDSAT was the first picosatellite launched by India, as well as the smallest satellite launched indigenously by any Indian organisation.^[5]

History

The project was initiated by a group of four students from different Engineering colleges of Hyderabad and Bangalore who attended International Astronautical Congress (IAC), 2007, Hyderabad, India after meeting Mr. D. V. A. Raghavamurthy (project director, Small Satellites, ISRO Satellite Centre) at the congress. From then the team expanded slowly, ultimately completing the conceptual design. Following the financial budget analysis, the students approached the management of their respective colleges for sponsorship. The colleges, in turn, approached Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for preliminary review of the project. ISRO scientists approved the preliminary design review after having a set of meetings with detailed presentations by the students. The initial four member team expanded to around 45 students from 10 different colleges. Seven of the colleges formed a consortium to provide the financial sponsorship for the project. The colleges are bound by an internal Memorandum of understanding (MOU), led by Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore as representative college to sign an official Memorandum of understanding with ISRO. The project team is led by Dr. Jharna Majumdar as the project coordinator.^[6]

STUDSAT is successfully placed in the orbit and received the first signal on 12 July 2010 at 11:07 am IST (??:07 UTC).

Studsat consortium

STUDSAT consortium consists of seven Engineering colleges from Hyderabad and Bangalore bound by a Memorandum of understanding in order to sponsor the project financially. The consortium comprises the following colleges:

Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore
R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore
B.M.S. Institute of Technology and Management, Bangalore
Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad
Institute of Aeronautical Engineering, Hyderabad
Vignan Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad
RNS Institute of Technology, Bangalore
Sri Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Tumkur

Description

The satellite resembles a small rectangular cube, with length dimensions of 10 cm x 10 cm x 13.5 cm, a weight of almost 950 g. The satellite was launched in 625 km Sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite will perform the function of a remote sensing satellite and take images of Earth's surface with a resolution of 90 meter, the best achieved by any "PICO" category satellite in the world.

The satellite consists of the following subsystems:

Communication sub-system.
Power generation and distribution sub-system.
Attitude Determination and Control sub-system.
On Board Command and Data Handling.
Payload (camera).
Mechanical Structure.

A ground station^[7] has been designed in order to communicate with the satellite. The ground station NASTRAC (Nitte Amateur Satellite Tracking Centre) which is established in Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT) was inaugurated by Dr K. Radhakrishnan, the current chairman of ISRO.^[8] All the above subsystems are designed by students indigenously.

Current status

The satellite has completed its mission life. The CDR was conducted in NMIT where several scientists notably Prof. Udupi Ramachandra Rao former chairman of ISRO have evaluated the design.^[9] The CDR had been approved by ISRO. The satellite was launched by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15) on 12 July 2010. The team had taken over control of the satellite from the ground station established at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT) in Bangalore. The satellite is no longer in contact with the ground station.

Two Line Element Set (TLE) of StudSat-1 are:

1 36796U 10035B 12227.08525431 .00001146 00000-0 15376-3 0 2565
2 36796 098.0573 303.0904 0014305 346.6376 013.4443 14.81257111113029

Source: AFSPC

STUDSAT-2

The Team STUDSAT is continuing the legacy and building twin nanosatellite for proving the concept of Inter-satellite links (ISL). The design of the Twin-Satellites STUDSAT-2A and STUDSAT-2B, are of dimensions 30 cm x 30 cm x 20 cm and weighing less than 10 kg. The main goal of the STUDSAT 2 project is to develop a low-cost small satellite, capable of operating small scientific or technological payloads where real time connectivity is provided by inter-satellite links.

Achievements

The team has presented a paper titled "Studsat-A Student Pico-Satellite for Imaging" in International Astronautical Congress, 2008 which was held in Glasgow, Scotland.^[10] The team won Hans Von Muldau Award for the best team project awarded by International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and sponsored by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt.^[11] The Team has also done a National Record (India) by entering into LIMCA BOOK of RECORDS-2011 Edition for creating the smallest Indian satellite.

References

^ ^a ^b "Display: STUDSAT 2010-035B". NASA. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ "PSLV to launch five satellites on July 12". The Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
^ "STUDSAT". N2YO.com. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
^ Krebs, Gunter D. "STUDSAT". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
^ "Engg students creating India's smallest satellite". The Times of India. 12 August 2009. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.
^ "City students to launch eye in the sky". Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
^ "IARU Sat Coordinator". Archived from the original on 19 April 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
^ "Students' satellite project all set to take off". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 2 April 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
^ "City students to launch eye in the sky". 10 August 2009. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
^ "ISRO Sponsors Two Indian Students to participate in 59th IAC at Glasgow". Archived from the original on 23 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
^ "Engg students creating India's smallest satellite". The Times Of India. 12 August 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2021.

External links

[ Team STUDSAT homepage]

[Display-1] "Display: STUDSAT 2010-035B". NASA. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[2] "PSLV to launch five satellites on July 12". The Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2010.

[Trajectory-3] "STUDSAT". N2YO.com. Retrieved 23 January 2021.

[4] Krebs, Gunter D. "STUDSAT". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 10 December 2022.

[5] "Engg students creating India's smallest satellite". The Times of India. 12 August 2009. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.

[6] "City students to launch eye in the sky". Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2012.

[7] "IARU Sat Coordinator". Archived from the original on 19 April 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2010.

[8] "Students' satellite project all set to take off". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 2 April 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2021.

[9] "City students to launch eye in the sky". 10 August 2009. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2012.

[10] "ISRO Sponsors Two Indian Students to participate in 59th IAC at Glasgow". Archived from the original on 23 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2009.

[11] "Engg students creating India's smallest satellite". The Times Of India. 12 August 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2021.

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v t e ← 2009 Orbital launches in 2010 2011 →
January	Compass-G1 Globus-1M No.12L
February	Progress M-04M STS-130 (Tranquility, Cupola) SDO Intelsat 16
March	Kosmos 2459 / GLONASS-M 731, Kosmos 2460 / GLONASS-M 732, Kosmos 2461 / GLONASS-M 735 GOES-15 / EWS-G2 Yaogan 9A, Yaogan 9B, Yaogan 9C EchoStar XIV
April	Soyuz TMA-18 STS-131 (Leonardo MPLM) CryoSat-2 GSAT-4 Kosmos 2462 USA-212 SES-1 Kosmos 2463 Progress M-05M
May	STS-132 (Rassvet, ICC-VLD) Akatsuki, IKAROS (DCAM-1, DCAM-2), Shin'en, Waseda-SAT2, Hayato, Negai ☆'' Astra 3B, COMSATBw-2 USA-213
June	SERVIS-2 Compass-G3 Badr-5 Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit STSAT-2B Shijian XII Prisma, Picard, BPA-1 Soyuz TMA-19 TanDEM-X Ofek-9 Arabsat-5A, Chollian Progress M-06M
July	EchoStar XV Cartosat-2B, AlSat-2A, StudSat, AISSat-1, TIsat-1 Compass-IGSO1
August	Nilesat 201, RASCOM-QAF 1R Yaogan 10 USA-214 Tian Hui 1
September	Kosmos 2464, Kosmos 2465, Kosmos 2466 Chinasat-6A Gonets-M No.2, Kosmos 2467, Kosmos 2468 Progress M-07M Michibiki USA-215 Yaogan 11, Zheda Pixing 1B, Zheda Pixing 1C USA-216 Kosmos 2469
October	Chang'e 2 Shijian 6G, Shijian 6H Soyuz TMA-01M XM-5 Globalstar 73, Globalstar 74, Globalstar 75, Globalstar 76, Globalstar 77, Globalstar 79 Progress M-08M Eutelsat W3B, BSat 3B Compass-G4
November	Meridian 3 Fengyun 3B COSMO-4 SkyTerra-1 STPSat-2, USA-220 / FASTSAT (NanoSail-D2), USA-221 / FalconSat-5, USA-222 / FASTRAC-1, USA-222 / FASTRAC-2, USA-218 / RAX, USA-219 / O/OREOS USA-223 / Orion 7 Chinasat 20A Intelsat 17, HYLAS-1
December	Glonass-M No.39, Glonass-M No.40, Glonass-M No.41 SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1, Mayflower, SMDC-ONE 1, QbX-1, QbX-2, Perseus 000, Perseus 001, Perseus 002, Perseus 003 Soyuz TMA-20 Compass-IGSO2 GSAT-5P KA-SAT
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).