75 cubesats to be put into orbit

Chennai: A constellation of 75 cubesats built by students including those from seven colleges and universities in the state is likely to be launched in the second half of 2022. The satellites, a class of research spacecraft weighing 1.5kg each, will be built as part of the ‘75 Students’ Satellites Consortium: Mission 2022’ initiative by Bengaluru-based Indian Technology Congress Association.

K Gopalakrishnan

, project director for the mission, said Indian Space Research Organisation has given them a launch window between August and November 2022 to place all 75 satellites in the orbit. As part of the mission, nearly 150 government and private schools, colleges and universities will team up to design, build, integrate, test and help launch the 75 student-built satellites.“Our talks with TN government to allow of Class X and above are in the final stages. Already, Karnataka has allowed government school students to participate. We will also have government educational institutions from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh,

Uttarakhand

and Punjab,” he said. As part of the initiative, three satellites were launched onboard Isro’s PSLV-C51-Amazonia Mission on February 28, 2021. The learnings from making those satellites has come handy in developing the constellation of satellites now.Mylswamy Annadurai, former Isro scientist and vice chairman,

Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology

, who will mentor and help students build the satellites, said the constellation of satellites will have Internet application apart from having the capability of inter-satellite communication.