14 December,2010 07:09 AM IST | | Vivek Sabnis
COEP students to design and launch city's first nano satellite
The city will soon have its very first nano satellite. Weighing about 1 kg and 10x10x10 cm in size, the experimental nano satellite will be the first of its kind in the educational field in the city. It will be in the orbit and will cross the city twice and make rounds of the earth 16 times in a day.
A ground station is also being designed at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) to receive messages and monitor the satellite.
COEP's Edu-Sat will be used for ham radio signal communication with wireless technology. The students Priya Gandas, Bharat Deshmukh, Shaishav Upadhye, Shrivallab Gharate will be working under Nishchay Mhatre. A total of 30 students will be guided by Anil Sahastrabuddhe, principal of COEP and Dr Manishau00a0 Khaladkar, head of department, Applied Sciences. The satellite will be basically used for networking of ham radio all over the world.
"All types of engineering challenges are there in designing and making of this satellite," said Sahastrabuddhe.
"Therefore we have given the entire responsibility to students from Computer, IT, Electronics, Electrical, Mechanical, Metallurgy, Civil, Production, Instrumentation and Applied Sciences in the college. Each department is investing their knowledge in the design and making of the satellite. The final approval will be got from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), who have agreed to launch our satellite from Sriharikota next year."u00a0
COEP students' leader Mhatre said that it would be an experimental and educational satellite to provide hands-on engineering experience in a multi-disciplinary project like constructing a satellite. "It leads to applied learning in every branch of engineering. Edu-Sat will be in working condition in the orbit for six months and the data will be collected and analysed for another edu-sat mission," he said.u00a0
