The 9-year wait is finally approaching its end
as India prepares for one of the most historical space mission, the launch of Pratham - a satellite made by IIT-Bombay students. It's going to be a moment of
pride because it's the first student-led satellite programme of the country.
Currently six students from IIT
Bombay are working at the ISRO in Bengaluru for the pre-launch of the satellite.
ISRO has not only provided the students with facilities for testing, it is also
going to bear the expenses of the launch.
Pratham missed its 2012 launch deadline due to
administrative delays and technical glitches, however, the satellite is now
ready to be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on its 37th flight.
With this, the efforts of almost seven batches of students who worked on the
satellite all these years will finally come true. ISRO has itself called it one
of the most historic space missions as it is the first time they will be
launching a student satellite.
The satellite was conceptualised by two students
of the Aerospace Engineering department—Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay and Shashank
Tamaskar — in July 2007. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with ISRO in
September 2009, and later extended in 2014.
The much-awaited launch will happen at 9:12 am
on September 26 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The satellite will be placed at an altitude of 720km and
its main aim will be the measurement of 'electron count'.This will benefit
scientific studies correcting errors in communication like the GPS and will
also help in tsunami warnings. The total cost of the project is estimated at
around Rs 1.5 crore. Satellite data will be transmitted to any university with
a small ground station. Currently, 15 Indian universities are setting up their
own ground stations.
Moreover, only 18 days
after successfully launching Pratham, ISRO's ScatSat-1 PSLV will be placed in
orbit for the first time. It will help in ocean and weather-related studies.
