Sri Shakti Sat: All about a satellite developed by college students, to be launched by ISRO

Why in News?

Students of Sri Shakti Institute of Engineering and Technology of Coimbatore have recently designed a satellite costing 2 crores and above. The satellite would be launched by ISRO chairman on February 28, 2021.

What was the inspiration?

The formation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre in June last by Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspired 12 students of the institute to collaborate with ISRO and develop 'SriShaktiSat',

About Sri Shakti Satellite:

1. It is developed by the students of Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology 
2. This is a nanosatellite that weighs only 460 grams
3. It will be launched under Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre called IN-SPACe.
4. ISRO would launch the satellite developed by two other institutions from Chennai and Nagpur along with Sri Shakhthi satellite in its UNITYSat.
5. The institute is a member of the satellite network open ground state and made a ground station. 
6. After installing Sri Shakti Sat Ground Station together with Community for Space Programme Development, Serbia, Sri Shakthi institute became a member of the Satellite Networked Open Ground Station (SATNOGS) project.
7. The active period of the satellite is six months but the signals would be sent for another three years. 
8. As the satellite would be placed at 500km to 575km above the earth, it would cross India twice in a day. 

Use of the  Sri Shakti satellite

This satellite would be used to demonstrate technology for the Internet of Things in space and for inter-satellite communication

It would also communicate with 300 satellites to gather ground data

It is built in a way to collect information related to burglaries, underground water leakage and fire accidents in Bengaluru, Chennai and ONGC site in Thanjavur. 

How will the Sri Shakti satellite be launched?

The satellites would be launched in the lower earth orbit but it requires a systematic approach. The institutions had been successful in adopting it and built the satellites with a unique objective to demonstrate inter-satellite communication technology. 

What is Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre- IN SPACe:

IN-SPACe acts as a link between ISRO and private sector companies or educational institutes, that focuses on the core activity of the research and development ion the space technology. This was established in June 2020 as an Independent agency working under the department of space. 

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