On the 17th of April 2010 the countrys smallest satellite, StudSat, made by students of seven engineering colleges was

handed over to Indian Space Research Organisation in the presence of Governor HR Bharadwaj at a function organised in Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT).The satellite will be put into orbit along with ISROs Cartosat-2B and will be carried by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

History Studsat is a student satellite conceptualized and currently being designed by undergraduate students across India. It is a pico-satellite and first of its kind in India. If realized successfully this will be the smallest satellite ever launched by any Indian organization indigenously. The mission is experimental in nature and the major objective is for the students to have a hands on experience on the design, fabrication and realization of a space mission at a minimum cost. The mission life is fixed to be six months. The uniqueness of this project is it has been initiated by students and managed mostly by students. The project was initiated by a group of four students from different Engineering colleges of Hyderabad and Bangalore who attended International Astronautical Congress, 2007, Hyderabad, India after meeting Project Directors, Small Satellites and ISRO Satellite Centre at the congress. From then the team expanded slowly ultimately completing the conceptual design. The financial Budget Analysis has been done. The students then approached the managements of their respective colleges for sponsorship. The colleges delighted with the idea of small student satellite approached Indian Space Research Organization for preliminary review. ISRO scientists approved the preliminary design review after having a set of meetings with detailed presentations by the students. Studsat Consortium Studsat consortium consists of seven Engineering colleges from Hyderabad and Bangalore who formed as a team and signed an MOU among themselves in order to sponsor the project financially. the Studsat consortium consists of following colleges. Satellite Description

Studsat Satellite developed by Students. Pic-credit-teamstudsat.com The satellite resembles a small cube of size (10 cm x 10 cm x 13.5 cm), weighing just about 850 gm and has a volume of 1.1 litres. The satellite is intended to be launched in 700 km Sunsynchronous orbit. The satellite will perform the function of a remote sensing satellite and take images of earths surface with a resolution of 90 metres, the best achieved by any PICO category satellite in the world.The cost of project has so far been Rs 55 Lakh. The tiny satellite consists of the following subsystems Communication sub-system. Power generation and distribution sub-system. Attitude Determination and Control sub-system. On-board computer Payload(Camera). Mechanical Structure. Ground Station NASTRAC Apart from the above a Ground Station has been designed in order to communicate with the satellite. The Ground Station is already established in Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore. All the above subsystems are designed by students indigenously.

The ground station NASTRAC (Nitte Amateur Satellite Tracking Centre), the students team will be able to receive telemetry data sent by other satellites. The ground station is also capable of communicating with more than 250 amateur satellites across the globe. Further NASTRAC may also track and communicate with International Space Station (ISS), according to the students involved in the project.