Pratham – IIT Bombay Student Satellite Initiative
The IIT Bombay Student Satellite Project is a landmark project taken up by IIT Bombay students. The objective of this project is to make IIT Bombay a respected centre for advancement in Satellite and Space Technology in the world.
Pratham project manager Ratnesh Mishra told media that the satellite was currently at the clean room of the Isro Satellite Centre in Bengalaru. “Only the exact launch date has to be finalized,” he said. This will be an Isro decision. Mishra said that with a four-month mission span, the main role of the satellite, which will be placed at an altitude of 720 km, will be measurement of “electron count”. The satellite will fit in a 26*26*26 cm cube and will weigh 9.8Kg.
This will be beneficial for scientific studies, correcting errors in communication like the GPS and will also help in tsunami warnings. The total cost of the project is about Rs 1.5 crore. He said a ground station will be set up at IIT and another at Atharva College in Malad to track Pratham. A few days before the take-off, an eight-member Pratham team will be positioned at Sriharikota for the pre-launch activities, he further added. The main aim of the Pratham project is to make IIT-B a centre for advancement of satellite and space technology, reported institute officials.
