Alva's Education Foundation, in Moodbidri, India, has been working with Planet Aerospace to manufacture a nanosatellite.

Dattatreya, dean and senior professor (planning), department of electronics and communication, Alva's Engineering College, told the Times of India that the main intention behind creating the smallsat is to find a solution to the core issues concerning the district.

According to the dean, the focus is on soil fertility and what crops could be grown in this region and the availability of groundwater. Usually, farmers try to cultivate crops without knowing about the quality of the soil and other aspects and burn their hands. We are coming up with a solution to such issues through the proposed satellite. He added that the institute also intends to study the Western Ghats and the amount of deforestation, atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind direction, duration of sunshine and rainfall and more with the help of this satellite.

Vivek Alva, trustee of the institute, said a cursory session had recently been held where experts from Planet Aerospace gave 350 students from the institute ideas on creating a satellite and the working of its various components. A team of 30-40 students will be formed to create the smallsat. A few senior faculty members, too, will join these batches.

"There are as many as 10 components such as payload, camera, power required, communication and ground handling among others, we need to work on. We will assign the programming part to select students from computer science, power system analysis to electronics students and structural aspects to mechanical engineering students among others," Dattatreya added. "The intention is also to give students hands-on experience in research as many students of late are resorting to readymade research materials."

Once the smallsat is ready and approved by ISRO, the space organization will provide the institute a bus for the launch, Dattatreya said.

Rajangam, former deputy director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru, who is now a part of Planet Aerospace, said his team will provide technical guidance to Alva's institute throughout the process and will keep visiting the facility in Moodbidri as and when required. The project is expected to be completed in three to our years.

Article sourced from the Times of India