The Vision
The conception of SRMSAT dates back to August 2008 when the vision of launching a student satellite was put forward in a seminar taken by eminent space scientist D.Raghavamurty. Enlightened by the scope and importance of such a magnificent multi- disciplinary field like space technology, the University embarked on a journey traversed by few.
It is planned to make our first nano satellite as a SRMSAT bus so that further missions can be continued with different payloads that can be supported with this design. Parallelly, keeping in pace with the advancing technological innovations it is planned to develop advanced spacecraft busses with increasing capability, reliability and life. In this process SRM University would be able to provide qualified and trained scientific and technological manpower in satellite as well as rocket technology in future.
As our chancellor put it :
Students today are competing in a rapidly changing world. Simply covering the curriculum alone is not enough. At SRM University we equip our students with both a first-rate education and the necessary skill sets to ensure that they stand out in today's world.
Thus the SRMSAT was born and soon enough the talented students of SRM poured in ideas for the mission goal. Over 50 students presented 25 ideas out of which one or two could be selected as the mission of SRMSAT. The presentations were made and the mission's feasibility and novelty were deeply scrutinized by the most elite in the field of space technology from ISRO as well as from the University itself. The concepts were diverse ranging from remote sensing to power generation experiments. After months of scrutinizing the different ideas, it was finally decided to have "Green house gas monitoring" as a mission goal for our satellite around December 2008.
Then began the tedious job of studying space technology in all its spectrum and the job was divided among 8 subgroups, each comprising of a few students and faculty to supervise the work. The subgroups that were conceived were :
- PAYLOAD
- STRUCTURE
- POWER
- ATTITUDE DETERMINATION AND CONTROL SYSTEM (ADCS)
- COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
- ON BOARD COMPUTER(OBC)
- THERMAL
Soon the project began taking shape with the subgroups comprehending the idea into a real satellite. The work progressed swiftly with continuous interaction between the students and the space technology specialists from ISRO. The confidence of team was given a boost when we visited ISAC (ISRO Satellite Center , Bangalore), during August 2009, and had almost got the satellite sub-systems realized correctly in the first attempt itself. Form that point on there has been no looking back and the system engineering team stitched the entire system together filling in gaps wherever possible and suggesting changes where necessary. The MOU was signed shortly and our satellites future was sealed in what can be claimed to be a record time for rookie undergraduates. Today we stand confident of our design, when on 8th Feb 2010, the Chairman of ISRO Dr.Radhakrishnan himself showed confidence in our work and stated his eagerness to seeing it fly soon.
The realization of the vision was achieved by the leadership, guidance, support and inspiration provided by our very own Project Architect Mr.M.Loganathan (retd. Scientist - ISAC Bangalore).