Company also unveils its Small Satellite Programme for schools, universities and researchers
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is India’s third generation launch vehicle that, besides numerous Indian and foreign satellites, has launched two spacecraft -Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013 – which later travelled to the Moon and Mars, respectively.
The country’s warhorse launch vehicle will tonight blast off into space to launch two specially designed satellites as part of ISRO PSLV-C60 SpaDeX mission to demonstrate the country’s recently developed space docking technology, on successful completion of which India will join as the fourth member of a select club of three nations possessing this technology.
The space docking technology is key to India’s planned human spaceflight and satellite servicing missions in the future.
In addition to its primary space docking technology goals, SpaDEX mission will also utilise the PSLV’s spent fourth stage, which is responsible for the correct injection of payloads into their desired orbits, as an experimental platform, known as POEM-4, allowing for various microgravity experiments. A total of 24 payloads will be flown during this mission, including contributions from academia and startups.
One of these experimental private payloads will be Hyderabad-based company TakeMe2Space’s (TM2Space) MOI-TD (My Orbital Infrastructure – Technology Demonstrator), India’s first artificial intelligence (AI) laboratory in space.
The company, specializing in advanced satellite solutions and orbital infrastructure, aims to revolutionize space research by enabling real-time data processing in orbit. Its AI laboratory will allow for the processing of data directly in space, eliminating the need for extensive ground-based data transmission and significantly reducing costs associated with space research.
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Haryana startup Smartcircuits Innovation’s contribution
As part of TM2Space’s AI lab in space, a Haryana-based space tech startup and ISRO-certified space tutor, Smartcircuits Innovation, claims to have developed an experimental module that will measure the temperature profile of a rolling satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at various orbital stages using an external sensor.
Space tech researchers and Smartcircuits Innovation co-founders Sourabh Kaushal, Raghav Sharma, and Sachin Sharma, who have helped establish AI and Space Labs in many Chandigarh tricity schools, are confident that the data collected from the experimental module will be helpful to space agencies for the future space missions as temperature management is a crucial part of any space mission.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh recently two of Smartcircuits Innovation’s co-founders – Sourabh Kaushal and Raghav Sharma – asserted that their experimental module is an important achievement as it marks the first time a Haryana-based startup is sending such an experiment into orbit. School students actively participated in coding for the experiment, highlighting the project’s emphasis on inclusivity and education, they added.
Small Satellite Programme
Smartcircuits Innovation also unveiled its Small Satellite Programme, also known as the Near-Space Satellite Launch Project, to empower students from schools, universities, and researchers to develop low-cost satellites and launch them to an altitude of approximately 50 km, reaching the stratosphere. Participants can receive live data on Earth and later send their experiments into orbit using POEM (PSLV Orbital Experimental Module).
