Nagarjuna varsity plans to track satellites in limited range

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 01/03/2015 - 07:20

After obtaining the Centre of Excellence status from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its Satellite Data Analysis and Application Centre, Acharya Nagarjuna University is now planning to establish a ground station to track movement of satellites within a limited range.

This would be followed by efforts to work on designing and constructing picosatellite, miniature satellites mostly below 10 kg of weight and they are specifically used for a particular application. All these plans are as part of the measures to promote space research and satellite data analysis among students, irrespective of their fields.

“We are thankful for ISRO to sanction centre of excellence status for the centre besides allotting Rs.29.95 lakh for establishing computer work stations, software packages, satellite data products and other equipment. On our part, we would be spending Rs.75 lakh for dedicated 1 Gbps line and other facilities” said ANU vice-chancellor K. Viyyanna Rao here on Saturday.

A detailed project report would be prepared for establishing the ground station and lab for picosatellites. While technical assistance would be taken from ISRO, funding will be an issue and have to approach different organisations, he said.

Established in June last year, the centre has identified 11 areas like coastal line monitoring, identification of minerals, fishing zones etc which need to be studied and prepare reports using the satellite data provided by ISRO.

Out of these, ISRO authorities had suggested to research on land use pattern in the region, cropping pattern, soil moisture etc and in a few days, a detailed report would be prepared on these subjects and submitted to the government, said Dr. P. Siddaiah, principal, University College of Engineering and Technology, ANU.

The data analysis will be immensely useful for the government to plan and execute infrastructural projects, besides helping students in conducting research and promising a good career, he said.

Now that Tullur region is in focus for capital construction, a requisition would be made to ISRO to provide more data and satellite images of the region for conducting a study on soil pattern, identification of water bodies, urbanisation, agriculture pattern etc. A report would be sent to government as well, he added. University Registrar P. Rajasekhar and others also spoke on the occasion.