Thapar is going to add another feather in its cap by launching “Thaparsat: A Nano Satellite”-Director
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (TIET) is one of India’s oldest and finest educational institutions, which provides a steady source of highly skilled talent to the nation as well as overseas. We are proud to carry forward the legacy of our founder late Lala Karam Chand Thapar who believed that “India can truly enjoy the fruits of independence when it seeks to become economically strong. It can reach its full potential only if its youth are educated to be among world’s most respected, motivated and highly trained technical workforce”.
Taking a step forward in this direction and to impart its students with experiential learning in engineering and technological developments involved in satellite buliding and space missions, TIET’s chairman R. R. Vederah and director Prof. Prakash Gopalan are proud to announce its first student nano-satellite “thaparsat” to be flown in Low Earth Orbit. A highly dedicated team of 25 students and 6 faculty mentors from different engineering departments are involved in building individual sub-systems. The satellite aims at doing real time monitoring of pollution due to greenhouse gases, measurement of soil moisture content in primarily Punjab and in general, Northern India and regular monitoring of methane gas across the Indian sub-continent. It will be useful in monitoring the enviornmental and agricultural aspects acorss Punjab and northern part of India in general.
TIET is collaborating with Data Patterns, Chennai for the student satellite project. Team at Data Patterns have been actively involved in assisting and mentoring the teams of TIET during different phases of satellite and monitoring station development.
Management and the project execution team are extremely thrilled on the inauguartion of thaparsat Satellite Monitoring Station which embarks a landmark for their ambitious project. The station was inaugurated by Dr. A.S. Pillai, Founder CEO and MD, BrahMos Aerospace (member BOG, TIET) and Mr. R. R. Vederah, Chairman BOG, TIET, in presence of Prof. Prakash Gopalan, Director TIET, other faculty members and administration staff. The team aims to launch the satellite by the PSLV launch vehicle of India from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The proposal for the same will be shortly submitted by TIET team to ISRO.
“The proposed satellite has potential of applications in areas other than air pollution and soil moisture content”, qouted Dr. A.S. Pillai. To this Prof. Prakash Gopalan added that TIET is also planning to collaborate with different goverment bodies, research centers and univeristies across Punjab for potential applications using thaparsat and the ground-station available at TIET, Patiala.
“thaparsat carries a mid-infrared detector in the wavelength range of 2 – 5 micrometer and we have established a fully equiped monitoring station at TIET campus, Patiala, Punjab, to regularly track the satellite and process the payload data for various applications. It has been a fulfiling journey under the able mentorship of Dr. A.S. Pillai & the management of TIET and we are looking forward to successfully complete the project in stipulated timespan” qouted the project incharge Dr. Mamta Gulati.
September 21,2022
