The Indian Technology Congress Association (ITCA) has signed an agreement with a private school in Kolkata, which is set to launch its own nano-satellite. The exercise is aimed at training the school students in Space Science.
The satellite will be launched by South Point High School, which is a part of the MP Birla Group. The project is a part of the 75 Students' Satellites Mission 2022. This programme is a part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, launched by the Central Government to commemorate 75 years of Indian independence.
The school has decided to name its satellite PriyamvadaSat in the memory of Priyamvada Birla, the former chairperson of the Birla Group. The project will be monitored by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).
Krishna Damani, the Vice-Chairman of the school's Managing Committee, has informed that all the students of Classes XI and XII will be associated with the project, which is expected to start in nine months. He also said that South Point was among two schools in the country and the only one in eastern India to take up such a project, as per a report by PTI.
"Our children will be trained and be part of the designing and fabrication process of the satellite, which will be launched by ISRO from Sriharikota. A ground station-cum-space lab will be set up on the school campus for students to monitor PriyamvadaSat, as well as to harvest the data sent by it," he said.
An ITCA official informed that a group of students and faculty members would undergo intense training from ITCA so that they can be involved when the satellite is in the process of being conceptualised and designed, as per PTI.
Vice-Chairman Damani has welcomed this. "This has great relevance as students will have first-hand exposure to Space Science, as well as Coding. Successful students will receive a joint course certification," he said.
The agreement signed by the school with ITCA includes the design, development, integration, qualification, testing and launching of PriyamvadaSat to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The functional satellite will be sent to LEO as a part of the mission and a classroom model similar to it will be built on the school campus.
