CRSST

Research at PES

The Centre for Research in Space Science and Technology, called CRSST was established in the year 2017 under the umbrella of CORI, after the successful launch of PISAT (PES Imaging Satellite) on 26 th September 2016. CRSST was established to encourage the design, development, integration and testing of nano and micro student satellites, based on the experience that was gained in developing and operating the nano satellite PISAT. This was also intended to provide students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in satellite development.

After the successful launch of PISAT, CRSST carried out a funded project from RCI, DRDO to design a microsatellite called RSAT, officially named as Sindhunetra, and it was successfully launched on 28 th Feb 2021 into a polar sun synchronous orbit. With this PES has launched two satellites successfully into space. CRSST has a state-of-the art clean room, ground station control room and an S-band ground station antenna commissioned in PES. Several UG and PG students, Research Associates and Ph.D scholars have benefitted by working in these projects.

Centre for Research in Space Science and Technology (CRSST)

OBJECTIVES

Provide hands on experience in space technology to the engineering students
Satellite design, development, integration and testing
Provides clean room environment for carrying out development of sensitive projects.

Research Team

Infrastructure

Class 100,000 clean room with flooring of ESD epoxy as per international standard. ESD garments, ESD work tables along with ESD chairs are used by working persons.

DIRECTOR

Dr Sambasiva Rao

DESIGN TOOLS

ADS, HFSS, Matlab, ORCAD, Xilinx system generator, Libero

SOFTWARE

Projects Underway

RSAT SATELLITE

PURPOSE

RSAT is conceived to support the national cause of coastal surveillance and harbor traffic management.

HARDWARE

RSAT is a 3 axis stabilized agile nano satellite weighing 10 Kg and measuring 300mm x 300 mm x 300mm in size with deployable solar panels generating 45 watts solar power.
Software
Algorithms are being developed to resolve collision of signals received by satellite.

PROJECT UPDATE

Student team members can email about what he/she learnt, if we can have one such quote every week the micro-site will reflect the dynamism of the center.

OPERATION

RSAT picks up AIS signals transmitted by ships over a large area on high seas and transmits them to ground station where the signals are processed and the data of the ships in visible area is extracted. The satellite payload receives AIS signals transmitted by ships in VHF band, stores onboard and transmits to ground station in X-band through a high gain phased array antenna during ground station visibility period. Satellite with S-band omni antenna system supports TTC. Onboard control system with four reaction wheels and three magnetic torquers controls the satellite for sun tracking to generate maximum power and also track ground station for data transfer during ground station visibility period.

TEAM MEMBERS

Dr. V.Sambasiva Rao, Prof Mahendra Nayak, & supporting team.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Satellite technology is a multi disciplinary area for study. At CRSST Students work on satellite subsystems that include: telecommand, telemetry, communication systems, power generation, storage and distribution architectures, control systems, Attitude and orbit determination, mechanical design, integration and testing, and satellite control station. The concepts students study in class are seen practically and they gain hands on experience.