As the satellite designed and developed by the institute lifts off from Sriharikota, IIT-B director stresses on more student collaborations
Students of IIT-B watch the live telecast of Pratham’s launch aboard PSLV C-35. Pics/ Nimesh Dave
The IIT-Bombay campus erupted in whoops of joy as Mumbai’s first satellite — Pratham — designed and developed by the institute’s students took off with seven others from the Satish Dhawan Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, at 9.12 am today.
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Several team members, students and supporters gathered at the VMCC Auditorium in the morning to mark the moment of pride. The launch of the satellite on PSLV C-35 was telecast live at the auditorium.
Congratulating team members who worked on Pratham, Devang Khakhar, director of IIT-B, said, “This is a moment of great achievement. From this city, it is first such student satellite. I’ve received feedback from ISRO on how impressed it is with the professional approach of the team. It was completely the students’ idea and has been a great learning process for them. We hope that the satellite manages to generate useful data.”
Hoping that many more student satellites would follow suit, Khakhar asked IIT-B students to collaborate with nearby schools on their ideas. "It is important that students who worked on this team share their experiences with schoolchildren and inspire them to enter this field,” he said.
Manavi Dhawan, the current team manager of the Pratham satellite project, said, “Hundreds of people worked on this satellite project, with a team of 70 members working on it every year since the project’s inception. It is a moment of great pride for the entire team.”
The 10-kg Pratham is on a four-month mission to conduct a total electron count of the ionosphere (a 60 km-1,000 km region of the earth’s upper atmosphere). Electrons play an key role in numerous physical phenomena like electricity and magnestism.
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