ISRO’S launch of the PSLV-C58 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on January 1 marked a giant leap for the students and faculty of the New Leap Labs at KJ Somaiya Institute of Technology (KJSIT) in Sion whose amateur radio satellite Somaiya BeliefSat-0 was a part of the payload on the PSLV Orbital Experiment Module. Successfully operating in a 350-km orbit at a 9.6-degree inclination, the satellite, weighing nearly 500 gm, is set to facilitate communications between amateur radio operators aka HAM enthusiasts around the world.
The Somaiya BeliefSat-0
Supriya Bhide, a student and member of the team, said that a 2017 win at the Touch The Jovian Moon competition organised by ISRO, where the team built a lander for one of Jupiter’s moons, paved the way for a bigger dream. “We started with a team of less than 30 students in 2017 and today we stand at more than 70. The journey has been a rollercoaster of emotions. We even had the opportunity to launch the satellite right before the pandemic hit us and delayed our plans seemingly indefinitely. The six years the team has spent working on the project is a labour of love,” she added.
The satellite was built over six years with a net budget of Rs 20 lakh. “We used commercially available components to build the radio satellite with cost-efficiency in mind. While the satellite itself cost us only around a lakh to build, rigorous testing in emulated environments spanning four months and subsequent tweaking added to the final expenses,” Dr Umesh Shinde, mission director, said.
“Right from the launch at 9.20 am to reaching the designated orbit at 4 pm and finally establishing communication at 12.30 am the next day, the team was on the edge of their seats praying for success. They refused to break bread until we had confirmation. We were ecstatic when the news came in,” he added. Dr Suresh Ukarande, former principal of KJSIT and a member of the team, informed mid-day that the Somaiya BeliefSat-0 holds a significant role in commemorating 100 years of the HAM radio in India and will succeed the HAMSAT, which was launched in 2005 and decommissioned by ISRO in 2016.
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