Satellite of Odisha engineering students scales new height

Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) Satellite Launch Vehicle – VSLV MK-III Graviton – flew up to one apex high over its pinnacle from Mahanadi River Valley at Burla on Friday.

An arduous effort by a 30-member student team led by B.Tech pre-final year student of Chemical Engineering, Jaswasi Jasowant Sahoo, of the Idea and Innovation Cell generated the perfect thrust for the light-weight rocket as it reached supersonic speed within one second of its launch.

This is the first student rocket initiative in Asia. It was designed by students of various disciplines such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering of VSS University of Technology (VSSUT).

According to reports, the rocket was successfully retrieved by the parachute. VSLV was designed and aimed to measure the silt content of Mahanadi riverbed. The rocket carried pico satellite to an altitude of 3.89 km. Thereafter, the rocket and the satellite returned to earth with the help of two separate parachutes. The rocket descended with the help of parachute and was recovered about 1.5 km from its launch point after being carried away by wind.

The rocket consisted of a 200-gram payload, comprising cellular signal GSM to check cellular signal strength on upper atmosphere to study the effect of cellular network signal on different altitudes.The VSLV 3.0 rocket weighed 6 kg. The 1.5 m high VSLV, reached a height of 12,800 feet as measured using the altimeter on payload.

The rocket’s air frame was capable of withstanding lot of dynamic pressure during its flight. The motor, thus, used with an appropriate specific impulse had zero anomalies. Moreover, the coding team developed innovative software to map the real time flight profile of VSLV with the help of onboard avionics and telemetry in beta version. This was marked as an accomplishment of the third mission in the VSLV programme.

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