The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station here has launched ‘Vyom,' the first sounding rocket designed and realised by students.
B Tech students of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (lIST), Thiruvananthapuram, designed the sounding rocket.
EXPERT GUIDANCE
Experts at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) here and faculty members of IIST provided guidance and supervision. Infrastructure support was made available.
The main objective of the launch was to flight test the solid motor and the accelerometer payload developed for the project, a spokesman for VSSC said.
The objectives were satisfactorily met in the maiden launch, he said, and the rocket reached the expected altitude.
He added that 26 undergraduate students, including 10 alumni of the 2007 batch who are at present scientists/engineers in ISRO centres, actively contributed.
A steering committee comprising IIST-VSSC mentors reviewed the preliminary design of the rocket.
The respective launch vehicle design review teams of ISRO cleared the design of all subsystems.
PROVEN PROPELLANT
Vyom had an overall length of 2.3 meters, maximum outer diameter of 207 mm and a lift-off mass of 88 kg.
It used solid motor with ISRO's proven hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene propellant, with a new grain configuration conceived by the students.
The payload was a tri-axis accelerometer designed by the students under the guidance of the VSSC's advanced technology vehicle and sounding rockets project.
It works on a low 5-V power supply and a low-cost power switching module and uses S-band antenna transmission system.
WELL-TRAINED
VYOM has helped students to learn many lessons, much beyond what is written in text books on rocket propulsion, aerodynamics and flight dynamics, payloads, manufacturing, integration and launch operations and above all the concepts of systems engineering and the spirit of team work.
They were also exposed to the rigour and the openness of ISRO's design reviews, test and evaluation standards and strict adherence to quality norms followed.
Thus, the spokesman said, students have been well-trained to take up the challenges they are going to take up in different ISRO centres.