SD Sat is a 3U cube satellite named after the former Chairman and one of the founding fathers of the Indian space programme Professor Satish Dhawan. It is being launched into orbit by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) onboard the PSLV-C51 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket.
“The idea of sending names of common people to space is an initiative to create awareness, generate curiosity, and to get more people fascinated about space science, which many still perceive as inaccessible,” Srimathy Kesan, CEO of Space Kidz India said while talking to ANI.
“It is happening for the first time in India that our satellite is going to carry the names of common people across the world. We have created a website in which people who are enthusiastic in the space science can register their names and they will get a boarding pass which is fun for the children and as well as the awareness element for the common people,” Kesan informed.
“When NASA sends mars rover into space they ask common people to send their names and they send them boarding pass. We thought about if they can do it why should not we. I want people to know that Indian satellite is taking common people names into space,” she added.
“January 3 is the last day for submitting the entry but to consider the huge traffic we will extend it for another two days which means the people can register them till January 5. We have got around 17 thousand names and looking forward to at least 10 lakh names,” she added.
“The launch is scheduled in the month of February and since the testing and integration is going on, we will reveal technical details later,” she added.
Talking about the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for making India self-reliant, Rifath Shaarook a Scientist at Space Kidz India said that this mission could be possible only because of our PM Modi’s vision that is why we are sending his name and photograph on the satellite.
The satellites would be primarily using frequency-shift keying (FSK) to transmit data back to earth, LoRa would be the secondary. Experimenting with LoRa would help them study the feasibility of using LoRa in ground communications for industrial purposes. The satellite also tests the capabilities of LoRa technology in space which could be helpful for many applications in the future in short and M2M communication,” he said.