PEC undergraduates enter final of CanSat contest

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 12

Undergraduate students of the PEC University of Technology entered the final of the CanSat competition organised by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), American Astronautical Society (AAS) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

The team, ‘Udaan’ is developing the first nano-satellite system of the college. After taking part in a number of rounds, starting from November last year, the team has secured the 18th rank among over 80 teams from various countries around the world. It is invited to the final launch event scheduled from June 10 to12 at Burkett, Texas in the USA.

While sharing the project, the team revealed that their mission was to design and develop a sensor payload travelling through a planetary atmosphere sampling the atmospheric composition during flight. The nano-satellite or CanSat system would be composed of two primary components, a science vehicle and a re-entry container that protects the vehicle.

“When deployed from the rocket the re-entry container will descend with the vehicle secured in the container. The science vehicle will release from the container and glide in a circular pattern while sampling the air pressure and temperature while simultaneously transmitting the data to a ground station. The position data of the sample data would also be recorded and included in the telemetry at the same rate. The speed of the glider shall be measured with a pitot tube and compared with the GPS-generated velocity data. The camera on-board will be used for terrain mapping and ground imaging,” it said.

“Meeting the complexity of the mission requirements while ensuring that the entire mass of the satellite is under 500 gm was quite challenging. We came up with innovative solutions involving the use of 3D printers and advance composites in the fabrication of the structure so that it could survive upto 30Gs of shock. Moreover, with the use of advanced polymers, we were able to design a light wing, which could increase its span area using the internal actuation system,” said Chirag Sachdeva, a second year student of aerospace engineering, PEC.

The ‘Team Udaan’ consists of eight undergrads from different branches, working together under the guidance of faculty advisers on this multi-disciplinary project.

The team, led by Chirag Sachdeva, second year aerospace engineering student, is responsible for the satellite structure and system safety at high altitudes.

Ashish K Gautam, a second year mechanical engineering student, is responsible for the Descent Control System along with the actuation mechanism.

Vivek Singh, a fourth year electronics and communication engineering student, along with Archit Jain, a second year computer engineering student, are responsible for the electronics system of the satellite and ensure proper functioning of various sensors and imaging devices.

Sachin Sharma, a second year metallurgy engineering student, is responsible for the flight software and autonomous functioning of the system.

Deepanshu Gupta, a fourth year electronics and communication engineering student, is responsible for the ground station development and telemetry operations.

Jitish Miglani and Amit Jain of fourth year aerospace engineering, is responsible for aero elasticity and dynamics.

The team is advised by Prof Rakesh Kumar, Prof Kishori Lal, Prof Tejinder Kumar Jindal and Prof Tushar Siag, the faculty of the Aerospace Department of the PEC University of Technology and is mentored by Jim Yen from American Astronautical Society (AAS).

Nayhel Sharma Bhanot and Bharat Ankur Dogra, PhD students from the Aerospace Department are supervising the construction process.

“Now, we are looking forward for the final round. It has been a great journey so far, right from taking the initiative to make such a complex machine, till finally getting selected into the final, said Chirag Sachdeva.