New satellite to carry PM Modi’s photo and Bhagavad Gita to space, 25000 citizens given pass
A copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the names of 25,000 individuals will be carried to space by the Satish Dhawan Satellite, or SD SAT. The Satellite will be launched at the end of the month by the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).
“There is a lot of excitement in the group right now. This will be our first satellite to be deployed in space. When we finalised the mission, we asked people to send in their names that will be sent to space. And, within a week we received 25,000 entries. Of these, 1,000 names were sent in by people from outside India. There is a school in Chennai that sent in the names of everyone. We decided to do this because it will spark interest of the people in the mission and space science,” said Dr Srimathy Kesan, founder and CEO of SpaceKidz India, according to a Hindustan Times report.
“We have also added the name and photograph of the prime minister on the top panel with the words Atmanirbhar mission. This satellite has been completely developed and fabricated in India, including the electronics and circuitry,” she said.
Kesan also said that the organisation decided to send a copy of the Bhagvad Gita to space on the lines of other space missions that have carried holy books such as the Bible.
The satellite will be transported to the spaceport at Sriharikota on Sunday after some design changes were made following recommendations by ISRO. “We are conducting last-minute checks before sending over the satellite. We had to re-do the solar panel on the satellites after testing at ISRO because there was a problem with the resin and there was bulge on a few cells. But it was thought that the entire thing might ooze out in space in two to three days,” said Kesan.
On February 28, ISRO will be launching Brazilian satellite Amazonia-1 as the main payload and 20 other satellites from Sriharikota at around 10:23 AM Sunday. The launch of PSLV-C51 is the first dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Ltd, a Public Sector Unit under the Department of Space.
The 20 co-passenger satellites include one nanosatellite (INS-2TD) from ISRO, four commercial satellites booked by Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), and 15 satellites arranged by NSIL.
Among the four satellites launched via IN-SPACe are three UNITYsats from a consortium of three Indian academic institutes, and one from Space Kidz India.
