Development of Low-altitude Microsatellites Using Long-endurance Glider Plane Collaboration

Caption

Ref: IPTIF/TD/IP/007

The low earth orbit satellites have growing concerns: most rockets are not reusable, the launched satellites are rarely serviceable or upgradeable, the operational costs of reusable/single-use rockets are high and the space debris is an ever increasing issue.

Alternatively, long endurance airplanes would operate at lower altitudes (20-60Km), would be self launching/landing and hence serviceable/upgradeable. Small communication and surveillance equipment enables even smaller aircrafts to act as good satellites, as signal losses would be much lower at lower altitudes. We intend to build such a solution rivaling Nasa Helios, Airbus Zephyr, Solar Impulse and Boeing Odysseus.

The investigators of this project are:

  1. Dr. Vijay Muralidharan (lead investigator)
    Assistant Professor
    Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad
  2. Dr. Sneha Gajbhiye
    Assistant Professor
    Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad
  3. Dr. Shaikshavali Chitraganti
    Assistant Professor
    Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad
  4. Dr. Anirudh Guha
    Assistant Professor
    Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad
  5. Dr. Arun Mahindrakar
    Professor
    Indian Institute of Technology Madras
  6. Dr. Ramkrishna Pasumarthy
    Associate Professor
    Indian Institute of Technology Madras