It is indeed a day of great pride for all of us at Dikshant, as ‘Prof Suresh Naik Centre for Planetary Science’ which is tricity’s first full-scale Space Lab was inaugurated today. Prof Suresh Naik, Chairman, International Space Society and Former Group Director, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was himself there to do the honours. We are extremely proud to be the pioneers in introducing space education as a part of the school curriculum. We are the first school to have a planetarium at our DIS campus and now we are happy to have moved ahead in our journey by being the first school to have a space lab.
The formal inauguration was done after a two day workshop on satellite building at the school. The students developed a CanSat which is a simulation of a real satellite, integrated within the volume and shape of a soft drink can. The students under the guidance of experts from Smartcircuits Innovation Pvt ltd, fitted all the major subsystems found in a satellite, such as power, sensors and a communication system, into this minimal volume. The satellite made by them was launched as part of the inaugural function.
The space centre will equip students to develop skills and knowledge in the areas like Telescope Making, Rocketry, Sky Gazing, Designing, Testing and Launching Satellites of the three main kinds — CanSat, Balloon and Cube Satellites. Technical aspects like Coding, Sensors Interfacing, Designing and Analyzing Data will also be taught by experts.
In the first phase, students learnt to design CanSat satellite, which was their first practical experience of a real space project. In the next phase, they will learn to design and use balloon satellites to collect live data from an altitude of 1 KM above earth’s surface. In an advanced stage, the range will increase to 30 KM of the stratosphere, which will be done in collaboration with ISRO. The scope of learning is vast. It goes to an extent of working on cube satellite (small satellite of around 10-centimeter cube only) with a specific mission and launch target into space. While learning all this, students will get ample opportunities to meet and interact with experts from ISRO and NASA as audio -video sessions are planned with them apart from faculty visits to campus.
Students will be able to explore the world of space science to the maximum potential, during their school years.
