THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A small satellite is all set to give a big leap to Kerala, a state that has played a pivotal role in the country's space history.

'NIUSAT-Keralshree', a 15-kg microsatellite developed by students and faculty of Noorul Islam University, is aimed at aiding agricultural resource monitoring applications focussed on Kerala. The satellite, which will ride piggy back on an ISRO payload on a PSLV sometime in March 2016, will transfer data for free to the state government's disaster management authority, agriculture department and department of science and technology.

"Though the ground station is on our campus in Kumarakovil, Kanyakumari, the beneficiary would be Kerala, and we have made this proposal before chief minister Oommen Chandy," M S Faizal Khan, pro-chancellor told ToI. The Rs 5-crore project was guided by ISRO brains including Sreedharan Das and A R Krishnan.

"Mechanical, structural and deployment systems of the satellite have been tested and accepted. Preliminary checks are over. We hope to complete vibration tests within a fortnight at ISRO Satellite Centre in Bengaluru. Integration of optical payload will be done at the Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad,'' said Dr A E Muthunayagam, programme director.

The optical payload in NIUSAT is capable of remote land-based observations. The satellite would pass over the ground station thrice a day and all the three frequencies - UHF, VHF and S band, will be used to receive data. We expect the satellite to have a lifespan of more than a year," he said.

"It took almost three years for us to develop the satellite, and we have our industrial partners including Data Patterns, which deals with electronic systems in aerospace domain," said Muthunayagam.

