Scientists make contact with X-SAT

Scientists make contact with X-SAT
By Lois Calderon | Posted: 26 April 2011 2100 hrs

SINGAPORE: Scientists here have established contact with Singapore's first locally built micro-satellite X-SAT in space.

The successful communication with the satellite was made on Wednesday last week at 10.06 pm (Singapore time), less than 10 hours after it was launched into the earth's orbit with two other satellites by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV-C16.

The team of scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) made the communication link from the mission control station at the university's Research Techno Plaza, the NTU said in a press statement released Tuesday.

"The telemetry received from the satellite shows that X-SAT is in good working condition. Its solar panels have since been deployed and are operating well," the statement said.

The X-SAT is wholly designed and built in Singapore by NTU in partnership with DSO National Laboratories.

It carries an imaging system, an advanced navigation experimental set-up, and a parallel processing unit for image processing.

The satellite will orbit the earth for three years at a height of 800 kilometres and take photographs which will help scientists measure soil erosion and environmental changes.

It can also capture data for monitoring forest fires and oil pollution at sea.

-CNA/wk

- wong chee tat :)