CHENNAI:The SRM University is working on a second nanosatellite that would be sent to the Moon piggybacking on an ISRO rocket, said the founder-chancellor of the university, T R Pachamuthu, here on Sunday.
He was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the admission counselling session held on the Kattankulathur campus. In 2011, the university had launched SRMSAT, a nano-satellite made by its students to study the upper atmosphere. “The faculty and students have been carrying out several scientific and astronomical research programmes including on the 20 kg micro satellite we are planning to launch with ISRO. This would study the rocks and its chemistry on the Moon’s surface,” Pachamuthu added.
The new nanosatellite will be launched in about three years. “It will have an on-board ignition system and will move to lunar orbit in about three months, once released in the polar orbit,” he added. As many as 2,000 students attended the first phase of counselling on the university campus this year. The counselling would be held till May 24, 2015.