IIST Students’ Sounding Rocket ‘Vyom’ to be Lau

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Vyom,’ the first sounding rocket built by Indian students, will take to the skies in February 2012.  The 2.31-metre tall rocket will lift off from the Thumba la

Published: 17th December 2011 03:46 AM  |   Last Updated: 16th May 2012 03:34 PM   |  A+A-

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Vyom,’ the first sounding rocket built by Indian students, will take to the skies in February 2012.

 The 2.31-metre tall rocket will lift off from the Thumba launching site of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). ‘Vyom’ is a project of the students of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), the ISRO academy at Valiyamala in the district for shaping space scientists.

 The rocket, fully designed by BTech students with help from VSSC scientists, has already undergone three static tests and is awaiting final nod from the Main Safety Committee. The single-stage rocket weighs 89 kgs, and will fly 14 km skywards before plunging into the Arabian Sea.

“It will take 44 seconds to reach maximum altitude and will be airborne for 116  seconds in all,” said Gagan Agarwal, fourth-year BTech Aerospace Engineering student and Systems Engineer for the project.  

IIST students have put up a detailed poster on ‘Vyom’ at the National conference on Space Transportation Systems which was inaugurated at Thumba on Friday by former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

 ‘Vyom’ will have a tri-axis accelerometer as payload which will measure the acceleration of the rocket, said Dr K N Ninan, Emeritus Professor, IIST.  Sounding rockets are nothing new to Thiruvananthapuram as hundreds have been launched from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) of the VSSC. But ‘Vyom’ will have the distinction of having the youngest designers.

 IIST had launched the Sounding Rocket Project shortly after its inauguration in 2007.



Comments

Disclaimer : We respect your thoughts and views! But we need to be judicious while moderating your comments. All the comments will be moderated by the newindianexpress.com editorial. Abstain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks. Try to avoid outside hyperlinks inside the comment. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines.

The views expressed in comments published on newindianexpress.com are those of the comment writers alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of newindianexpress.com or its staff, nor do they represent the views or opinions of The New Indian Express Group, or any entity of, or affiliated with, The New Indian Express Group. newindianexpress.com reserves the right to take any or all comments down at any time.

flipboard facebook twitter whatsapp