A one-day Industrial Visit to ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network, Indian Deep Space Network, U.R. Rao Satellite Centre Division, Bangalore, was organized by the Department of Electronics and Communication, on 31st March, 2023. 63 students of 3rd semester (‘A’ and ‘C’ sections) and 5th semester (‘C’ section) from Electronics and Communication Engineering, accompanied by 2 faculty members Dr. N. Madhusudhanan (Assistant Professor, Department of ECE) and Prof. Anitta (Assistant Professor, Department of ECE), embarked on this visit to URSC, Bengaluru, known for tracking and processing satellite data for Indian constellations.
The team first visited the ISRO Navigation Center, where they attended a presentation on different satellites like Lower Earth Orbit (LEO), Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites. The entire process flow, starting from mission plan to launch, was explained to the students.
Details about different launch vehicles like Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GEO) and Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) were discussed. The purpose of the launch vehicles and modes of their operation were explained to the students, with the help of recorded video clips.
The team next headed to the NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) Control Room. It is the regional Geo-positioning system which has been designed in India by ISRO, to provide accurate positioning in India and around the Indian mainland. The real time tracking and monitoring process of all the 26 Indian satellites, with respect to Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), was demonstrated.
The team next visited DSN 32 Station which has installed a 32 metre diameter reflector antenna, and entire control unit associated with the antenna. The process of Deep Space data capture and processing was demonstrated here.
The Industrial Visit concluded at the Indian Space Science Data Centre, where the data received from the all the Indian satellites in Orbit is stored and processed.
This Industrial Visit was an important and much-needed one for the students of the ECE Department. They gained comprehensive knowledge about various aspects of satellite communication and the different types of antennas used for this purpose.