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The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is embarking on its own space programme, which has received approval from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), under the Department of Space. The project involves the development of the ‘SS AMU SAT’, a nanosatellite named after the university’s founder, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

The SS AMU SAT is a 3U CubeSat with multiple objectives. One of the objectives is to study the economic growth in India’s poorest districts using satellite imagery. Additionally, the satellite will implement an in-house developed image compression technology for faster multimedia transmission. It will also test various satellite sub-systems that have been built in-house.

The project was submitted to IN-SPACe in January 2023 for approval, registration, frequency allocation, and launch of SS AMU SAT. In September 2023, the design was reviewed and approved by the Student Satellite Committee, chaired by Dr. P.K. Jain, Director (PMAD), IN-SPACe. The committee stipulated that AMU must sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IN-SPACe for all activities related to the development and launch of SS AMU SAT into the Lower Earth Orbit.

The students’ team responsible for the project is led by Poorti Varshney and mentored by Dr. C. A. Prabhakar, a former Project Director at ISRO, and Faraz Ahmad, an alumnus of AMU. The project has received technical support from AMU alumni working with ISRO and several industrial experts worldwide.

The tentative schedule for the launch of SS AMU SAT is within six months.

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