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EDUSAT – Bridging the Divide

September 24 2004 -The pivotal role of education as an instrument of social change by altering the human perspective and transforming the traditional mindset of society is well recognised. The universalisation of education has become the top priority, especially for the developing countries. But the extension of quality education to remote and rural regions becomes a Herculean task for a large country like India with multi-lingual and multi-cultural population separated by vast geographical distances, and, in many instances, inaccessible terrain. Since independence, India has seen substantial increase in the number of educational institutions at primary, secondary and higher levels as well as the student enrolment. But the lack of adequate rural educational infrasture and non-availability of good teachers in sufficient numbers adversely affect the efforts made in education.

Educational satellite is the answer to such a problem. The concept of beaming educational programmes through satellites was effectively demonstrated for the first time in India in 1975-76 through the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) conducted using the American Application Technology Satellite (ATS-6). During this unique experiment, which is hailed as the largest sociological experiment conducted anywhere in the world, programmes pertaining to health, hygiene and family planning were telecast directly to about 2,400 Indian villages spread over six states. Later, with the commissioning of INSAT system in 1983, a variety of educational programmes is being telecast. In the 90s, Jhabua Developmental Communications Project (JDCP) and Training and Development Communication Channel (TDCC) further demonstrated the efficacy of tele-education.

With the success of the INSAT based educational services, a need was felt to launch a satellite dedicated for educational service and ISRO conceived the EDUSAT Project in October 2002.

The 1950 kg EDUSAT was launched recently from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) by ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). From GTO. EDUSAT will reach the 36,000 km high Geostationary Orbit (GSO) by firing, in stages, its on board Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM). The satellite will be commissioned into service after its positioning into the earmarked slot and checking out of all its transponders. In GSO, the satellite will be co-located with KALPANA-1 and INSAT-3C satellites at 74 deg East longitude.

Compared to the satellites launched in the INSAT series so far, EDUSAT has several new technologies. The spacecraft is built around a standardised spacecraft bus called 1-2K. It has a multiple spot beam antenna with 1.2 m reflector to direct precisely the Ku-band spot beams towards their intended regions of India, dual core bent heat pipe for thermal control, high efficiency multi-junction solar cells and an improved thruster configuration for optimised propellant use for orbit and orientation maintenance. The satellite uses radiatively cooled Ku-band Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs) and dielectrically loaded C-band DEMULTIPLEXER for its communication payloads.

EDUSAT launched on September 20, 2004 is the first exclusive satellite for serving the educational sector. It is specially configured for audio-visual medium, employing digital interactive classroom and multimedia multicentric system. The satellite will have multiple regional beams covering different parts of India – five Ku-band transponders with spot beams covering northern, north-eastern, eastern, southern and western regions of the country, a Ku-band transponders with their footprints covering the entire country.

EDUSAT is primarily meant for providing connectivity to school, college and higher levels of eduction and also to support non-formal education including developmental communication. The scope of the EDUSAT programme is planned to be realised in three phases.

In the first phase of pilot projects, a Ku-band transponder on board INSAT-3B, which is already in orbit, is being used. In this phase, Visveswaraiah Technological University (VTU) in Karnataka, Y B Chavan State Open University in Maharashtra and the Rajiv Gandhi Technical University in Madhya Pradesh are covered. In the second phase, EDUSAT spacecraft, once commissioned in orbit, will be used in a semi-operational mode with at least one uplink in each of the five spot beams. About 100-200 classrooms will be connected in each beam. Coverage will be extended to two more States and one national institution. In the third phase, EDUSAT network is expected to become fully operation. ISRO will provide technical and managerial support in the replication of EDUSAT ground systems to manufacturers and service providers. End users are expected to provide funds for this. In this phase, ground infrastructure to meet the country’s educational needs will be built and during this period, EDUSAT will be able to support about 25 to 30 uplinks and about 5000 remote terminals per uplink.

It is estimated that the programmes from EDUSAT can reach 1000 class rooms and 50,000 students. These numbers are likely to rise many fold as institutions gain familiarity and confident, and the technology spreads and finds new users.

While ISRO will provide the space segment for EDUSAT System and demonstrate the efficacy of the satellite system for interactive distance education, content generation is the responsibility of the user agencies. The quantity and quality of the content would ultimately decide the success of EDUSAT System. ISRO, in cooperation with the user agencies, has already organised five conferences at the regional level, one at the national level and one conference of vice-chancellors of Indian universities to create awareness about the EDUSAT and its capabilities. The latest conference at Bangalore was jointly organised by ISRO and the Association of Indian Universities in July 2004.

EDUSAT in its seven year life span will provide a substantial boost to countrywide distance education in India. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had recently said, "India’s Science & Technology must make a greater difference to the lives of our people". EDUSAT will strive to meet that objective.