Salem College students develop motors and components for ISRO rockets and satellites
12 Sep 2008
Salem: For the first time in the country, two special brushless motors, which form an important part of the Geo-stationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), India's largest space launch vehicle and in controlling satellite panels, have been developed by students of a local engineering college here.
These motors were earlier imported by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
A prototype of this motor was displayed by students of Sona College of Technology to ISRO scientists at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VVSC) and ISRO's inertial systems unit (IISU) at Thiruvanthapuram.
The first motor, which will be placed in the rocket nozzle of the GSLV to control its direction, is a 32 newton metre, 1000 rotations per minute quadruplex brushless DC torque motor, according to Prof Kannan, director of Sona Special Power Electronics and Electric Drives (SSPEED).
The second motor, which controls the rotation of the panels in a satellite, is a 2 newton metre, 50 rotations per minute slotless brushless DC motor. It will be used in the scan mechanism of microwave analysis detection of rain and atmospheric structures for the Megha Tropiques Spacecraft.
ISRO's inertial systems unit needed 'cog free' motors to enhance the performance of precision scanning mechanisms in spacecraft and SSPEED had met all the required parameters, Prof Kannan said.
Prof Kannan said this was a "unique" achievement by an institution, which designed and developed an aerospace quality component for actual use in ISRO's satellites and rockets. "This would save precious foreign exchange and provide valuable technical know how," he said.