SaRC aims to be a centre of excellence in satellite engineering research, in particular nano-satellite technology and distributed space mission for remote sensing and communication applications. The Centre has successfully launched the Singapore’s first indigenous micro-satellite, X-SAT, on board India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C16 at 10.12am Indian Standard Time (12.42pm, Singapore time) on 20 April 2011. The X-Sat is the First Singapore satellite mission designed and wholly built within NTU. It was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, India. The wholly made-in-Singapore satellite was one of three mission satellites loaded on the PSLV-C16 rocket owned by the Indian Space Research Organisation. The X-Sat is a 106.68kg remote sensing micro-satellite using an electro-optical instrument with near real-time data downlink capability. The project is in collaboration with DSO National Laboratories. The project involves participation from the various Schools under the College of Engineering, as well as partners such as CRISP (Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, NUS) and overseas collaborators such as India Space Research Organization (ISRO), German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and South Korea SaTReCi.
The centre was set up using internal funding after NTU has successfully developed a Merlion communication payload and launched it in the Surrey-built UoSat-12 mini-satellite on 21 April 1999. The research and development focus of SaRC covers:
- Research in advanced nano-satellite for distributed space system application
- Research in innovative space science technologies for earth observation and communication applications
SaRC has the following facilities for space projects:
- Satellite design laboratories with various design and simulation CAE/CAD tools
- Satellite engineering laboratories with various tests, measurement and prototyping equipment
- Class 5K clean room facility for assembly and integration of Space Level Electronics and Assembly
- Basic thermal test and vacuum test chambers
- Mission control groundstation facilities
Besides X-SAT, the centre has several research and education programs. The main focus is to pursue upstream academic research projects involving mainly in innovative nano-satellites for distributed space system application. The centre has an undergraduate satellite program. It involves second year to final year undergraduate students with the support of postgraduate students from different schools of college of engineering. The student team is now working on a 1kg pico-satellite, VELOX-P. Another 5kg nano-satellite, VELOX-I, is also under development and scheduled to be launched in 2013. The VELOX-I consists of a satellite pair that will perform separation after initial months of operation for satellite constellation experiment. VELOX-I has an extensible telescopic mechanism and an in-house built CMOS imaging sensor for remote sensing application. It also has a quantum physics payload in collaboration with the centre for quantum technologies. In addition, it has incorporated several in-house sensors, actuators, advanced control and signal processing algorithms.
