Which of the following is Academic Institute Satellite?
- (a)CARTOSAT - 2B
- (b)KALPANA - 1
- (c)INSAT - 2E
- (d)SATYABAMASAT
Correct — D, SATYABAMASAT (the paper prints 'SATYABAMASAT'; the satellite's actual name is SathyabamaSat). It is a small nano-satellite designed and built by the students and faculty of Sathyabama University, Chennai, to monitor greenhouse gases, and it was launched by ISRO as a co-passenger. Being made by a university, it is the 'academic institute satellite' among the four options — the other three are ISRO's own operational missions.
- (a)CARTOSAT - 2B — An ISRO earth-observation / remote-sensing satellite (launched 2010) used for cartography and mapping — a government mission, not built by an academic institute.
- (b)KALPANA - 1 — India's first dedicated meteorological (weather) satellite, launched by ISRO in 2002 and named after astronaut Kalpana Chawla — not a student/university project.
- (c)INSAT - 2E — Part of ISRO's INSAT series for communication and meteorology (1999) — an operational government satellite, not an academic one.
Academic-institute (student) satellites are small satellites — usually nano- or micro-satellites — designed and built by university teams and then launched by ISRO, generally as co-passengers on a PSLV flight. They give students hands-on space-engineering experience. SathyabamaSat is one such satellite; ISRO's CARTOSAT, INSAT and KALPANA series are large operational missions run by the space agency itself.
The trap is that all four are genuine Indian satellites, so recognising the names is not enough — you must sort them by WHO built them. Only SathyabamaSat came from a university; CARTOSAT, KALPANA-1 and INSAT-2E are all ISRO's own satellites, so 'academic institute satellite' points to the odd one out.
- SathyabamaSat (the paper's 'SATYABAMASAT') — a ~2 kg nano-satellite built by students and faculty of Sathyabama University, Chennai, to monitor greenhouse gases.
- It was launched as a co-passenger with Cartosat-2C on ISRO's PSLV-C34 in June 2016.
- ANUSAT (Anna University) was the first satellite built by an Indian university, launched by ISRO in 2009.
- CARTOSAT = remote sensing/mapping; KALPANA-1 = meteorology; INSAT-2E = communication & meteorology — all ISRO operational satellites.
Only the university-built satellite counts as an 'academic institute satellite'; the rest are ISRO's operational missions.
- Assuming any famous satellite name is 'academic' — sort by who built it (university vs ISRO)
- Confusing KALPANA-1 (a weather satellite named after Kalpana Chawla) with a student project
MPPSC and UPSC ask you to match a satellite to its purpose or builder, or to pick the student/university satellite — remember SathyabamaSat and ANUSAT as the academic-institute ones.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which was the first satellite built by an Indian university and launched by ISRO?
- (a)ANUSAT
- (b)SathyabamaSat
- (c)Jugnu
- (d)STUDSAT
Answer(a) ANUSAT — built by Anna University and launched by ISRO in 2009 as the first Indian university-built satellite.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The CARTOSAT series of Indian satellites is primarily used for:
- (a)Communication
- (b)Remote sensing and mapping
- (c)Navigation
- (d)Weather forecasting
Answer(b) Remote sensing and mapping — CARTOSAT is ISRO's earth-observation / cartography series.