'Missile Woman of India' to lead Agni V project

Bangalore: Tessy Thomas, who was made the project director of the 2,500 km Agni II missile last year has now been appointed as the project director of India's most ambitious missile, the 5000 km Agni V. the missile is slated to be tested for the first time next year.

Tessy is an expert on 'solid system propellants' which fuel the Agni missiles. She is a B.Tech from Thrissur Engineering College, Calicut and M.Tech from Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technologies. Thomas has been associated with the Agni programme for around two years now. She is currently based at the Advanced Systems Laboratory.

Popularly called 'Missile Woman', Tessy was first assigned to the Agni programme in 1988 after she joined the Defense Research and Development Organization, by Missile Man and former President A P J Abdul Khalam. The missile will propel India towards having powerful ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities. The government has sanctioned Rs 2,500 crore for the project.

IIT-K to launch India's lightest nano satellite 'Jugnu'

Kanpur: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur has come in to agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to launch a nano satellite. It will be the country's lightest and the institute's first satellite to be launched in the orbit from Sriharikota.

IIT Kanpur had presented the second design review to ISRO which nodded to launch the satellite.

"Though the memorandum of understanding between ISRO and IIT-K for the project was signed in February, regular review sessions are being carried out by ISRO to check the progress of the project," said Sanjay Govind Dhande, Director, IIT Kanpur.

"On Tuesday, our technical team working on the project apprised ISRO authorities of the release and antenna mechanism," he said.In April, the first review of Jugnu was carried out by ISRO.

Since last December, a team of 40 students and around 12 professors, led by Professor and Mechanical Engineering Department Head, Nalinaksh S Vyas have been working on the project.

"A similar project in any European country would have cost over Rs 10 crore but we expect the entire project to complete within a budget of Rs 2-3 crore, without compromising on quality. This is a welcome signal for indigenous remote sensing technologies," said Vyas.

A technical team led by D Madhav Murthy in the ISRO for Small Satellite, has said that the procedures for informing the ISRO officials for launch by a mother satellite has been provided, along with the details of the positioning of the satellite antenna set up in the institute premises.

Jugnu weighs around 3.5 kgs and would be 34 cm long and 10 cm wide. Equipped with the micro imaging and micro electronic system, it will transfer the images to the IIT Kanpur campus. The high resolution pictures obtained will be used for different applications like drought monitoring, wasteland management, urban planning and flood risk management.

"Although the stipulated life time of the satellite is six months, we are optimistic that it will complete at least 12 months in the orbit," said Dhandhe.