EDUSAT: A Leap Forward in All Inclusive Education

Dr.Keshav Mohan, Principal, IHRD College of Applied Sciences, Adoor.

Education is an effective instrument for social change. It is achieved through altering the human perspective and transforming the traditional mindset of society. Universalization of education has become the top priority of any government. India has substantially improved the number of educational institutions and student enrollment in primary , secondary and tertiary level of education since independence. Unique with unity in diversity, India has a multi-lingual and multi-cultural population, which is separated, by vast geographical distances. Taking quality education to such remote and rural regions becomes Herculean task. Lack of adequate infrastructure and efficient teachers in rural regions deter desired results.

EDUSAT 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 transponder with its footprint covering the Indian mainland region and six C-band transponders with their footprints covering the entire country.

Satellite communication is a viable tool to reach the unreached. Satellites can establish connectivity between the urban educational institutions with adequate infrastructure imparting quality education and the large number of rural and semi-urban educational institutions that lack the necessary infrastructure. This concept of Tele –Education is very well accepted. In spite of limited trained and skilled teachers, the aspirations of the growing student population at all levels can be met through the concept of tele-education. In the system the teachers and professionals can also update their knowledge base as well. Besides supporting formal education, a satellite system can facilitate the dissemination of knowledge to the rural and remote population about important aspects like health, hygiene and personality development.

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 Developmental 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. India's exclusive satellite for educational services -- Edusat -- was successfully placed into the Geostationary Orbit (GSO) on Monday the 24^th September 2004.

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

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. Edusat costs Rs 100 crore for making and about Rs 150 crore for launching. It was carried to the geo-synchronous orbit by the indigeously-developed Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. The satellite was placed at 4.18 pm, a little over 17 minutes after the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F-01) carrying it was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The GSLV-F-01, carrying the 1950-kg satellite, soared majestically into the sky from the space centre. As the 49-metre-tall three-stage GSLV, weighing 414 tonnes, rose into the sky from this spindle-shaped island, off Bay of Bengal, there was jubilation all round . After blast off the satellite was placed at the 36,000 km high GeoStationary Orbit (GSO), by firing in stages its on-board Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM). In GSO, the satellite will be co-located with Kalpana-1 and INSAT-3C satellites. Built for a mission life of seven years, the Edusat is mainly intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite-based distance education system for the country.

The indigenous realisation and launch of EDUSAT will provide a substantial boost to universalisation of quality education in India.