Nanosatellite to carry Bhagavad Gita, PM Modi's photograph into space

New Delhi: A nanosatellite is all set to take a photograph of PM Narendra Modi and a copy of religious book, the Bhagavad Gita to space. In addition to these, names of 25,000 individuals were also be carried by the Satish Dhawan Satellite (SD SAT) that is due of be launched by the end of this month from the space centre at Sriharikota. The nanosatellite has been developed by a private firm SpaceKidz, reported a national daily.

"We have also added the name and photograph of the prime minister on the top panel with the words Atmanirbhar mission. This satellite has been completely developed and fabricated in India, including the electronics and circuitry," Dr Srimathy Kesan, founder and CEO of SpaceKidz India revealed to the daily Hindustan Times. The names of Dr K Sivan, Chairperson ISRO and Dr R Umamaheswaran, ISRO's Scientific Secretary have also been etched at the bottom panel of the nanosatellite.

SpaceKidz reportedly asked the individuals who are interested to send their names to the space and received 25,000 entries, from which 1,000 names are of people from outside India. "We decided to do this because it will spark interest of the people in the mission and space science," Dr Kesan said. The people who have send in their names will be given boarding passes, she added.

Satish Dhawan Satellite, that is scheduled to the launched on February 28 by the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C51), will also carry three scientific payloads, including one to study space radiation, another for studying the magnetosphere, and one that will demonstrate a low-power wide-area communication network. A Brazil's earth observation satellite Amazonia-1, 20 co-passenger satellite and a demonstration satellite by Pixxel will also be carried in the same mission.