Interactive Session with Ankit Bhateja, Founder of Xovian Aerospace
A discussion on Satellite remote sensing and GIS Indian Space Startup ecosystem and Rising Opportunities was organized by Aerospace Society, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, on 7th November, 2020, at 6.00 PM, virtually on Google Meet, under the guidance of Dr. Priyank Kumar, Professor in charge of Aerospace Society. There were more than 50 participants in the webinar consisting of students of PhD, Undergraduate and Postgraduate from different departments such as Space engineering and rocketry, Mechanical, Production, Chemical, etc. This was the third event under the Aero Talk series.
The speaker of the event was Ankit Bhateja (Entrepreneur, Researcher, Tedx Speaker) Alumnus of Kurukshetra University, Haryana . He is the founder of Xovian Aerospace which provides a platform for innovation in Space Science. Xovian also provides space science education to the economically backward schools and colleges and has come up with the cheapest CANSAT module for the Asia-Pacific economy. It has been featured in the Ministry of Defence “Pioneering Defence Innovations of India” in the MSME/Startup Directory and has also won Karnataka Government’s “Elevate 100” competition. Apart from that It was one of 16 startups selected from India to showcase their technology at U.S- India Defense Ties Conference. Ankit Bhateja is bestowed with a fellowship at SAM Global and has been invited as a guest speaker and interacted with many prestigious Universities/Institutes across India including IIT’s and NIT’s covering almost 4000 students so far. His area of research also includes “Use of Collaborative Drones for orthographic imaging” and has a great experience in the field of graphic and product design.
The session started with the discussion on the different categories of satellites. He explained about the different affordable student satellite modules- space based education modules for the academia/ hobbyists/ researchers. Under this category, he briefly explained the CANSAT Module, BALLONSAT Module, SMALLSAT Module. He threw light on the satellite technologies, such as small satellite solutions and passive radar satellite constellations. He briefed us about different kinds of satellites most companies in the industry are working on and how exciting the future of this industry will be.
He further went on to talk about the project they are working on known as the passive radar satellite constellation. Environmental degradation and climate change causes global warming, dramatic rise in sea temperatures, wildfires, soil erosion etc. Satellites present in the earth’s orbits monitor this phenomena. But Satellites are bulky, costly and have a limited area under observation. So scientists from Xovian have come up with the idea where multiple satellites will be present in the lower earth orbitals and will use reflection of existing navigation satellites to provide real time data on what is happening on earth’s surface. These satellites can be used in oil and gas exploration, defence applications and many other areas. So multiple small satellites (as small as a shoe box) can be placed in orbit with minimum cost, covering a huge area.
The discussion concluded with an interactive session where questions were asked by the participants and discussed about them in detail. Questions related to startup in the field of satellites, challenges faced in the industry, startup and satellite policies in our country and other countries, what is scope and opportunity in the industry. He suggested engineers from different branches, from where they can gain knowledge and learn more about the Space Sector. Career related questions were also discussed where students got information according to their background on what subjects and skill sets to learn to easily get recruited by companies in this field. He also motivated the participants to know the application of the theories learnt, only then we can make remarkable contributions in whatever field we pursue. The meeting was winded up with a vote of thanks from the President of the club, Y Tarun Raghav.
Reported By- Monisha J Nayaka, Kumari Kritika
