Towards EDUSAT II

Abstract

EDUSAT was launched in September 2004. Given a life span of about seven years, it would be available till 2011. In case the services need to be continued, a replacement of the satellite would be necessary. Given the requirement of a lead time of about two years for designing assembling and launching a spacecraft, the preparations should start latest by 2009 accordingly. It is therefore, it has been envisaged to the type and replacement required for EDUSAT including the associated changes involved according to the experience. This paper is an attempt to briefly review the evolution of satellite based education system in the country and the achievements of EDUSAT. It examines the experiences with the present space and ground configurations and discusses the possible changes for improvement and continuity of services. The need for establishing structures for meeting the operational and managerial requirements is also discussed.