Space Applications Centre (SAC) is an institution of research in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

under the aegis of the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...

(ISRO). It is one of the major centres of ISRO that is engaged in the research, development and demonstration of applications of space technology in the field of

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

and

satellite navigation A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are ope ...

(Sat Nav). This includes research and development of on-board systems, ground systems and end user equipment hardware and software. SAC has three campuses, two of which are located at Ahmedabad and one at Delhi. The current director of the centre is Nilesh M Desai.

Achievements

Some of the achievements of the Space Applications Centre include development of communication and meteorological payloads for

INSAT satellites The Indian National Satellite System or INSAT, is a series of multipurpose geostationary satellites launched by the ISRO, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to satisfy telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescu ...

, optical and microwave payloads for IRS satellites. SAC provides its infrastructure to conduct training courses to the students of the Center for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and The Pacific (CSSTEAP). It was founded by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. On 19 March 2021, SAC in a major breakthrough demonstrated free space quantum communication technology at a distance of 300 meters between two buildings through live video conferencing as part of Quantum Experiments using Satellite Technology (QuEST) project. The primary objective is to successfully perform satellite based quantum communication between two ISRO ground station. Hardware developed for performing the experiment includes

NavIC Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), with an operational name of NavIC (acronym for Navigation with Indian Constellation; also, 'sailor' or 'navigator' in Indian languages), is an autonomous regional satellite navigation syste ...

receiver for time synchronization between transmitter and receiver, gimbal mechanism systems as an alternative to large aperture telescope for optical alignment. Collaborations between SAC Ahmedabad and National Institute of Design, Gujarat began in the early 1970s.

Commercialization

A memorandum of understanding was signed on 30 September 2024, between

Bharat Electronics Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is an Indian public sector aerospace and defence electronics company, headquartered in Bangalore. It primarily manufactures advanced electronic products for ground and aerospace applications. BEL is one of sixt ...

and the Space Applications Centre, pertaining to collaboration, indigenization, and infrastructure development for the production of space-grade travelling wave tube amplifiers.

References

External links

Space Applications Centre website

ISRO SAC page

CSSTEAP website
1972 establishments in Gujarat Research institutes in Ahmedabad Research institutes established in 1972 Space programme of India Space technology research institutes Research institutes in Gujarat {{Gujarat-university-stub