By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec. 23: Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) is now able to give command to capture pictures of earth from the nano-satellite placed at its ground station.
Recently, NAST has set up a new equipment called radio, which gives command to take photo of earth from its ground station.
The task of setting up radio has completed on Monday and it started working from that day. It will take some days to collect photos from our satellite, said Dr. Rabindra Dhakal, Chief of the Faculty of Technology at the NAST.
Before this, the photos had to be collected from other nations’ ground station. After setting up radio, we can give command to take photo from the NAST’s ground station, said Roshan Pandey, programme chief of Satellite Ground Station Center.
The nano-satellite, Nepalisat, which was developed by the two Nepali scientists was launched into the outer space on April 17, 2019. It was launched from the rocket-launch site in Virginia State, in the USA, at Nepali time 14:15 pm.
With the addition of new equipment at ground station, it has enhanced the capacity building of the scientists, as well as their motivations, he said.
The launching of the satellite is a milestone in the science and technology sector of Nepal. It has encouraged us to launch more satellites in the days to come. The satellite is not new for us after the launching of Nepalisat-1, he added.
The remaining age of the satellite is anywhere between six months and a year. After that it will fall down to the ground of earth, he said.
The pictures captured by the satellite from the space will not suffice to collect information to accurately predict floods, landslides, wildfires, and other natural disasters.