Indore: Centre of Astronomy, Indian Institute of Indore (IIT) Indore, has signed an MoU with Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO, Ahmedabad. This MoU allows Centre of Astronomy to receive two IRNSS receivers from SAC, ISRO, for Dr. Abhirup Datta and Prof. Hablani’s research works.

The collaboration was done through an initiative by Dr. Abhirup Datta, Centre of Astronomy, IIT Indore. Moreover, this MoU also opens up possibility of further research collaboration with ISRO-SAC.

ISRO has recently successfully established the Indian constellation of satellites that constitutes the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), or the NAVIC (NAVigation with Indian Constellation).

IIT Indore would receive two IRNSS receivers from SAC in the coming months. These IRNSS receivers will contribute to the ionospheric research initiated by Dr. Abhirup Datta’s group. IRNSS receivers will also be used by Prof. Hari Hablani and his students for satellite navigation research.

Centre of Astronomy is a new interdisciplinary centre at IIT Indore as this centre was constituted in December, 2015. The centre has varied research interests in radio astronomy instrumentation, observational cosmology, in string theory and others.