Project MUNAL

Project MUNAL is an initiative operated through collaboration between the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and Antarikchya Pratisthan Nepal (APN) as part of the High School Consortium Project. Being developed by 9 core team High School students and mentored by an exceptional team of mentors, the CubeSat primarily aims to conduct an In-house design, build, test, and launch of Nepal’s first high-school CubeSat and empower high-school students.

Students from Kathmandu University High School (KUHS), Chaitanya Secondary School, Azad Secondary School, and Sanjiwani Model Higher Secondary School were involved in the 2-year long project. Developed in the Space Systems Laboratory (SSL) located at Kathmandu University High School (KUHS), MUNAL is planned to be launched in early 2024, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDRC). SDRC is a primary spaceport of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), located in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The junior team of MUNAL consisted of the following members:

Kaancha Ram Syangtan (Azad Secondary School, Banepa), Rajin Ranjit, Suvesh Gurung, Sushant Dhakal, Sambridhi Sharma, Shreeya Pradhan Shrestha, Siddartha Karmacharya (Kathmandu University High School, Chaukot), Sangita Mainali (Chaitanya Secondary School, Banepa), Shreya Tamang (Sanjiwani Model Higher Secondary School, Dhulikhel)

Mission Statement: In-house design of development of Nepal’s First high school CubeSat.

Objectives:
The objectives of MUNAL are divided into two parts:

Primary Objectives:

  • To conduct In-house design, build, test, and launch of Nepal’s First high school CubeSat.
  • To demonstrate novel SSoC-based COM/OBC designed in-house.
  • To continue two Missions of NepaliSat-1: Store & Forward (S&F) and Imaging Mission.

Secondary Objectives:

  • To build a vegetation density database of the earth’s surface.
  • To implement image segmentation for landmass identification using Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning) to increase good image downlink efficiency.
  • To collect and build a database of radiation dose rate and count rate in Low Earth Orbit(LEO) (DROPPED).

Missions
To accomplish the above-mentioned objectives, MUNAL incorporates the following missions:

  1. Camera Mission
  2. Passive Attitude Control and Determination Mission
  3. Satellite System-on-Chip (SSoC) Payload Demonstration Mission
  4. Art Mission

Some images of MUNAL – Nepal’s First High School CubeSat 
(Schools’ Logo and Team Members name can be seen on the CubeSat)

Prepared by: Janardhan Silwal
Project Manager, Satellite Research Fellow
Antarikchya Pratisthan Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal