The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Saturday that its space platform, POEM-3, has achieved all of its payload objectives successfully. POEM-3, which stands for the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-3, utilizes the spent PS4 stage of the PSLV-C58 rocket that launched XPoSat on January 1 this year.
ISRO disclosed that POEM-3 carried nine payloads from diverse sources including the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Physical Research Laboratory, academic institutions, and space start-ups. Within 25 days in orbit, POEM-3 completed an impressive 400 orbits while demonstrating the functionality and performance of each payload as planned.
Described as a unique and cost-effective platform by the space agency, POEM-3 is a three-axis-attitude controlled platform equipped with power generation, telecommand, and telemetry capabilities to support various payloads.
ISRO estimates that POEM-3 will continue to orbit for approximately 73 more days before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Upon re-entry, ISRO assured that the PSLV-C58 XPoSat mission would leave zero debris in space, reflecting the organization’s commitment to space sustainability.
During its mission, POEM-3 successfully conducted experiments such as ARKA200 (Xenon Based Electric Propulsion) and RUDRA (HAN based Green Propellant Thruster) from Bellatrix, along with LEAP-TD (Satellite Bus with VHF/UHF Downlink & UHF Uplink – Tested using IIST ground station) from Dhruva Space.
Additionally, POEM-3 gathered payload data regularly from experiments including WeSAT (Solar irradiance and UV Index study) from LBS Institute of Technology for Women, BeliefSat0 (Amateur Radio satellite) from K J Somayia Institute of Technology, RSEM (Radiation Shielding experiment) from TakeMe2Space, and DEX (interplanetary Dust particle experiment) from PRL for every orbit.
Furthermore, POEM-3 demonstrated a 100W Fuel Cell Power System (FCPS) and Si-C based High Power Li-Ion (10AH/32V) Battery from VSSC, achieving all payload objectives according to ISRO. The organization highlighted that in missions from POEM-1 to POEM-3, a total of 21 payloads from various institutes and industries have been flown.
With the successful completion of its objectives, ISRO plans to conduct more experiments with POEM-3 to gather data for future missions, including upcoming POEM configurations, thus continuing its journey of exploration and innovation in space technology.
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