Shubham Ghatul, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India — October 27, 2025

The Space Payload Group (SPG) at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore, focuses on the design and development of innovative, low-cost space instruments for ultraviolet (UV) astronomy and student training in end-to-end payload realization. By leveraging the accessibility of CubeSats and microsatellite platforms, SPG demonstrates how astrophysical research can be achieved within modest budgets and short development cycles using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Such compact missions are vital for UV astronomy, where ground-based observations are impossible and large space observatories are limited by cost and operational flexibility.
Recent developments at SPG include the Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING), a near ultraviolet spectrograph selected by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to be hosted on the Chinese Space Station, and StarberrySense, a Raspberry Pi based low cost star sensor flown on ISRO’s PSLV-C55 mission. Both payloads exemplify our group’s approach of in-house design, modular electronics, and frugal engineering tailored for small satellite missions. 
The Near Ultraviolet Transient Explorer (NUTEx), currently under development as part of my doctoral research, is a 146 mm Ritchey–Chrétien telescope operating in the 200–300 nm band. With a 4° field of view and an effective area of 15 cm², NUTEx aims to survey bright regions of the ultraviolet sky and monitor transient sources such as flaring M-dwarfs and supernovae from a microsatellite platform. 
Complementing these space-based efforts, IIA also operates a high-altitude balloon facility established in 2013 for testing of lightweight (≤ 6 kg) payloads, enabling early-stage validation of optics, detectors, and electronics in near-space environments. 

In this talk, I will briefly discuss these developments and the broader context of our ongoing work at IIA.