Plans are in motion to launch what is being described as the world’s smallest and lightest satellite built to date, which was developed by an 18-year old teenager from India. Rifath Shaarook constructed the satellite completely from scratch, which was picked as the winner in a youth design competition called Cubes in Space.
Funded by the organization called Space Kidz India, the satellite was completely manufactured through 3D-printing, and only weighs 64 grams (.14 pounds). Shaarook named the craft KalamSat, after former Indian president Abdul Kalam, who was notorious for his innovative mindset on science.
According to Shaarook, KalamSat will be launched at a NASA facility in the United States on June 21. The satellite will have a new kind of onboard computer that other satellites don’t have, along with eight indigenous built-in sensors to measure the acceleration, rotation, and magnetosphere of the Earth.
The satellite will go on a four-hour mission for sub-orbital flight around Earth, and will operate for about 12 minutes in the micro-gravity environment of space.
For Shaarook, this isn’t his first invention. Three years ago, the science prodigy built a helium weather balloon at a national competition for young scientists.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense
