It just goes to show that anything is possible if you just put your mind to it. Just recently an 18-year-old from Tamil Nadu in India has built what’s been hailed as the world’s lightest satellite and is going well that NASA is going to use it in space. That’s pretty good going for a teenager, is it?
The satellite was designed by Rifath Shaarook and weighs in at just 2.2 ounces, making it lighter than many smartphones on the market. It’s only 1.5 inches in size too. “We built it completely from scratch,” advised Sharook. “It will have a new kind of onboard computer and eight indigenous built-in sensors to measure acceleration, rotation and the magnetosphere of the Earth.”
Sharook’s satellite was one of 86,000 entries that entered the Cubes in Space design competition which was hosted by nonprofit education iDoodle with support from NASA and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. He named his satellite design KalamSat after India’s former president and famous aerospace scientist, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Sharook currently works at Space Kidz India, as lead scientists helping to promote science and education across the country.
KalamSat is due to embark on its journey into space on June 22 where it will endure four-hour our spaceflight and then work its magic for 12 minutes under microgravity conditions. So, exciting times are to come, especially for Sharook and we can’t wait to see what the satellite reports back. Watch this space to find out more.
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