An experimental satellite by three students from Tamil Nadu's Karur district will be launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency into the sub orbit in June, next on NASA’s sounding rocket 7.
The three students — M. Adnaan of Thanthonrimalai, M. Kesavan of Nagampalli and V. Arun of Thennilai — started with their experimental model when they were in their high school. Mentored by Chennai-based Space Kids India, the satellite model has outnumbered many other satellites designed as part of the global competition conducted by the Cubes in Space, a programme of Idoodledu Inc in association with NASA, reports The Hindu.
Their innovation, India Sat, which took more than two years of extensive research, has been deemed world's smallest and lightest satellite, made with reinforced graphene polymer is 3 cm in size and weighs 64 gm.
The satellite is equipped with it's own solar cell, that will generate power for it and it has its own radio frequency that will send and receive data to and fro between Earth and outer space. The photographic film of the satellite will also absorb and measure the cosmic radiation inside the rocket.
The team was mentored by Rifath Shaarook of Space Kids India, who was overjoyed at this achievement.
The entire research had cost the young team a whooping Rs 1.35 lakh and it was sponsored by the Department of Physics of Government Arts College in Karur.
Previously, in 2017 Shaarook's team had designed Kalamsaat, named after former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam, and it was launched by NASA in the same year June.
The project was carried out under the supervision of Dr. Srimathy Kesan, founder and CEO of Space Kids India.
"Kalamsat fell into the sea. It will be recovered and Nasa will be sending it back to us for decoding the data," Kesan had said while speaking to Times of India.
LIVE TV
