The world’s ‘lightest satellite: built by a 18 years old designer
An Indian teenager has built what is thought could be the world’s lightest satellite, which will be launched at a Nasa facility in the US in June.
Eighteen-year-old Rifath Shaarook designed what he describes as the world’s lightest satellite, from scratch. The device weighs a mere 64 grams (0.14 lbs), making it even lighter than a smartphone. “We did a lot of research on different cube satellites all over the world and found ours was the lightest,” Shaarook said about his 3D-printed, carbon fiber small-scale satellite.
The tiny satellite, named after Abdul Kalam, was flown by a Nasa sounding rocket and the lift-off was from the space agency’s Wallop Island facility around 3pm (IST). Kalam had his training in the sounding rocket programme at Wallops Island in the ’60s. Kalamsat was the only Indian payload in the mission.
His project was selected in a challenge called Cubes in Space, organised by education company idoodle with support from Nasa and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium.
Newcomer scientist Rifath comes from a small town in Tamil Nadu and now works as lead scientist at Chennai-based Space Kidz India, an organisation promoting science and education for Indian children and teenagers.
The KalamSat is not his first invention: at the age of 15, he built a helium weather balloon as a part of nationwide competition for young scientists.
