Indian Muslim teenager creates world’s lightest satellite

"KalamSat" will now be put into orbit by NASA

An Indian teenager has built the world’s lightest satellite which will now be put into orbit by NASA.

The satellite which was designed by 18-year-old Rifath Shaarook, weighs only 64 grams and was 3D printed using carbon fibre. The device will now go on a four-hour mission for a sub-orbital flight during which it will operate for around 12 minutes in a micro-gravity environment of space.

"We designed it completely from scratch," says Shaarook. "It will have a new kind of on-board computer and eight indigenous built-in sensors to measure acceleration, rotation and the magnetosphere of the earth."



Called KalamSat, the tiny satellite has been named after former Indian president Abdul Kalam, a pioneer of the country's aeronautical science ambitions.

Shaarook’s belongs to a small town in Tamil Nadu and now works as lead scientist at Chennai-based Space Kidz India.

His project was selected in NASA’s Cubes in Space challenge. The KalamSat is not the teenager’s first invention who also built a helium weather balloon, as a part of nationwide competition for young scientists, at the young age of 15.

 

This article originally appeared in BBC.