In Brief A teenager from India recently won a satellite-design competition co-sponsored by NASA. His winning invention, probably the world's lightest satellite, will be launched by NASA this June for a sub-orbital test flight. Tiny Space Cube <\/p>\n
Not very many people can claim that theyve sent something they made into space. Oneof those who will soon be sending his own invention a 64-gram (0.14-lb) satellite into sub-orbital flight is an 18-year-old named Rifath Shaarook. His satellite design won a competition hosted by an organization called I Doodle Learning, which issponsored by NASA and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, called Cubes in Space. <\/p>\n
The main challenge was to design an experiment to be flown to space which would fit into a four-meter cube weighing 64 grams, Shaarook told Business Standard. He named his tiny winning satellite the KalamSat, after Indian nuclear scientist and former president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. <\/p>\n
Its set to embark on a 4-hour sub-orbital mission, launching from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on June 21. We designed it completely from scratch, Shaarooksaid, It will have a new kind of on-board computer and eight indigenous built-in sensors to measure acceleration, rotation, and the magnetosphere of Earth. <\/p>\n
Cubes for Space is an example of how NASAs been actively seeking out talents and minds outside of just the agency. NASAs also launching a device developed by another teenager to the ISS, to test space-fairing microbes. Apart from getting helped by young inventors like Shaarook, NASAs also been corrected by a teenager who pointed out an error in some of the agencys data on energy levels. <\/p>\n
NASA also has a program called Open Innovation, where it employs the help of the public for outside-the-box thinking about human space exploration challenges. Such crowdsourcing efforts seem to be fruitful for the space agency, and the KalamSat is just one proof. <\/p>\n
The KalamSat will spend about 12-minutes in a micro-gravity environment of space, where it will test the durability of its extremely light casing, 3D-printed from reinforced carbon fiber polymer. The main role of the satellite will be to demonstrate the performance of [3D-printed] carbon fiber, Shaarook explained to the Times of India. The success ofthe satellite could lead to the development of similar technology: such lightweight payloads would certainly be morecost-effective for NASA. The space agency is seeking innovative ideasfor payload service, too: back in March, they wrapped up an open call forpayload concepts for a mysterious mission. <\/p>\n
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See more here: In Brief A teenager from India recently won a satellite-design competition co-sponsored by NASA. His winning invention, probably the world's lightest satellite, will be launched by NASA this June for a sub-orbital test flight. Tiny Space Cube Not very many people can claim that theyve sent something they made into space. Continue reading
\nA Teen Created the World's Lightest Satellite & NASA Is Going to Launch It - Futurism<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"