Tamil Nadu engineering student designs world's lightest satellite

S Riyasdeen's 37 mm sized FEMTO satellites VISION SAT v1 and v2 with a payload of 30 mm weighing 33 gms has made it to the world's lightest FEMTO satellite.

S Riyasdeen, SASTRA student with the two lightest satellites designed by him and to be launched by NASA. (Special arrangement) 

THANJAVUR: A second-year student of Mechatronics engineering from Sastra University is has won the Cubes in Space global design competition. 

S Riyasdeen's 37 mm sized FEMTO satellites VISION SAT v1 and v2 with a payload of 30 mm weighing 33 gms has made it to the world's lightest FEMTO satellite. 

He used polyetherimide thermoplastic resins and 3D printing technology. The competition that was conducted by NASA saw 1000 participants from 73 countries. 

Mentored by INRO Labs, Chennai, his satellites are designed to record around 17 parameters with 11 sensors and VISION Sat v1 shall be part of the SR-7 NASA Rocket Mission expected to be launched from the Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA in June 2021 and Sat v2 shall be part of the NASA Balloon Mission RB-6 scheduled for launch in August 2021. 

The SASTRA-TBI in 3D Printing and Internet of Things (IoT) will offer an incubation grant of Rs.5 Lakhs to Riyasdeen to further pursue his ambition of establishing a successful start-up, said SASTRA Vice-Chancellor S Vaidhyasubramaniam.