NASA to Launch Smallest Satellite Designed by Three Students

Match Box like Experimental Satellite to be Named Indian Sat

Three young undergraduate students of Karur in Tamil Nadu have designed and developed an experimental satellite for a competition held in collaboration with NASA. It will be launched by NASA in a sub-orbital space flight (a spaceflight which reaches space but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere so that it does not complete one orbital revolution) for a few minutes before landing in the ocean.

The satellite is made of reinforced graphene polymer (Graphene is a very thin yet strong material which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a pattern of six-sided shapes). It is very small, just 3 cm in size, similar to a match box and weighs 64 grams. It is named Indian Sat. The satellite has its own radio frequency communication to receive and transmit signals from Earth to outer space. It generates its power from the solar cells attached to it. It will study the effect of reinforced graphene polymers in microgravity (a condition where gravity is very less).