Four first-year engineering students from Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science near Chennai have developed world's lightest satellite, which will be launched from a NASA facility in the United States. The satellite named JAIHIND-1S is a 4cm cube and fits inside the palm of a hand. The satellite is just 33.39 grams as it is built with a 3D printed outer casing from polylactic acid (PLA) nylon material. The students made the satellite for the 'Cubes in Space' competition conducted by Colorado Space Grant Consortium, NASA and idoodle-learning.

A report by The Times of India quoted K J Harikrishan, one of the team members as saying, "We designed the satellite to conduct three experiments – measure 20 weather parameters, test the nylon material in microgravity and track the trajectory while it is being flown. What makes the satellite unique is that all three experiments will be conducted at the same time. It cost us Rs 15,000, so it is also the cheapest satellite." In 2017, Rifath Sharook, also from Tamil Nadu developed and launched a lightweight satellite weighing 64 grams for the same competition.

KJ Harikrishnan, P Amarnath, G Sudhi and T Giri Prasad who developed the satellite (Photo Credits: Hindustan University Facebook)

Harikrishnan along with his three teammates P Amarnath, G Sudhi and T Giri Prasad took two weeks to assemble the satellite and feed in the program. As the balloon goes to an altitude of about 70km, the sensors modules in the satellite will check various parameters and send data to an onboard SD card through a microcontroller. The satellite will disengage from the balloon and fall once it reaches the desired height. Professor G Dinesh Kumar, who was the faculty advisor said that using sensor modules which can measure more than one parameter at a time helped improve its efficiency.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 29, 2018 04:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).