From being a student to being the lead scientist at Space Kidz India, 18-year-old Rifat Sharook from Tamil Nadu has designed and built the world's lightest satellite.

Born to Mohamed Farook, a scientist, and homemaker, MD Shakila Banu (45), Sharook, the only child, was inducted rather early into a life of science and research, under the tutelage of his father, who was doing an independent research in astronomy. "I grew up watching him working in his laboratory," says Sharook, who along with six teammates designed and built KalamSat —the world's smallest and lightest satellite.

Though his father passed away when he was nine, his dream remained persistent.

"My first project was a small inverter, for my home, which I made when I was in Class 7. Since then, I have made robots, rovers, and designed a series of satellites and space probes," says the teen scientist who lives in a joint family of 15 people.

Turning point

Sharook was in Class 8 when he applied for a student journalist program conducted by Chutti Vikatan, a Tamil magazine, and got selected. "I first met Dr Srimathy Kesan, Founder & CEO of Space Kidz India during my stint at Chutti Vikatan as a student journalist," says Sharook. In 2012, he participated in the Young Scientist contest, and and his passion got him to continue as a researcher for Space Kidz India. "My bond with Dr Kesan is that of a mother and child," says Sharook who cleared his Class 12 with 62.5% this year, and desires to pursue BSc in Physics.

The birth of KalamSat

In November 2016, NASA announced its contest Cubes in Space, in collaboration with the global education company, I Doodle Learning. On learning about the contest, Kesan and her team of young researchers decided to participate.

"We (Space Kidz) are the subscribers of NASA Education Express, a newsletter from NASA that provides students with information of all their contests and space-related opportunities, and that's how we came to know about the Cubes in Space contest," says the Sharook, who was selected as lead scientist for this contest.

Prior to participating in the contest, Sharook and his team designed a 1 kg cubesat. But, after realising the tremendous expense to build it, they decided to make a smaller version for the contest. "We altered our satellite, according to their rules and regulations and came up with KalamSat," says Sharook.

Once the KalamSat was built, the team conducted research for alternatives to launch the satellite, and came across the concept of BalloonSats — a simple package designed to carry lightweight experiments into near-space. And that's how they created a new Near Space Launch Vehicle (NSLV) to launch KalamSat. "Besides our satellite, the other 79 projects are payload," says Sharook.

The project was submitted in January 2017, and on April 1, NASA informed them that the satellite was accepted for the launch on June21, from Wallops Island.

This will be the first time when a space probe, made by Indian students will be launched by NASA. "We've been communicating with NASA online. Their scientists are encouraging and quite supportive," adds Sharook.

Future plans

"On June 21, we've decided to keep a workshop for students who're interested in space and research," says Sharook, adding that he, or the team will not be attending the launch. They're working to get more students into research. "We want to create a private space organisation like SpaceX in India," states Sharook.

KALAMSAT

Fitted in a 3.8 centimeters cube, the weight of the probe is just 64 grams.

KalamSat is composed of 3-D printed reinforced carbon fiber polymer. Some parts of the components were supplied from India and other from abroad. It will be launched by a sub-orbital spaceflight. The expected time span of the mission (post flight) is 240 minutes. The tiny probe will be operated only for less than 12 minutes to demonstrate the performance of 3-D printed carbon fiber in a micro-gravity environment of space.

THE KALAMSAT TEAM