Tamil Nadu student gets Rs 10 lakh purse for developing KalamSat

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today presented a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh to Rifath Sharook and his team who had developed 'KalamSat,' a 64 gram micro satellite that was launched by NASA last month.

The team members, including Sharook, met the Chief Minister at the Secretariat here, a government release said.

Palaniswami had last month announced in the state Assembly that "to further encourage," Sharook and his team who brought laurels to India and in particular to Tamil Nadu, Rs 10 lakh will be given by the government to them.


'KalamSat,' launched on June 22 by NASA, won the first prize from among 80,000 models in a competition held by the American space agency.

It is a 3.8 cm cube satellite of 'Femto category' and its structure is fully 3D printed with reinforced carbon fiber polymer.

Replete with a temperature and humidity sensor, a barometric pressure sensor, the tiny and "world's lightest," satellite also has a "Nano Geiger Muller counter", to measure the radiation in outer space.