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The Thanjavur genius, S Riyasdeen, a second-year student of Mechatronics engineering from Sastra University has won the Cubes in Space global design competition for designing the world's lightest FEMTO satellite that will be launched by NASA in 2021.

He used polyetherimide thermoplastic resins and 3D printing technology to design a 37 mm sized FEMTO satellites VISION SAT v1 and v2 with a payload of 30 mm weighing 33 gms, becoming the world's lightest FEMTO satellite.

Riyasdeen was one of the finalists among several thousands of participants from across 73 countries. He used polyetherimide thermoplastic resins and 3D printing technology to design his satellite. 

“The satellites are named as VISON SAT v1 and v2 and both are of 37 the mm in size and the payload is only around 30 mm with 33 grams weight and thus it has become the world’s lightest Femto satellites”, Riyasdeen told the reporters on Saturday. 

Riyasdeen said, "I was right when I said that I can achieve my goal. 2 years of hard work and research has awarded this!. Extremely happy to share that two of my Femto-Satellites will be flying up in the sky on NASA Sounding Rocket and Scientific Balloon by 2021."

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, the 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.

The Tamilnadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami tweeted, "My congratulations and appreciation for Riyasdheen a student from Thanjavur, who added pride to Tamilnadu and India by designing and achieving the world lightest satellite!. It makes NASA even more proud and happy to be in space in2021".

Many have applauded Riyasdheen including Kamal Hassan, M.K Stalin, Sastra Deemed University and TTV Dhinakaran.