trichy a femtosatellite designed by a student of sastra university has been selected for launch by nasa under the cube in space programme femtosatellites weigh less than 100g and are low cost devices if they are based on components commercially available riyasdeen samsudeen a second year mechatronics engineering student has designed femtosatellites vision sat v1 v2 each having a payload of 33g making it the worlds lightest femtosatellite the edges of v1 measure 37mm and of v2 30mm the cubes have 11 sensors and are built using polyetherimide thermoplastic resin and 3d printing technology mentored by inro labs chennai the satellites can record around 17 parameters v1 will be part of the sr7 nasa rocket mission expected to be launched from wallops flight facility virginia usa in june while v2 will be part of nasa balloon mission rb6 scheduled for august launch the sastratbi in 3d printing and iot will offer an incubation grant of rs 5 lakh to riyasdeen to further pursue his ambition of establishing a successful startup said sastra vicechancellor s vaidhyasubramaniam leaders of various political parties congratulated riyasdeen on his success dmk leader m k stalin tweeted that his achievement is a matter of pride for the nation and the state ammk leader t t v dhinakaran tweeted encouraging him to achieve more while tmcm leader g k vasan also congratulated him