How This 22-Year Old Makes Satellites Out Of Waste Products

How do you measure a city’s pollution, record its temperature levels and recycle waste, all at once? 22-year old Suraj Kumar Jana achieved this seemingly impossible feat.

Suraj is a Bangalore-based computer engineer. Opencube Labs is an organisation established by Suraj that uses old cans of beverages like Coke, Red Bull and of types of beer to create mini satellites that are able to record information about the city, acting as a database for the a number of the city’s parameters, including air and water quality, traffic congestion levels and ultra-violet penetration. “These data can help in research purposes and our civic bodies can even use them to implement better policies,” Suraj tells The Times of India. It uses what is known as the CanSat – a type of sounding rocket built of Arduino and RaspberryPi open hardware, with the components of the satellite all held within a 350 ml beverage can.

The mini-satellite was launched from the Air Force base at Yelahanka, and is capturing data to its station during its monitored descent with the help of a parachute.

Suraj’s CanSat Program has been giving Indian students hands-on experiences with small-scale space missions for two years now – especially for students who can’t afford this experience elsewhere. Pioneers like Suraj are making sure that all aspects of our world’s future – including the operation of satellites – are becoming increasingly sustainable, and we couldn’t be more impressed.