MOSCOW – A group of Russian engineers and scientists designed a small satellite, which will become “the brightest star” in the night sky.
Satellite Mayak will be released into space in the middle of 2016 and will be in the shape of a tetrahedron of 16 square meters.
It will be able to reflect the sun’s light during the night and in theory will look like a bright star from Earth.
The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said that the satellite will be put into orbit in July.
The Mayek project, which means “lighthouse,” has been promoted by engineers and scientists from the Mechanic Engineering University of Moscow.
The projects was accomplished using 1.5 million rubles ($20,000) that were raised through a crowdfunding site called Boomstarter and through other donations.
The team wanted to demonstrate that space exploration is not just limited to the government or the wealthy and to show anyone who is interested in exploring space that they can begin a project and find funding.
Phys.org also tweeted about the exciting science project:
Mayak, the crowd funded Russian #satellite nearing launch https://t.co/et0fb4V8JZ
— Phys.org (@physorg_com) March 1, 2016
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