up, above

Space control

Wouldn’t it be great if you got an opportunity to launch your own satellite in space? That’s exactly what a bunch of lucky kids in California are doing. In fact, now you won’t even have to wait until you get to college. A new programme called KatySat (Kids Aren’t Too Young for Satellites) aims to get teenagers involved too. Ben Yuan, an engineer at Lockheed Martin in Menlo Park, California, came up with this idea to be executed in schools. Depending on the type of equipment inside, a CubeSat can take pictures, collect data for experiments, and perform a host of other scientific tasks. The first KatySat, which Yuan is working on with the students of Independence High School in San Jose, California, will have two radios. While one radio will be transmitting photos to the students on the ground, the other one will be used for communication purposes.

pen power

Spin a yarn

We all love reading, but what if you had a book, which you had designed all by yourself? A website, www.whsmith.co.uk allows you to do just that. You can choose from a section of six different stories including medieval adventure, princes’s adventures or football adventures and customise the illustrations as well as the text. You can also become the central character and twist the story the way you want to.