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Office of University Communication
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio

For more information, contact:
Susan Griffith, 216-368-1004, sbg4{at}po.cwru.edu 

For immediate release: April 4, 2003

CWRU grad student to launch satellite prototype

CLEVELAND -- Christopher Fennig hails from Holly Pines
Christmas Tree Farm outside Bryant, Ind. Like Homer
Hickman Jr., the coal miner's son whose story was told
in the movie, "October Sky," Fennig looks to space for
his future. 

As CEO of Nanostar Technologies Inc., Fennig -- also a
first-year student in Case Western Reserve University's
Physics Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) in the graduate
school -- oversees the business operations. This includes
launching TU SAT-1, an eight-inch, 1.5 kilogram
nanosatellite serving as Nanostar's proof of concept,
in the fall to test a new ground-to-space communication
system with potential applications including propane
tank monitoring and automated electric, water and gas
meter reading. 

The vision for Nanostar Technologies already was
underway by Fennig and the companies other founders --
company officers CTO Henry Voss, professor and chair
of the department of physics at Taylor University, and
COO Adam Bennett, a 2001 Taylor University graduate --
when they realized that a satellite originally built
for communicating e-mail messages from missionaries
in remote locations around the world had commercial
applications. 

Nanostar now is building a ground-based sensor that
will read and transmit information to a low-earth
orbiting satellite that collects and processes
information through a high-rate data processing
system. This data is then forwarded to the end user. 

The National Collegiate Inventor's and Innovator's
Alliance (NCIIA) recently awarded Fennig a $20,000
grant to help Nanostar develop the ground-based sensor. 

NCIIA was the same organization that provided Marc
Umeno of NeoMed Technologies Inc. -- PEP's first
successful company -- with similar start-up funds to
launch its cardiac imaging business, now headquartered
in Cleveland. 

Nanostar plans to corner a market that is "ripe" for
this idea -- the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank
monitoring niche. 

After some investigative work, Fennig found that LPG
companies make an average eight trips to fill gas tanks
each year and then only fill the tanks to 35 percent of
their capacity. Most LPG distributors guarantee a free
emergency fill if the tank runs dry between deliveries,
according to Fennig. The industry consists of 20
million tanks in the United States. 

Fennig said LPG delivery scheduling is based on an
archaic system that combines the customer's history
of usage along with historic average day temperatures
to figure whether a customer needs a refill. The
system does not account for vacation times or
unexpected increased usage. 

Nanostar's CEO sees his company's technology reducing
deliveries from eight to five times a year and filling
the tanks to 60 percent capacity. With the satellite
flyovers twice daily and with regular information
collected from the sensor that monitors fuel levels,
Fennig said Nanostar has the answer. 

But Nanostar is not limited to serving the LPG tank
monitoring niche, chosen for its well-educated
executives who readily admit a need for the right
monitoring technology. Instead, Nanostar will become
the premier provider of non-time critical satellite
services for applications of all kinds including,
toxic chemical detection, bridge and building motion
reports and GPS data relay. 

What reduces the costs for Nanostar is that
nanosatellite technology is smaller and lighter,
which reduces space payload costs and gives Nanostar
the edge over their main competitor Andronics, which
does not own the Orbcomm satellite system it uses.
Other competing technologies use a phone line to
communicate with the central office, which involves
a lengthy installation process and higher hardware
and service fees.

Fennig said the projected date for full operation is
January 2005, but in the meantime, Nanostar will
launch the proof of concept TU SAT-1 piggyback on a
Russian missile to test the sensor and satellite
technology in October. 

The NCIIA grant is coupled with a $30,000 grant from
the Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant
that takes Nanostar, an Indiana c-corporation, one step
closer to reaching its goal of $800,000. Exploiting all
available funding channels, Fennig will compete in
international business plan competitions in Bloomington,
Boise, San Diego, Houston, Portland and New York City.
Fennig received one of five technology entrepreneurship
awards presented nationwide by the CEO and NCIIA. 

The entrepreneurial spirit runs deep in Fennig. He
grew up on a family owned grain and Christmas Tree
Farm outside of Bryant, a small town with about 1,000
people. His family is the fourth generation to run
the farm, complete with a Holly Shop open throughout
the Christmas season. Their specialty product is a
soybean candle that burns soot-free and is water
soluble. 

After earning a bachelor's degree in engineering physics
from the interdenominational Christian school, Taylor
University in Upland, Ind., Fennig said he specifically
sought out CWRU for PEP because the program empowers
him to push forward the vision of Nanostar. 

He continues the success story of three-year-old PEP,
a master's degree program, in producing new businesses
and the science entrepreneurs to run them.

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