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.