The nanosatellite weighs in at only 4 kilo, a weight that Iztok Kramberger from the Maribor Faculty of Electrical Engineering says is a tenth that of similarly capable satellites.

The cube was built at a cost of about a million dollars by Slovenian firms including SkyLabs with the help of Faculty of Electrical Engineering experts and under the watch of the European Space Agency.

The team are now looking for sponsors aiming for a launch in 2016 or 2017, Kramberger said as the project was presented this week at the International Trade Fair in Celje.

The launch cost is estimated at 300,000 euros, which is modest compared to bigger satellites.

The cube is equipped with instruments for observing Earth in the visible and deep infra-red spectrum.

According to Kramberger, it could be used by the government to monitor vegetation, and detect flooding and fires.