DIY Kit Puts Satellites Into Orbit For $8,000

DIY Kit Puts Satellites Into Orbit For $8,000

For extreme hobbyists, the new kit offers a chance to launch personal projects into space.

THE GIST

A company is selling kits to build and fly small satellites for $8,000.
Interorbital Systems has planned a test flight of its Neptune rocket in August.
Customers include hobbyists, universities and government research labs.

Source


I have mixed emotions about this, on one hand how fun would it be to actually build your own satellite just to even take pictures of earth? But I can also see a can of worms being opened here, the article says:

Most TubeSat customers, so far, are universities, including the Naval Postgraduate School in California, Morehead State University in Kentucky, and the University of Sydney in Australia. A private high school has signed up and so has the United Kingdom's Defense, Science and Technology Laboratory.

Who are the other customers? Can anyone with $8000 have a satellite in space?

Will the US government even allow this? I mean now you'll have many different groups in space and NASA won't have the monopoly over information anymore. Albeit these won't be much more than glorified weather balloons.

Normal citizens could have the ability to run some of their own experiments in space for example:

The customers include hobbyists like Alex Antunes, who is customizing his TubeSat into a device that can detect changes in the ionosphere in a digital format for musicians' use

Granted this particular experiment isn't going to find anti matter or the when the universe was created or other planets for that matter, but it does make space for the average human a lot more accessible.

What do you guys think, maybe an ATS satellite

Could you imagine during the oil spill if we could have had our own satellite images of the area?

Take donations Skeptic Overlord!! Build an ATS satellite.


What do you guys and gals think?

JohnnyR



P.S. This is my first thread, so go easy on me. Still trying to figure out all the posting guidelines etc. I put this under Education and Media, If its in the wrong place please move admins.

[edit on 7/30/2010 by JohnnyR]

reply to post by JohnnyR


Thanks for the find

I personally think this is really cool.

Heres a link to the actual website:

www.interorbital.com...

I am all for an ats sattelite.

Hey guys make sure to put a camera to take pictures of stuff.

(I wanna see Mars for real.)

As cheap as this is, I wonder how they are going to solve the problems of having thousands and thousands of new satellites in orbit and coordinate them from getting in the way of other satellites.

What about craft integrity? It's a kit?.. like a do it yourself hobby rocket?

If so, won't most of these things become space junk because they will fall apart?

Oh I see.. the company will build the craft.

CubeSats Can Now Fly with TubeSats in Mixed Launches: The NEPTUNE 30 payload section has been modified to allow the orbital launch of up to 4 single CubeSats or two double CubeSats. TubeSats will make up the majority of the payload. The price per CubeSat launch is $12,500. The target orbit is circular with an altitude of 310 km.

TubeSat PS Kit Design Update: The engineers at Interorbital have improved the design of the TubeSat, increasing its experiment and application payload by 50 grams.

TubeSat PERSONAL SATELLITE (PS) KIT: One of our primary missions at Interorbital is to provide satellite hardware and launch support for the experimental and commercial satellite community. We are currently offering our TubeSat Personal Satellite (PS) Kit AND a launch to orbit on our NEPTUNE 30 rocket for the combined price $8,000. Kentucky Space and Bob Twiggs, one of the inventors of the CubeSat, have recognized the educational and price advantage of the TubeSat and have authorized the purchase of a TubeSat for Morehead State University's Space Science Center. Professor Twiggs plans integrate the construction of their TubeSat into his curriculum at Morehead. Twiggs commented, "I have also bought payload space on the NEPTUNE 30's low-altitude, pre-orbital tests flights to give my students early flight and payload integration experience. I recommend that other universities take advantage of this rare opportunity." For details and ordering information, click on the TubeSat image below.

[edit on 30-7-2010 by JohnPhoenix]

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
As cheap as this is, I wonder how they are going to solve the problems of having thousands and thousands of new satellites in orbit and coordinate them from getting in the way of other satellites.

What about craft integrity? It's a kit?.. like a do it yourself hobby rocket?

If so, won't most of these things become space junk because they will fall apart?

www.sciencedaily.com...

The late Dr Forward -- a renowned physicist who worked in the United States and from his second home in Scotland -- believed it was possible to use 'displaced orbits' to deploy more satellites to the north or south of the Earth's equator, helping to meet the growing demand for communications.

He proposed that the orbit of a geostationary satellite could be pushed above -- or below -- the usual geostationary ring around the Earth, which follows the line of the equator, by using a large solar sail propelled by the pressure of sunlight. However, critics later claimed that such 'displaced orbits' were impossible due to the unusual dynamics of the problem.

They can displace the orbits to allow for more room. He ended up being right.

Thanks for the explanation.

I take it these things will be so cheap they may not be shielded very well. i wonder how badly they will be effected by solar flares and other types of space weather.

well Im up for ATS to buy one of those with donations...
Anybody else wanna jump up the bandwagon?

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Thanks for the reply everyone, yeah John thats what I was kinda worried about. But I think Gentill Abdulla makes a great point. I guess we'll find out in August.

Faceoff, I'm in, I mean with the amount of members it couldn't be too much, the question would be, who would build it.

I'm sure we have some members that could.

[edit on 7/30/2010 by JohnnyR]

Will these break some local area aviation laws?

If sent up by rocket will, some governments claim you are using explosives, hence try putting a terrorist label on people.?

reply to post by ZombieJesus


Thanks for the link Zombie much appreciated. Like I said, my first thread thank you for making it better

reply to post by acrux


That's an important question acrux. I could see the governments not being too excited about this. Like the article says, first try is in August, I guess we'll see.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
As cheap as this is, I wonder how they are going to solve the problems of having thousands and thousands of new satellites in orbit and coordinate them from getting in the way of other satellites.

I'm thinking these puppies just fall out of orbit after a while. How long can it stay in orbit with out any type of propulsion once it gets to space?


[edit on 7/30/2010 by JohnnyR]

[edit on 7/30/2010 by JohnnyR]

As cheap as this is, I wonder how they are going to solve the problems of having thousands and thousands of new satellites in orbit and coordinate them from getting in the way of other satellites.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Makes me think of the movie Wall-E

reply to post by JohnnyR

Thanks for the link Zombie much appreciated. Like I said, my first thread thank you for making it better

No problem

And might I add, an awesome topic for a first thread

I can only see an $8000 rocket making it to low earth orbit. Of course it all depends on the weight of the payload and its size. Having launched model rockets when I was younger anytime you go over 1000' you must notify the FAA and get permission. I had one rocket I built for about $800 and got 2700' out of it. The payoad and the rocket didn't weigh all that much and it had 3 stages.

Shoot for $8000 I'd invest in one

Great find...I am curious about a few things though...

What is the purpose of the venture? Is this purely a commercial run or is there a primary reason for the launch?

Will each satellite be doing the same thing; i.e. taking pictures or is there a variety of options to choose from (I suppose it is assuming to much that communications beyond the transmissions of images could be included as many channels are government owned)...

And how does one access one's satellite?

I briefly glanced at the link so please excuse me if these answers are easily found...

And, best of all, the price of the TubeSat kit actually includes the price of a launch into Low-Earth-Orbit on an IOS NEPTUNE 30 launch vehicle. Since the TubeSats are placed into self-decaying orbits 310 kilometers (192 miles) above the Earth's surface, they do not contribute to the long-term build-up of orbital debris.

Source

So you don't launch it yourself you just build the payload and pay the $8,000.

What a bummer.

I saw this story this morning.

The satellites are only in orbit for about 6 weeks, then they reenter the atmosphere and are burnt up. So they won't in the long term really add to the space junk problem. Also considering their materials and size I doubt the would cause and massive damage to a "real" satellite. But I'm sure even minor damage could be a major problem.

All that being said, for $8,000, and only 6 weeks of life, I'd feel better using the methods in the following threads...

Gulf Oil Spill Mapping

MIT students photograph Earth from Space

While the satellite might get a few things that those methods wouldn't, they really seem more feasible, efficient and downright cool.

EDIT:

Forgot to add a clip from a show I caught yesterday, they had a segment that is relevant, the relevant portion starts about 3:20



[edit on 7/30/2010 by ThaLoccster]

Lets launch our own ATS UFO spotter satelite!
I will donate a little... do you? Somebody with space tech knowledge should make a proposal! I dont know nothing about this topic I am afraid but it will be real cool!!

oh great!
they are selling missiles!
terrorists and enemy countries will get them and use bio and dirty nuc’s.