Orbit Your Project for $8000
erco
Posts: 20,260
http://www.interorbital.com/TubeSat_1.htm
I wonder how much Russia spent to orbit Sputnik 50 years ago. Perhaps a tad more than $8000?
From the website:
Planet Earth has entered the age of the Personal Satellite with the introduction of Interorbital's TubeSat Personal Satellite (PS) Kit. The new IOS TubeSat PS Kit is the low-cost alternative to the CubeSat. It has three-quarters of the mass (0.75-kg or 1.65-lb) and volume of a CubeSat, but still offers plenty of room for most experiments or applications.· 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. After operating for a few months (the exact length of time on orbit is dependent on solar activity), they will safely re-enter the atmosphere and burn-up. TubeSats are designed to be orbit-friendly.· Launches are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Total Price of the TubeSat Kit including a Launch to Orbit: $8,000!
A TubeSat is designed to function as a Basic Satellite Bus or as a simple stand-alone satellite. Each TubeSat kit includes the satellite's structural components, safety hardware, solar panels, batteries, power management hardware and software,· transceiver, antennas, microcomputer, and the required programming tools. With these components alone, the builder can construct a satellite that puts out enough power to be picked up on the ground by a hand-held amateur radio receiver. Simple applications include broadcasting a repeating message from orbit or programming the satellite to function as a private orbital amateur radio relay station. These are just two examples. The TubeSat also allows the builder to add his or her own experiment or function to the basic TubeSat Kit. Examples of add-on experiments or applications include the following:
········· ▼ Earth-from-space video imaging
········· ▼ Earth magnetic field measurement
········· ▼ Satellite orientation detection (horizon sensor, gyros, accelerometers, etc.)
········· ▼ Orbital environment measurements (temperature, pressure, radiation, etc.)
········· ▼ On-orbit hardware and software component testing (microprocessors, etc.)
········· ▼ Tracking migratory animals from orbit
········· ▼ Testing satellite stabilization methods
········· ▼ Biological experiments
········· ▼ On-orbit advertising
········· ▼ Private e-mail
········· ▼ Space art
········· ▼ Space burials
As long as the experiment or application satisfies the volume and mass restrictions, it can be integrated into the TubeSat.· These restrictions provide a unique intellectual challenge for the experiment or application designer.
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·"If you build it, they will come."
I wonder how much Russia spent to orbit Sputnik 50 years ago. Perhaps a tad more than $8000?
From the website:
Planet Earth has entered the age of the Personal Satellite with the introduction of Interorbital's TubeSat Personal Satellite (PS) Kit. The new IOS TubeSat PS Kit is the low-cost alternative to the CubeSat. It has three-quarters of the mass (0.75-kg or 1.65-lb) and volume of a CubeSat, but still offers plenty of room for most experiments or applications.· 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. After operating for a few months (the exact length of time on orbit is dependent on solar activity), they will safely re-enter the atmosphere and burn-up. TubeSats are designed to be orbit-friendly.· Launches are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Total Price of the TubeSat Kit including a Launch to Orbit: $8,000!
A TubeSat is designed to function as a Basic Satellite Bus or as a simple stand-alone satellite. Each TubeSat kit includes the satellite's structural components, safety hardware, solar panels, batteries, power management hardware and software,· transceiver, antennas, microcomputer, and the required programming tools. With these components alone, the builder can construct a satellite that puts out enough power to be picked up on the ground by a hand-held amateur radio receiver. Simple applications include broadcasting a repeating message from orbit or programming the satellite to function as a private orbital amateur radio relay station. These are just two examples. The TubeSat also allows the builder to add his or her own experiment or function to the basic TubeSat Kit. Examples of add-on experiments or applications include the following:
········· ▼ Earth-from-space video imaging
········· ▼ Earth magnetic field measurement
········· ▼ Satellite orientation detection (horizon sensor, gyros, accelerometers, etc.)
········· ▼ Orbital environment measurements (temperature, pressure, radiation, etc.)
········· ▼ On-orbit hardware and software component testing (microprocessors, etc.)
········· ▼ Tracking migratory animals from orbit
········· ▼ Testing satellite stabilization methods
········· ▼ Biological experiments
········· ▼ On-orbit advertising
········· ▼ Private e-mail
········· ▼ Space art
········· ▼ Space burials
As long as the experiment or application satisfies the volume and mass restrictions, it can be integrated into the TubeSat.· These restrictions provide a unique intellectual challenge for the experiment or application designer.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
·"If you build it, they will come."
Comments
come on guys, lets do this.
Um, I mean you guys, not me.
"TLR's initial mission is to establish a permanent manned civilian Lunar Station."
you could track the International Space Station as it passes over on
each orbit. If you used cw mode and fed the dish with 1000watts or
so you could get a receivable ground signal from the rf bounced
off the station's metal framework. A tiny fraction of a milliwatt reflected would
be sufficient to get a good signal using a small dish on the ground.
You could use a microwave oven as cw transmitter by dropping the 2450mhz
microwave freq down into the ham allocation at 2390-2450 MHz. If you
did not drop the freq at least a tiny bit you would be right on the band edge
and that's not good...especially so since there is lots of rf noise leaking
from ovens at that freq that would mess up weak signal work.
I'd attach the transmitter circuit to the rear of the dish and feed a biquad
at the focal point using a short piece of good coax...RG8 would work
if the SWR was kept low.
This would be a real 'poor man's' space communications system
If you did data communications with this it would probably give you about the same
rate as meteor scatter does.... 4 kbit/s
An uplink dish with 30-40db gain or so should work, and a surplus
DBS dish should be good enough to catch the very weak signal on the ground.
CW signals can be detected at incredibly weak levels.
That tubesat deal is really cool! be fun to put a tiny camera aboard
and send images back to the ground....a shame the orbit decays so
rapidly though.
www.southgatearc.org/news/december2007/bouncing_signals_off_iss.htm
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"Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?"
What makes anybody think that Uncle Sam will not get his fingers or better yet both of his fists into this enterprise? I’ll bet the department of homeland security is spending oodles of our money on this already.
So what if it can be done. This is what I call abuse of technology.
Who really needs POBB ? (Personal orbiting burial box)
BTW, it is interesting to watch the ISS orbit overhead. As it gets expanded by modular additions, it gets easier to see. It is visible to the naked eye and appears as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk. Sighting time varies by location, you can get exact times for your city at http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/
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·"If you build it, they will come."
Post Edited (erco) : 9/25/2009 3:43:22 PM GMT
<blush>
Lots of people can be found bootlegging on the Navy Fleet SATCOM System.
With a hand held radio you can communicate many thousands of miles.. at least
until they catch you
Not a good idea to actually do that, but listening to others that are could be interesting.
groups.google.com/group/spectre_event_horizon_group/browse_thread/thread/3f5537eba3fde84f/7f153e7e2ffa15a8?lnk=raot
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"Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?"
Post Edited (HollyMinkowski) : 9/26/2009 1:41:38 AM GMT