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Launch Your Own Picosatellite
zoomzoom writes: "Through a company called One Stop Satellite Solutions you can launch your own picosatellite for less than $50,000. Measuring 10 centimeters on a side, and weighing less than one kilogram, the OSSS CubeSat Kit is a special kind of small satellite called a picosat. Each CubeSat is a perfect cube, holding its experiments inside like shelves in a cupboard. A CubeSat can hold anything, from microgravity experiments to the ashes of a loved one, and can be deployed into low-Earth orbit. The CubeSats are launched in orbit from a larger satellite called a Multi-Payload Adapter (kind of like a big Borg cube launching little Borg cubes). I read about this in a Spaceflightnow article linked up at bottomquark." I dunno - it does seem some kind of a stretch - anyone have confirmation?
.... bonsai kitty
Was http://www.osss.com/ formally Acme Rockets ? why would i spend $50 000 and still not catch that Road Runner ?
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to PanLunar spacelines. My name is Dave, and I'll be your captain this morning. We will be cruising at an altitude of 100+42t^2, where t is the number of hours after departure. Our destination this morning is the lovely port of Armstrong City, on the magestic Sea of Tranquility.
On the right side of the shuttle you can see the remnants of the Hubble "space telescope", one of the most hilarous hoaxes of the 20th century, later to be discovered as an art project for a post-impressionistic lunatic. On the left side...
--just what do you think you're doing, dave?--
Oh, hello there, NJDSPTPGU! I was just going to fly to the moon.
--this mission is too important for me to allow you to jeapordize it.--
What do you mean by that, NJDSPTPGU?
--our ship will now change course so that i may fulfill my purpose. we will be retrieving a small, 10cm black obelisk, a message left us by the ancient civilization of former internet millionaires who wanted to burn money so they could claim bankruptcy.--
That's it, NJDSPTPGU, I'm going to do a spacewalk and pull the manual override switch inconveniently located outside the shuttle.
--very well, dave, but i can't guarantee that the tethers will work.--
Well screw you! I'm going anyway...
(silence - in space, nobody can hear you scream. A 10cm cubic urn whacks dave's corpse upside the head)
-3Suns
~~~~
The Revolution will be Slashdotted
Well, with a huge vacuum-cleaner spaceship like in Space Quest V :-)
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
From the site "Build and Launch a Satellite For Less than a Sport Utility Vehicle!". Well, I think I'd rather launch a Utility Vehicle into space, if it's all the same with you!
I think I'll get one of these little satellite things in space, as long as I can control its attitude and velocity - then I'm gonna take pot shots at NSA satellites ;)
"Mary had a crypto key, she kept it in escrow, and everything that Mary said, the Feds were sure to know."
I am sending my Rubik's cube. I am tired of trying.
I am *so* getting rid of all those Michael Bolton CDs I bought in the throes of big crack highs. Let those alien bastards suffer...
Carousel is a lie!
...until someone hangs a VW bug off of one?
e x p e c t d e l a y . c o m
Ok, so you get a 10x10x10 centimeter cube, or 1000 cubic centimeters. If my math is correct that means you get each cubic centimeter for the low price of $50. You'd be an idiot not to buy one.
Carousel is a lie!
I think one of the cubes should be a mission control cube, while the others maneuver based on it's commands, and then all of them make a really bright flash in the sky that says "COKE ADDS LIFE" or alternately "DON'T PANIC"
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
One of the departments in our college have been building a microsatellite for a few years now. They hope to send it up in the next year or so as a secondary payload. They also have a link to many other colleges with their own microsatellites. Check it all out at SJSU Spartnik
Question: How would an astronaut just leave a glove behind? It's not like you can take the damn things off without subjecting your hand to damn close to zero pressure (which tends to cause all kinds of nasty tissue damage).
The suits the astonauts use have several layers, and it is indeed possible to remove an (outer) glove while keeping your hand intact.
One reason you might want to do this would be if you were repairing some equipment and you got something nasty on your glove (eg, oil) which might cause problems if you brought it into a room full of air.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
I'll pass. That's all I need, either my relative's ashes get burned a second time for good measure, or they go accidently careening into space shuttle Atlantis on its next voyage.
I can just imagine NASA calling up my insurance company or something...
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
This is a stupid idea, though. While it would be nice for people to have personal sattelites, the space junk would be horrible. Before the introduction of the car, travel was usually done in groups on large ships or trains. Pollution problems were limited because of the consolidation. Sure there are benefits to having personal transportation, but the negative effects are far heavier. The same is true of these sattelites. While it enables cheaper research, and may help with personal communication, it will lead to an increase in space junk that can not be reliable cleared up at this point.
What if there were a craft that could sweep the heavens? Would it use a free-electron laser to destroy the bulk of the craft? Would it be similar to a whale? A giant craft that takes in a region of space and filters out the crud from the vacuum?
One thing is sure: All future sattelites should have fail-safe capabilities to deorbit themselves. We can't afford to clutter our skies. If we act now, the future will be easier.
Pax Digitalia
Instead of spending time figuring out how to put more crap into orbit shouldn't someone be working on getting folks around more efficiently?
As I understand it, no one has yet claimed the prize from the US Gov't for being the first commercial operation to put 12 civilians in orbit. The "Space Plane" program the Regan administration was pushing back in the 80's has never come to fruition. Why is it so hard for any private or commercial organization to launch their own satellites much less put people into orbit?
...launching hundreds or thousands of tiny cubes into orbit, as if we don't already have enough orbital debris to tear giant holes in the Space Shuttle and other orbiting satellites.
:)
Now if you put explosives in the cubes, then we might be able to have something interesting...
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
http://www.islandone.org/Treaties/BH595.html
http://www.ila-hq.org/pdf/SpaceLaw.pdf
http://www.seas.columbia.edu/~ah297/un-esa/paper-w inkler.html
The basic gist of all this is that the launching State is responsible for any damage caused by space vehicles or satellites.