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Students Design A Satellite Via Internet
Roland Piquepaille writes "A group of 250 students from many European universities has collectively designed a satellite by using a dedicated news server and weekly chats on Internet. By using the Web, the virtual team was able to move from design to construction in less than a year. The SSETI Express is currently under integration in one of the technology centers of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Netherlands. Only a few selected members of the team will attend the launch which will be part of the Russian mission Cosmos DMC-3 in May 2005. The SSETI Express will embark three mini 'cubesats' for specific experiments while the main satellite will test a propulsion system and act as a transponder for amateur radio users. I sure hope that this collaborative action will be successful. Read this summary for more details."
Great. But will it work properly?
Inquiring governments want to know.
Roland Piquepaille ? Isn't that the guy who posts summaries to drive traffic up to his website?
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
.. a borg cube! it even has mini-cube satellites that make me think of decentralized systems (i know it's not, but that's what it makes me think of)
----
i do not use drugs, i AM drugs -- Dali
The first satellite has been automatically generated by the Internet. Pretty soon, the skies will be filled with satellites offering penis enlargement, Nigerian scams, and hot stock tips.
This is very impressive. The level of detail required on such a complex project is often daunting. To acheive a design with team members so far flung is nothing short of incredibe. I am not entirely sure what to make of it. It's a little like Linus' idea of "many eyeballs". Except in this case its not finding bugs its bulding satellites.
Imagine an extention of this work being used to solve problems and develop workarounds for breakage on the ISS or (dare I say it....) Mars.
This is really very cool.
with the collective thinking power of slashdot, I'm sure we could achieve something equivalent, or better.
imagine a large, spherical grey satellite...
any post made by the trolls against this satellite would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they have obtained. This satellite would be the ultimate power in LEO!
trolls: That's no communications satellite. It's a slashdotting station!
Students Design a Satellite via Internet
A group of 250 students from many European universities has collectively designed a satellite by using a dedicated news server and weekly chats on Internet. By using the Web, the virtual team was able to move from design to construction in less than a year. The SSETI Express is currently under integration in one of the technology centers of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Netherlands. Only a few selected members of the team will attend the launch which will be part of the Russian mission Cosmos DMC-3 in May 2005. The SSETI Express will embark three mini 'cubesats' for specific experiments while the main satellite will test a propulsion system and act as a transponder for amateur radio users. I sure hope that this collaborative action will be successful. Read more...
Here is what ESA says about this collective work over Internet.
Scattered in universities across Europe, a 250-strong team of students have never collectively met in person, but between them they have built a space-ready satellite.
Collaboration between the pan-European network of students, universities and experts involved in the Student Space Education and Technology Initiative (SSETI) has been carried out via the internet.
Now that the completed subsystems are being delivered to ESA's European Space Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, remote participants from Italy to Denmark are eagerly following the integration process through daily photo updates, the integration logbook, and even a webcam.
What is the mission of this satellite?
Like a Russian doll, SSETI Express will carry inside it three smaller 'cubesats' -- 10-centimetre cube technology testers built respectively by universities in Germany, Japan and Norway -- for deployment when in orbit. The main SSETI Express satellite itself will test and characterise a propulsion system, return images of the Earth and serve as a transponder for amateur radio users.
The future SSETI Express satellite Here is a drawing of the future SSETI Express satellite. (Credit: ESA) It measures only 60 by 60 by 70 centimeters and is part of the Russian mission Cosmos DMC-3. If everything goes fine, it will be launched in May 2005.
The SSETI team is already working on another satellite, the European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO). This one will be more complex than Express, weigh 100 kilograms, and it will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket in 2007.
Besides these two satellites, the ESA looks at the future.
Coordination between groups is carried out using a dedicated news server and weekly Internet Relay Chats (IRCs) as well as the SSETI website. Face-to-face meetings are the exception rather than the rule, with group representatives meeting every six months for a workshop at ESTEC.
Beyond Express and ESEO, SSETI has hopes of becoming a fully-fledged facilitation network for all student space activity, with members carrying out detailed feasibility studies for a European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) a European Student Moon Rover (ESMR) and even an orbiter for Mars.
And here is the conclusion of Philippe Willekens of the ESA Education Department.
"This unique opportunity for students is also a unique opportunity for ESA to see how the young generation is working through a wide internet-distributed system, with little resources, but great enthusiasm and energy."
Good luck to all!
Source: European Space Agency news release, October 19, 2004
this could be used by terrorists to spy on God-fearing American citizens. Ban it! Ban it, I say!
Aha, an other HAM satellite! Don't forget HAMs will be able to recieve data from Mars if this mission succeeds. (ok, at 5 baud or so, but an interesting project nonetheless, and a reason for me to get a license.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
it seems like more and more people are taking things into their own hands, bypassing the government agencies' bureaucratic process that goes for ages..
:p
we've seen the SpaceShipOne made it, and now a 'brute force' construction of a satellite.. this only leads to the question: what's next?? LEZ DO DIS!
-A simple hydrogen-powered car model that's ready to be mass produced? (instead of stuck being a prototype)
-better next-gen ASIMOs?
-advanced propulsion technology?
-human habitat for mars?
sheez, when I thnk about how people can combine their power and time to bruteforce-building something.. almost nothing is impossible
as for me, im still working on my warp machine
Attention Slashdotters: Join the fight against Roland by mirroring his content and not clicking through.
Roland "writes":
Students Design a Satellite via Internet
A group of 250 students from many European universities has collectively designed a satellite by using a dedicated news server and weekly chats on Internet. By using the Web, the virtual team was able to move from design to construction in less than a year. The SSETI Express is currently under integration in one of the technology centers of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Netherlands. Only a few selected members of the team will attend the launch which will be part of the Russian mission Cosmos DMC-3 in May 2005. The SSETI Express will embark three mini 'cubesats' for specific experiments whilethe main satellitewill test a propulsion system and act as a transponder for amateur radio users. I sure hope that this collaborative action will be successful. Read more...
Here is what ESA says about this collective work over Internet.
What is the mission of this satellite?
Here is a drawing of the future SSETI Express satellite. (Credit: ESA) It measures only 60 by 60 by 70 centimeters and is part of the Russian mission Cosmos DMC-3. If everything goes fine, it will be launched in May 2005.The SSETI team is already working on another satellite, the European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO). This one will be more complex than Express, weigh 100 kilograms, and it will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket in 2007.
Besides these two satellites, the ESA looks at the future.
And here is the conclusion of Philippe Willekens of the ESA Education Department.
Good luck to all!
Source: European Space Agency news release, October 19, 2004
I read an article recently (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~24 79286,00.html) that NASA can't get rid of Lockheed despite the cockups with Genesis, Mars Climate observer and Mars Polar Observer because Lockheed has too many of the people with experience. The only way to avoid this is to get more people in the loop.
NASA has a program where high schoolers can put together an experiment to be run in the pressurized portion of the shuttle, which is great, but doesn't compare to the fact that there are now three colleges that have experience building orbital devices and an untold number of individuals who were involved in the collaboration. If the ESA keeps this up we might see several european aerospace companies form in the next decade.
Look out Lockheed.
I've been on slashdot so long I'm starting to get out of touch with the cool stuff if it ain't on slashdot.
In a more "everyday" application, Martha Stewart is using the same collaboration techniques to connect 118 prisoners from 13 women's prisons to perfect her recipe for beef stroganoff...
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Last I checked, "the web" didn't include NNTP. Surely Slashdot is above the uneducated synonymity between the internet and "the Web."
Jeremy
Looking for a Python IRC bot?
I'm particularly excited about the success of this project because it ties into a project that I've been researching for a few weeks now but thought was impossible. Basically, it's using temporary subdermal GPS technology coupled with sats to enable the easy location and rescue of those who go missing in a hot zone (with my current focus being on Iraq/Afghanistan). Until today when I read this article, I was convinced that this would never see the light of day because -- even though I understood what needed to be done and could probably assemble a good group of people to do it -- I would run into government hurdle after government hurdle and the costs would simply be too high to do it privately. After reading this story though, I realize that isn't true and am quite excited about seriously pursuing this project! Now, to recruit, research, build and deploy.
I know there are people here who poo-poo this as something "already" done by the ham folks. But I believe that there is something substantially different about this success. On one hand, I think that we're going to see a lot of positives come from this. On the other hand I think there will be some negatives as governments start to realize that they no longer hold the monopoly on "gee-whiz" technology simply because they employ top scientists. They will be forced to sit up and take notice of private projects now and that could be a double edged sword. I suppose we'll have to wait and see.
Anthony Papillion
Advanced Data Concepts, Inc.
"Quality Custom Software and IT Services"