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European Students to Put Microsatellite Into Orbit
Astervitude writes "A Frankenstein's microsatellite made out of parts "donated" by university students across Europe will be launched on September 30 atop a Russian booster. Space.com reports that more than 400 students "spread across 23 universities and 12 countries" spent 18 months designing and building the SSETI Express. While its acronym sounds suspiciously similar to that of a project that seeks to uncover signs of intelligent life beyond Earth, the SSETI or Student Space Exploration Technology Initiative mission is actually part of an effort by the European Space Agency "to boost student interest in space technology and offer some hands-on experience." The satellite itself weighs a mere 136 pounds and is the "size of a small washing machine", as shown in this ESA photo. Visitors to the mission site may want to check out the contest page for ham radio operators to help collect data from the satellite."
Have kids grown out of the idea of becoming astronauts?
I wish my school had a program like that, the closest we ever got to something like that was seeing who build the tallest free standing structure from a sheet of A4 Paper.
SonicNonsense.com - Random stuff from a bunch of random people.
I do not really consider a satellite the size of a washing machine micro. Maybe it should be called mini satellite, so we can make the step to micro a bit later, once it is for example big tower PC sized, so we don't have to step to nano satellites to fast to describe satellites the size of a basketball.
Then again, following Jobs naming scheme: Nano follows on mini.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
launched on September 30 atop a Russian booster
Launching on a Russian Rocket & Booster is so cheap that its one of the best kept secrets... Now that these students have found out that Launching isn't that hard compared to building a Satellite, Serious fun is about to begin...
Let the mass migration of Hackers to hacking and building Satellites begin!
Of course when you buy expensive American sneakers they still are produced in sweatshops, but there is just a clever American businessman that puts the extra money you pay into his pocket.
I really hate to sound like a party pooper, but can we save space for those doing actual science? Space junk is prevalent enough, and competition for orbit space tight enough without adding more useless stuff to the mix. I mean, the most scientific items in the list of tasks are:
-A camera with a 100m per pixel resolution (ridiculously low res, plenty of other picture taking sats available).
-A Cubesat that will track boats around the Norwegian coastline, and one reindeer (just one reindeer? And can't we track boats with other means?)
- A Cubesat testing new communications protocols (why can't this be done terrestrially or with equipment on the ISS?).
- Another Cubesat that takes pictures and tests some gear (send it to the ISS).
So, we've got 4 satellites up there, doing tasks which we can do via other means, wasting space. Why not send the equipment to the ISS? We did put it up there for a reason, didn't we?
Would you buy gasoline knowing it comes from oil rigs built by slaves of the Saddam's regime?
Think this way: Now they are free, but poor. They get a less-than-fair (but always, some) share of the cash in form of pensions, social support etc. Now in the name of shunning the relics of the regime you can let them starve and let all their hard work go to waste, or get the sats to fly, give these people some well-deserved money and understand, the tech as such is not evil nor guilty, and now as the regime is gone, there's no real reason not to use it.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
I would not call Europe communist in general. Granted, we *are* more to the left - way more - than the US. But the fundamental difference is that we *do* have ownership rights, can start private companies, and there is a free market.
However, we do have more things that are deemed to be the responsibility of the society. Things like education. Things like health service. Things that everyone generally need.
I think this is a good thing. It (tries to) give everyone equal opportunity, regardless if they come from a rich or a poor family. Of course, it's not absolute, there are still private health service, there's private schools. But the general idea is that there are some fundamental rights people have, that the government should provide.
Other than that, I (as a european) does not feel particularily that I live in a communist country.
But for a country where everything is so much skewed to the right as in US, I guess that everything else is communist...
And that comment is typically of your insecurity. :-) A. It is countering a post that, goddess forbid, suggests that the US is not best at everything. And B. it's completely factually wrong.
Even one hundred years ago scientists were collaborating internationally, or at least thinking a long the same lines. An awful lot was driven by UK/US collaboration during WW2.
If I look at my desk at the gadgets I would think that Northern Europe and Japan was fuelling the current technological age. On it there is a Scandinavian cell phone (SonyEricsson), Japanese monitors (Iiyama), a swiss watch (Tag Heuer), a japanese PDA (Sharp Zaurus - which has a British processor - ARM), a couple of British digital settop boxes (Pace - well mine actually) running an open source operating system (Linux) first developed by a scandinavian (Linus Torsvald) with a Welsh man as his right hand man. I'm listening to German goth (ASP) on my German headphones (Sennheiser). When I drive home it will be in my Scandinavian car (Volvo). I will cook this evenings meal on my German hob, watch TV on a French TV (Thomson) receiving signals from my British Satellite system (Pace/Sky) I will may be vacuum my room with my British designer vacuum cleaner (Dyson).
The *only* American technology I own are my Apple and SGI computers and the wonderful design from Apple is thanks to a British designer.
Please don't assume that all Americans are raving right wing nut cases. Nearly 50% of us aren't.
Pissing contest!
Damn near every usefull technological advance in the last 100 years has come from the US.
Last 100 years? You mean other than the first cloned mammal, microwave ovens, pennicillin, radar, television, the world wide web, mobile phones, xylitol, polyester, bakelite, modern rockets, the diesel engine, the electric car, aspirin, radio communication, the jacuzzi, velcro, cellophane, the helicopter, nuclear fission, relativity theory?
In addition, let's not forget that many American inventions were made by European scientists, educated in Europe, fleeing world wars (nuclear bomb and reactor) & that Europeans invented most relevant stuff in the decades before 1895 (from combustion engine and battery to light bulb, refridgerator, and vacuum cleaner). Then there are of course the many things disputed because they were invented in multiple places, or people disagree about the first 'modern' X (like the car, computer, 'modern' light bulb, 'modern' radio, etc).