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Build Your Own Linux-Based Satellite
An anonymous reader writes "For $10 million, SpaceDev is offering a Linux-based microsatellite that can be controlled over the internet using any laptop or desktop computer. The Modular Microsat Bus utilizes such things as plug and play USB, Ethernet, and other standards, while providing critical features such as power, maneuvering, and communication for you. Up to 40 kg of project space are at your disposal"
At that price I'll take two, they're small.
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Apparently you launch it by throwing it really, really hard.
These students got theirs into space for $120,000. Sure, that doesn't include "donated material, equipment and expertise", or the estimated $40,000 launch cost, but let's be optimistic and call it $250,000 all told. Well, get 50 people in and it's only $5000 each -- less than a good used car. Make it 500 people and you've got the cost down to less than a trip for two to Vegas. And for this I get to help send a satellite running Linux into space -- as close as I'm likely to come to making the trip myself.
I know that ham radio folks are already doing this sort of thing, but they've got their own goals. I admit, mine are a bit fuzzy beyond "put this L33+ satellite into space", but that's kind of appealing too. What could we cram on a picosatellite? What imaging can you do for cheap -- what resolution, what wavelengths? And of course, the question everyone wants answered: Can you host a webserver in space, and could it survive a Slashdotting?
I think something like this would be cool beyond measure. Who's in?
Carousel is a lie!
I hear that a Mr. Drax will be contacting them very soon.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
WooHoo! Now I can get my own death ray satellite!
World conquest, here I come!
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
I, for one, welcome our new linux-based things overhead.
It's amazing what they can do with SoC's these days, isn't it? The only part I don't understand is, how are they expecting that these sats going to fly? AFAIK, NASA stopped flying PongSats on the Space Shuttle after the Challenger incident. (aka, "The Get Away Special") Are they planning to pool these sats together to pay for a booster? Or do you have to get your own? Where is that $10 million going? (For the cost of a couple of these, I could buy a Delta II and send 100-200 desktop towers into space! And that would be assuming I used Car Batteries to power them!)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Orbiting brain lasers.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
And just in time for X-Mas too!
Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
...what kind of a name is SkuttleMonkey
Even on an oblique overhead pass, in low earth orbit maximum time in view is about 7 minutes. The article doesn't mention using a satellite relay network but of course... such things cost extra :)
-everphilski-
Unfortunately, because of its diminutive size, this satellite can only be put into orbit around a large city at best. For true Earth orbit, you need to spend real money.
Unknown host pong.
I think that the picosats are cool, but there is not a ton that you can do in such a small package. A small transponder, some radiation experiments, no reasonable optics will fit in that tight a package, and even if they did you would need to accomodate stabilizing gear.
/.ing, I think the sat would have no problem, due to the rather low speed of the anticipated link (no dish, just a whip antenna, so BW will bw lower). Whether the page will be viewable with a million geeks trying to share a 10kbps link, I dunno.
That said, they are great for universities, where the resulting knowledge gained is the goal and the useful science is almost gravy.
As to the
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
I can't wait for the first P2P provider to send their network into space.
eDonkey 2001: A Space Odyssey
seriously... immagine a cluster of satellites with wimax technology like the new panamsat..
multiple primary payloads...SpaceX Falcon I and Orbital Sciences Pegasus.
(from the f*cking article)
-everphilski-
Slap a web server on it and you've got "POOOORRN FROOOOOM SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!"
Obviously this isn't a normal geek toy, mostly because of the price tag, but what sort of nifty things could someone do with a satelite like this? I imagine that it's mainly geared toward University researchers, but that's just wild conjecture.
Also, why is it so special that the satelite runs linux?
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
With a long enough cable, I could recharge my iPod Shuffle from orbit.
But what would/could you do with it? I'd be very reluctant to upgrade the kernel or any such thing that would likely be required to install modules/drivers required to do something neat. Nothing would quite suck like having a 'kernel panic' on a $10,000,000 sitting up in orbit... not as if you can press reset to restart it.
Thats all very good, but will it run linux?. Umm, nevermind :)
...what kind of a name is SkuttleMonkey ... you do NOT want to know!
With Satellite, I can then research Composites or Fiber-Optics!!
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/techtree/
~jennifer.k~
It does not have to just be l337 becuase it's got nix on it, make it be your uplink to the newest versin of IP, the Interplanetary Protocol [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_inter net%5D
No, you got it wrong! If it's a space thing, AND it runs linux, what you must ask is:
Is it penguin-shaped?
This sounds almost as revolutionary as sun's grid-computing-for-hire scheme!
I'm sorry. The number you have reached is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.
Now we can being the slashdotting of space! We can put some radio equipment on it, and start bouncing posts off of it!
And when we get trolls, they can suck vacuum!
--LWM
Lol, ill keep that in mind
Imagine... Linux-based filesharing peers (each with gigs of cached bootleg material) floating kilometers overhead, far beyond the reach of the entertainment industry!
But can it direct an EMP onto the country of your choice?
//call me Plissken.
Who would pay $500 for a 0.2$ stake in a tiny satellite?
For a mere $10 million, SpaceDev is offering a state of the art Linux-based microsatellite that can be controlled over the internet using any laptop or desktop computer. The Modular Microsat Bus utilizes such things as plug and play USB, Ethernet, and other standards insert more buzzwords here , while providing critical features such as power, maneuvering, and communication for you boring, boring, boring - emphasize the fun you can have with it - spying on foreign countries, planning world domination, keeping an eye on that cute neigh^H^H^H^H^H^H . Up to 40 kg of project space are at your disposal!!!!
Ok guys and gals, is there anything we can do at Slashdot to pool togeather some money and have one built? I'm willing to donate up to $100. I would love to see everyone donate money to have a Slashdot Sat put into space along with the names of those who contribute. Also, I would love to have access to the Sat for shits and grins.
What can it be used for? does it matter? The fact I can access a Sat that can later be upgraded with software totally turns me on!
Life is not for the lazy.
In case you crash this satellite into the sun or it goes hurdling off into the nearest black hole, for the meager price of an additional $1 million, an uniterrupted signal will be beamed to your laptop for the duration of its expected lifespan. No more worrying about alien sabotage or space junk punching holes in your precious device, we have got it covered.
This way, you will never know that it has been destroyed, and you can still show off your $10 million toy to your jealous friends.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I wonder who's gonna plug something in the satellite once launched in space...
I hate all sigs, mine included.
'What are we going to do tonight, Brain?' 'Same thing we do every night, Pinky.'
bash-2.05a$ ls -al /dev/usb/satellite0 /dev/satellite
/dev/usb/satellite0
/dev/usb/satellite0 /mnt/launch_vehicle
/mnt/launch_vehicle /space/orbit
crw------- 1 root satellite 3, 0 Nov 07 2005
bash-2.05a$ file
/dev/usb/satellite0: character special SpaceDev MMB-100 microsat
bash-2.05a$ mount
bash-2.05a$ mv
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I only have to lose 27kg, and I could have the place to myself!
If we had to build one of these, get a really powerful wireless connection (something that would transmit from space) and hosted MP3's on it...no one would be able to bring it down...or maybe Bush could use this as an excuse to resurect the star wars program, this time funded by sony and all the other record companies, instead of the tax payers money, it might just get off the ground. Who said that mp3's wouldnt make the world a better place?
% telnet mud.mysat.org
Welcome to the MUD set up in outer space (literally!)...
Bill Gates will buy a few just to prove that Linux will eventually crash too!
Funny this should come up on slashdot... Just a week or two ago I had been looking at getting a pikosatellite kit (till I found out they cost ~ $6000) but in true slashdot fashion.. I thought.. Wouldnt it be cool to have a Beuwolf Cluster of these suckers in orbit...
40 kg ? How much is that in frikken lasers ?
Now all I need is a USB-compatible shark brain to pilot it...
2. Threaten to blow up planet (10 times)
3. Profit !
In Sagans book Contact he postulates it should be possible to get rich selling burial space in space, a YOUR ASHES IN ORBIT kind of thing, which would appeal to many of this time period, and is much more attainable to the mass. Space Burial. That same book also addresses electronic recognition as a weapon, and the delta 9 isomer within cannabinoids. Cool, was Carl. Smart too.
Light Happens.
There are too much joke potential with the idea of throwing out to space Windows computers also, but of course, nobody wants that a blue screen turns it into a red meteorite of death.
I'd better get the IP address and shut mine down before Gary Winston can get to it!
super villain! http://www.ubergeek.tv/article.php?pid=54 I can hardly wait!
Comsats are the big birds of the satellite world; they are power hungry and need huge solar arrays and a huge dish pointed with great accuracy at the surface. They also need something else - geosynchronous orbit. They need to be at a static location in the sky where they can point in one direction... These satellites are aimed at the scientific and possibly educational community, although they tend to do well enough leeching off of NASA. (not a rip, an observation, having been there and done that)
-everphilski-
Imagine a beowolf cluster of these!!
just had to add it.
Just imagine a Beowu-- oh, nevermind.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
Finally I can create a satellite with a giant "laser" and hold the world ransom for......ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
Great! If you could just bolt this 40kg ball of high-temp stainless steel to your comm/maneuvering package, we should be all set. Just let me know the sequence for deorbit; I'll take care of the targetting myself.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
You generally wouldn't upgrade the kernel on flight hardware unless there was a known bug that cropped up after launch. What you might want to upgrade after the fact is your flight code, and if that does go wrong there generally are watchdogs that detect a bad upload and flash from a known good firmware.
-everphilski-
I'm holding out for the heavyweight, high cost Monolithic Microsoft Macrosat.
Instead of seeing a blinking LED we'll see explosions in the sky! I can't wait for geeks to start slinging their own satellites up!
Who would pay $500 for a 0.2$ stake in a tiny satellite?
I'll give you a dollar if you throw your cell phone as high as you can.
music lover since 1969
Imagine 0wning a bot-net of death-ray satellites.
Oh wait, these don't run Wind-bloze. Nevermind.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
if someone participating in the project could get access to a coupla pounds of Pu to keep the penguin warm, they could probably build a Linux probe to Kuiper Belt, and beyond!
Satellites are totally played out.
The Modular Microsat Bus utilizes such things as plug and play USB, Ethernet, and other standards
Does the USB cable double as a space elevator when not in use?
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Am I the only person here that knows what he's talking about? Ratchet and Clank folks! >_>
It's never just a game when you're winning. - George Carlin
...they are offering the $10 million^H^H^H^H^H^H^H version.
Meh.
Indeed, the hams have been busy lately... see www.amsat.org for a look at what they've been up to lately. And speaking of webservers, PACSAT PBBS protocol is pretty much your garden variety BBS. Retro, but effective. You can hear FM Voice satellites like AO-51 on a garden variety Radio Shack scanner.
For $10 million, is the USB cable included? Or do I need to spend an extra $25 for the cable?
I wonder if it can power my handy USB noodle strainer in space!
Ahem... I'm waiting for my dollar.
I'm gonna go look for a new phone in the meantime.
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
I wonder if Havenco could figure out a way to operate on one (or more) of these, at least until the US Star Wars program deploys a working orbital laser weapon to knock it out (and at least then, we'd know!).
Could you imagine a Beowulf cluster.... IN SPACE!
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
I had actually started a project like this not too long ago. It consisted of 12 Mini-ITX boxes running NetBSD in a beowulf cluster with Pringle-can omni-directional wi-fi antennae launched with a giant slingshot. I called it SkyNet and it cost approximately 549 US dollars. Basically, it was designed to allow Microsoft track everyone who rejected authentication during Windows Update.
(insert diabolical laugh)
Seriously, 10 mil? Do they have layaway?
This doesn't scale very well.
$10M for 40kg? Now if I could get a 4g
payload under my control for $10k, or
a 400mg payload for $1k, I might
get excited.
Why should mr. Drax be interested... he got a spaceship factory.
...I do belive we are talking about the same mr. Drax... from Drax Industries in Moonraker ?
I've always thought that having root access on a satellite would be a path to geek nirvana. I mean - it's space, it's exotic - wow. The other job I think that would be great would be something involving computers that run nuclear facilities.
Believe with me, my saplings.
DFA1979 ROCKS! Thanks for reminding me. I shall listen to them now.
Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
I am a member of a team building a pico satellite at the University of California. The actual price for our entire project hovers around $50,000, of which 40k go to launch costs. This is the price tag for a Russian launch, I am sure the US would charge quite a bit more. The problem with these pico satellites is actually integrating a full fledged OS onto OTS parts. Data memory and program memory are in limited supply, along the lines of KB. We are using an Atmel CPU and are running AVR library from the http://www.avrfreaks.net/ website. The actual module we are writing is for the CPU scheduler. The interupt handler, bus protocols, etc are already written. Running this minimal amount of code is beneficial and doesnt overload the small amount of data memory we can utilize, so basically you can run less than a full on OS like linux and still get away with it.
"What imaging can you do for cheap -- what resolution, what wavelengths?"
The imaging comes down to the type of camera and it's power consumption. Image processing really loads the CPU and draws a lot of power, so compression algorithms are important. JPEG does the job fine, but is limited to around 320x res (in color) given our power constraints. The camera we are using is a CMOS imager, which works through the charging of capacitors relative to the intensity of incoming light. The wavelength of operation ultimately comes down to the FCC. They allocate you a bandwidth to use, most likely 2m or 440MHz. Other functions the satellite may serve is as a HAMsat, or a HAM radio repeater in space. You can tune you radio to the sat freq, and hit any place that the satellite covers with your signal. The preferred mode of operation is digital, so sat comm utilizes packet radio, which loosely resembles the TCP/IP stack. As far as a webserver goes, Im sure you could do it, but it would be limited to the length of one satellite path. Guess thats enough time for a 30 second pr0n clip...
but damn is it funny, every time i watch it.
m l
http://www.starterupsteve.com/swf/switchlinux3.ht
especially funny, in the context of this topic
Yes, but will it run lin.....wait a sec, will linux run it? I'm all confused here.
Ok, so now what? What kind of payload would one select? Being a "Micro" ... coverage? - Relay?
What do *I* need my own sat for? (seriously confused) (Not FLAMEBAIT just curious)
Dont we have enough junk floating around in orbit already?
-- I Dont Deserve A Sig I Have Bad Karma
If you can't play F.E.A.R. on it... I'm not interested in it.
MadOgre.com
I wonder if this trumps our Linux enabled kite business model?
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
With 3000ms+ ping times and $10m, it's the most expensive and the worse counter-strike server ever. But I bet the server would still be fully loaded if it was limited to only playing de_dust.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Hey that means I can finally blast my little brother into space...he weighs less than 40kilo!!!1
...yet another web server.
I for one would like to welcome our new orbiting overlords!
Arash
Arash Partow's Philosophy: Be a person who knows what they don't know, and not a person who doesn't know.
What laws will this satelite be bound to?
Lets for example say someone put up a webserver and put some seriously illegal stuff on it (childporn? nasty comments about george bush?).. Who gets to shoot it down?
It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
I want some frickin' lasers on mine.
I think this is a great idea for a datahaven. It would cost way more than $10 million to shoot it down, and it would be accessible from anywhere on almost 50% of the surface of the Earth, which would make it hard for a gov't to cut off access to it. If you stick it in geosynch just over the eastern Indian Ocean, you could call it SatelliteFreeChina(.int:).
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
When's launch time?
Carousel is a lie!
That much money and 40kg payload are hardly microsats in my book. A while ago there was an article on REALLY small satellites, 5kg or less costing $10,000 to be placed in low earth orbit.
I'd rather have a smaller satellite shot further high so it lasts years longer.
Is it possible to have your satellite bolted onto the ISS for a monthly fee? The ISS is frequently pushed back into orbit, so it doesnt fall down.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Oh man.. just imagine the lag you'd get on a $10 million computer.. I think I'll have to pass on this one...
Obama = Socialism.
Ah, suddenly Universal Serial Bus makes sense.
I think this is friggin' great. When you have a new device you want to plug into the USB port, you just... uh...
RP
As a stabilizing mechanism you can use magnetorquers. They are inductive coils implanted into the side panels of the satellite. The navigation system detects rotation and fires off the coils when neccessary to counteract the magnetic field of the earth and slow down the rotation long enough to take a picture. It is quite an intelligent solution as it takes up no internal payload space.
http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/AirshipFAQ
You can also land them via remote control, and fix anything that goes wrong with a
one man crew in a farmer's field if u wanted to .
NASA's altitude record for a ballon stands at 171,000 ft I believe .
In the Stratosphere there is no wind, so the balloon being blown around is not an issue .
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
When you are as space constrained as the pico sats, I have a feeling that anything would be a space hit. These sound interesting though, and are likely the only viable solution in this case.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Considering that a 1-week stay on the ISS is $20 million, what would you rather have? A semi-useless sattelite that you can play with or a personal trip to outer space for just twice the price?
If you could cram enough books in there and maybe put this on a polar orbit, you could have a public library people could download books from for anybody with recieving capability.
Think about it... it's a great end-run around China's Great Firewall. People in opressive regimes could read about forbidden subjects without the state knowing easily. Use a highly directional antenna for the ground station and stash it in a shed.
Forget that whip! What I really want to see is a pico satellite and a pringles can strapped on to it.
:)
I'm sure that could bring down the costs a little bit
Didn't you watch the ending ? He lost all his spaceships.
If $10 million can buy you 40kg of cocaine, $250k will not buy you 1kg, for much the same reason.
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
Apart from the obvious "how do you press the on/off/reset button" and "how do you remove CD 1 and insert CD 2"....
How the heck can you read a logfile with all those timezone changes?
I know a lot of people here *hate* anime and anyone who likes it, but...
Has anyone seen Battle Programmer Shirase? There was an episode where this super retardedly awesome programmer (Shirase, the main character) hacks three neglected satellites and crashes them in a line to target a boat. The first in line acted as a primary heat shield for the second two and evaporated pretty quick, the second did the same for the last, and the last plowed right into the boat in a big explosion.
I think we could do quite a bit with a pico.
First thing that popped into my head was fitting these things with small lenses (or a good short FL Zeiss lens) and cheap CCD astroimagers.
1. Wide to Telephoto CPU based camera lens (18-70mm).
2. Electronic shutter for lens system protection.
2. Cheap CCD astroimager (think Meade or something).
3. Micro gyro. (for orientation)
4. Micro board with embedded OS and controllers. (Flash drive for storage).
5. Low power transciever.
6. Small array of solar cells for power.
7. Small rechargeable Li+ batteries for power storage.
The computer board controlls the camera lens. The CCD is fixed in place.
Most of the housing would be comprised out of a aluminum (heat disspation) and durable thermo-plastic. The solar cells would charge the batteries and power the main system.
Focusing would be handled by algorthims on board.
The CCD imager would most likely be in the 640x480 size range. A 12-bit raw compressed losslessly would give around 690 KB. At 10 Kb/s and a 7 minute window, you could get about 1 image per pass. With HQ JPEG compression, images would probably be 70 KB, so each pass would give you ten images.
Sure 70mm isn't a lot of aperature, but couple this with no visual obstructions (atmosphere), no vibrational problems (wind, ground vibration), and having five of these things at different points around the planet, you've got a pretty good astroscope. It isn't the hubble, but it's not bad for 1/10000 the cost.
~X~
~X~
To me I think the ultimate would be to have private space probes that could go beyond the earth and the moon. Imagine hundreds of misc. probes going out in every different direction, some to Mars, some to Venus, some to the Asteroid belt. I don't think something like that could be privatized, but I think it would be a good idea to create a kind of VW Bug, a standard platform, for space probes. Maybe you could upgrade the computer core as the technology evolves, but standardize on the rest of it, the propulsion, the solar panels, the antennae. Once you can standardize the platform you can make a bunch of them and just launch them constantly. If one breaks down, the next one will take its place. Of course, the problem then becomes one of maintaining the deep space network so you don't have more communications to do with probes than you have available time on earth. That's where you might be able to set up a relay network so that the chain of probes act more as one unit.
Then I will photograph air force bases and rule the world. Muhahahahahahahahahahaha.
A man chooses, a slave obeys - Andrew Ryan.
LAN Gamers can now really destroy things in space. . .