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Make Your Own Sputnik
An anonymous reader writes "What better way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sputnik than by making one of your own. The BBC says that you can build your own Sputnik satellite from stuff lying around the house. The BBC quotes an electronics hobbyist: "Technology now is way ahead of what was available in 1957, and making your own fully functional Sputnik would now be very simple indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if you could build one in a container smaller than a matchbox, weighing about as much as a wristwatch. The components, including a transmitter, battery and the sensors you'd need would probably cost less than 50 pounds [about 100 US dollars]. It really shouldn't be a problem to build and program the whole thing in under a day." Unfortunately, the BBC article doesn't go into technical details." And of course, actually getting it up into orbit might take a little more work.
...back in the last Sputnik story that the entire idea of a real science probe was pretty much scrapped due to time pressure, and that they launched pretty much only a radio transmitter? Building that primitive beacon wasn't the impressive thing at all, putting it into orbit was.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Perhaps they should be encouraging someone to create a powerful electro-magnet satellite sweeper to surf the orbital zone and "pick up" the junk that is whistling around out there, rather than encouraging Joe Average to add his own litter to the fray.
DISCLAIMER:
No, I have not thought this through.
But, it would be interesting to see -something- done about the problem before the garbage makes extra-terrestrial travel even more dangerous than it already is...
(rolls eyes)
Anybody with a public school education can outclass Werner Von Braun or Sergei Korolev with chewing gum and duct tape!
Please.
Good luck getting the fan to do any "cooling" in space. And with today's instrumentation efficiency, there's probably not a whole lotta need to worry about cooling.. I'd be more worried about keeping things heated above -40 deg C to maintain operating temperature.
The article is not remotely about building a sputnik, but it is about how technology in sputnik served similar purposes to things used in the home. Using a baby monitor as a transmitter? a domestic thermostat? a balloon? a mercury thermometer? "4x large batteries"? come on. This sounds like the losing science fair project of a seven year old.
~Phil
"And of course, actually getting it up into orbit might take a little more work. "
Actually, it is probably a crime in most jurisdictions.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
You might, given the fact that you only need to carry a "matchbox" into a low orbit. But it will still be a hell of a job and lots of trail and error. The bigger problem you will have is that you will have to do it without hitting anything (civilian jets, satellite's, etc), as it might set you back a few hundred million dollars if you manage to do so.
It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
> And of course, actually getting it up into orbit might take a little more work.
:)
I'd be careful about saying that. While nerds may be in a minority everywhere they are found, in aggregate they are still a numerous and clever breed prone to accepting challenges like that. DJGPP came about because Stallman said it wasn't possible to run gcc under DOS. The thought of hundreds of thousands of sputniks in low earth orbit is scarey.