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Make Your Own Sputnik

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-you-can dept.

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.

11 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. How about going Old School? by fataugie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wouldn't it be cooler to build it with authentic to the era parts and pieces? It would be like a scavenger hunt meets science class. Sadly, it's beyond me and my capabilites.

    I do have a line on a bunch of old vaccum tubes that have been in storage for years....

    --

    WTF? Over?

  2. Besides imagining a beowulf cluster of those... by jayminer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...is there really any possibility to launch it to the orbit from my backyard?

    Can I do it with, say, $10,000 and without getting caught?

    1. Re:Besides imagining a beowulf cluster of those... by Robonaut · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How many people would seriously want to do this, say launch something ~100cm^3 & 100 grams for ~10K? If 10 people/groups would sign up, not only would they get their stuff in space, but they could help out a university team doing some of the heavy lifting Comments? Suggestions? Reservations?

  3. Getting into Orbit... by Decius6i5 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...may be expensive but if you can fit the electronics inside of a ping pong ball you can at least get it close for free.

  4. I want to do this... by Upaut · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And have it play "Orange Crush" by REM... It would drive the RIAA totally insane if there is a pirate signal from space they can't find to take down... Heck, some solar panels expanding from the altoids tin, and an ipod shuffle, it could really be an achievment...

    --
    3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
  5. Entirely feasible by wsanders · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Entirely feasible, the Sputnik was basically a low power (QRP) transmitter. AFAIK it had no other payload. Ham radio operators have been making these for years:

    http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/qrpprojs.html

    It did beep faster/slower as temperatures rose/fell, I think, which you could basically implement using normal temperature variations in off the shelf resistors and capacitors.

    --
    Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
    1. Re:Entirely feasible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Exactly! It could contain a simple QRPp transmitter on the high HF bands or VHF/UHF. And with a PIC, you could have all sorts of fun. Add in some sensors to monitor temperature, battery voltage, etc.. You could transmit them all back to Earth using CW. And it could definitely be done for under $100. Not that it would last very long up there, but hey, for under 50 quid nothing is going to last long in space. lol

    2. Re:Entirely feasible by wsanders · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, if you have a 50 quid budget, that's like 500 US dollars, so just put a GPS and camera in it, and voila, you can become part of the growing and popular hobby of sending your payload into space on a baloon:

      http://www.qsl.net/w5sjz/ntxballoonproject.htm
      http://www.jpaerospace.com/

      Plus hundreds of other links . . .

      --
      Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
  6. On getting it into space... by Isao · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you work with Amsat you can have your work shot into orbit. There are about 18 currently in operation, with launches starting in the 60's. Amsat is an international organization.

    1. Re:On getting it into space... by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The very first non-government satellite was AMSAT's own OSCAR-1.

      The very first secondary payload was OSCAR-1. When other people thought they might be able to hitch a ride in to orbit the way AMSAT did, the Authorities suggested they look at how AMSAT did it.

      The free rides in to orbit aren't as plentiful as they once were, but are based on one of two things: either stuff little satellites in to areas of the launch vehicle where "real" satellites won't fit, or take advantage of launch vehicles having excess capacity, since it's easier to build a really big rocket and launch a few tonnes of sand in to orbit along with your satellite than to have to reengineer your rockets every couple of years as satellites get bigger.

      The launch system manuals are all available on line and make interesting reading - lobbing a satellite in to orbit is not trivial. You can read about little ones like Pegasus or great big ones like Ariane 5.

      There are also people who make payloads that look and behave like satellites, but send them up on balloons instead.

      ...laura

  7. Re:Didn't we find out... by John+Meacham · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, there was another important scientific discovery that sputnik allowed. It was designed to transmit on two different frequencies, 20MHz and 40MHz. Since different radio frequencies are affected differently by the ionosphere, it was possible to observe things about the ionosphere that wern't possible before such as its electron density.

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    http://notanumber.net/