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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.

6 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?

  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 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?"