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N-Prize Founder Paul Dear Talks Prizes For Nanosat Race

Posted by timothy on from the cheap-and-quick-buy-the-deed-to-some-space-junk dept.

Rob Goldsmith writes to point out this interview with Dr. Paul Dear, founder of the N-Prize, and explains: "For those of you who haven yet heard of the N-Prize, the N-Prize is a £9,999.99 (sterling) cash prize which can be claimed by any individual, or group, who are able to prove that they have put into orbit a small satellite. The satellite must weigh between 9.99 and 19.99 grams, and must orbit the Earth at least 9 times. This project must be done within a budget of £999.99 (sterling)."

5 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Get into orbit for a grand? by Tim+C · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if bribing someone at NASA or ESA to include your mini-satellite as part of the payload of the next launch would be acceptable; it's probably the most realistic chance...

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  2. A rocket scientist asks... by starglider29a · · Score: 4, Interesting

    WHY!?

    Is this some prototype for a global diamond delivery system? Serious, apprise me of the value of putting less than an ounce of something into orbit. And it's the "orbit" part that's tricky. A sufficiently large model rocket can do Alan Shepard-esque sub orbital flight. But to then pop it into orbit with a "circularizing burn" is tricky... on a budget.

    I'm trying to not be a troll here, but this prize is designed to develop a $2K ICBM for very tiny payloads. If you put VX gas into something that might survive reentry, you'd have the plot for an Austin Powers movie. I'd call it "MoonShagger: It's a gas gas gas."

    1. Re:A rocket scientist asks... by Eponymous+Bastard · · Score: 3, Interesting

      FACT: there is absolutely no sensor or computer technology in the world that weighs a under and ounce and never ever will be! Yeah. Sputnik weighted 83.6Kg

      You need to get an antenna and transmitter powerful enough to be trackedfrom earth an weighting 20 grams. Or put up some sort of light radar reflecting sail (only has to orbit 9 times on LEO and burn up, doesn't say it has to do anything useful).

      I wonder if the tracking side is included in the budget or if you can borrow some really big antenna to try to detect the junk you put up.
    2. Re:A rocket scientist asks... by WhiplashII · · Score: 3, Interesting

      For the curious, the "throw" of a rocket is determined by the following equation:

      delta-V = 9.8 * Isp * ln (Mass1 / Mass2)

      Where delta-v is the change in velocity required (8-10 km/s for orbit), mass1 is the lift off mass, mass2 is the on orbit mass, and Isp is the specific impulse which is a parameter of engine design primarily effected by propellant choice. Isp varies between 100 and 450 seconds - the SSME is 450 seconds, an estes model rocket gets 100 or so seconds.

      So the above example is a back of the envelope calculation for a conceptual rocket - mass1 is 10 kg, mass2 is 0.5 kg, Isp is 280 s. This gives you a delta v of 8.2 km/s, which is enough to reasonably be expected make orbit (assuming that orbit is possible at all, of course - I mean the basic engineering premise is a bit of a stretch, but the physics works).

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  3. Brilliant meme! by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What a brilliant marketing meme: with just one borderline-ludicrous sentence, he managed to get many thousands of people talking, got his name in the news, launched a website, and promoted the website creation company, all at practically no cost, backed up (should someone ever achieve the borderline-ludicrous challenge) by a home-equity loan. The publicity-to-signal ratio is huge, at miniscule cost.

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