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CubeSats Spurring Satellite Revolution
kkleiner writes "Thanks to the miniaturization of electronics, small CubeSat satellites have quickly become the standard for orbital Earth monitoring. Their modular design and lower cost makes them accessible to many, from university researchers to backers of crowdfunding campaigns. This year, the number of CubeSats launched will at least double the number in orbit to date."
Great, just what we need, even more ... Damnit. First post AC beat me to it! But I had time to skim TFA and didn't see a reference to de-orbiting them.
The popularity of cubesats has caused a great increase in "space junk," which increases the threat to satellites which support critical infrastructure.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Great, just what we need, even more ... Damnit. First post AC beat me to it! But I had time to skim TFA and didn't see a reference to de-orbiting them.
They're in low-earth orbit. It's not an issue, because they deorbit naturally.
If they charged a "redemption fee" for each cubesat - similar to what many states do with aluminium cans - you could have homeless people clean up the mess.
Looks like this format of satellite is finding a good few uses http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/06/startup-skybox/ aswell as smallish satellites from Guildford University UK http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ssc/activity/phd_projects/small_satellite_sar.htm.
Alas, depending on the construction material, LEO can still be hazardous.
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...okay, I don't actually know if that was LEO or not. But, de-orbiting. Pretend I said "de-orbiting can still be hazardous."
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It's the Borg. For midgets.
Have gnu, will travel.
That's only a single, specific, example. The CubeSat design specification allows an orbital decay lifetime, after the end of mission, of up to 25 years.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
because they deorbit naturally.
Otherwise known as the "Duck and Cover" de-orbiting method.
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There's a perfect sound track for this: "Space Junk", by DEVO
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
Perhaps, but on the other hand it's problematic for the space telescopes when someone tries to clean the optics with a spray bottle and a fistful of newspaper.
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LEO can still be hazardous.
Something that small can't, at least after it reaches the atmosphere. These things are, if I read right, about the size of a Rubic Cube. Skylab was just a little bigger. They'll vaporize instantly.
+1 funny, though, and that was a great link.
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I know. :) But I had to work it in somewhere!
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I really think we should, instead, be building a small number of super-satellites to stop the proliferation of space junk around the Earth. There could be other advantageous as well, such as shared energy and infrastructural components.
The risks of too many eggs in too few baskets would entail higher risks. I think making these manned space stations would, therefore make sense.
Matthew
I somehow managed to read that as 'ClueBats Spurring Satellite Revolution', which depending on the revolution could have been better news than the real article.
You do realize that the Earth gets hit every day by stuff that would destroy your car's paint job (and perhaps the garage it was in) - if there wasn't something in the way.
To reach Earth's surface, a vehicle would have to dissipate several tens of millions of joules of energy per kilogram of the vehicle. And it will, by heating up the atmosphere and vaporizing the vehicle. If the cubesat isn't designed for reentry, then most of the vehicle will probably be vaporized long before it reaches the Earth's surface. Even if somehow, it were made of unobtainium, that could withstand the heat of reentry intact, it'd still slow down to terminal velocity in the lower atmosphere. That might mess up someone's car, but it's not nuclear bomb-scale "duck and cover".
It's hard to believe an article like this gets posted without somebody mentioning AMSAT. They've been building satellites since the 60's on a much larger scale. Help support the latest AMSAT model called the FOX-1.
I can lay claim to two of those sat's
They're required to have a deorbiting plan.
Not really. These things are tiny and they burn up in reentry.
A 1U cubesat is 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. There are also 2U and 3U cubesats (two and three times that unit size). They have to be that small to fit in the launchers. Many of them are designed to unfold when they come out of the launchers, so they can be bigger once they're up there.
Not if you're really, really, really ridiculously tall.
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If you are in (or willing to be in) south central USA next month, Citizens in Space is holding a 2 day "Space Hacker Workshop" July 20-21 http://www.citizensinspace.org/2013/06/citizen-science-and-space-exploration-in-the-lone-star-state/ The Space Hacker Workshop will provide hands-on exposure to a variety of microcontrollers, sensors, imaging systems, and other components. With these components, participants will learn how to design and build microgravity, fluid-physics, life-science, and engineering experiments. Each paid participant will receive a hardware package to take home after the workshop. The focus here is on SubOrbital flights - they are less expensive and CiS has booked 10 flights on the XCOR Lynx suborbital craft to carry 10 small sats and a citizen scientist payload specialist.
Doesn't really matter. It's "doubling" from 2 to 4...
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Interesting project for receiving satellite signals with inexpensive RTL SDR USB tuners and a Pi.
http://blog.carpcomm.com/
And, if so will the results be reliable?
Space is not a fun place to be if you are a highly sensitive semiconductor.
Lots of high energy particles whiss about all the time and can, and will, influence those semiconductors. Without special shielding or design you will get undesireable effects.
I know of a guy who made big money in bit coin hardware who is interested in developing a network of cube sats which create an encrypted, unregulated mesh network. The idea being that not only can people have a free as in beer network connection virtually anywhere in the world, but it will also be free from government/corporate spying and regulation. No one would own it and the funding would be crowd sourced.
It is not part of the internet but a separate network altogether. People will be responsible for creating the end nodes which host content using wireless up-links. The only cost to the end user would be the wireless adapter. There would be no geographic data transmitted or stored so knowing where the links are physically located on the ground is difficult. Since the cube sats are solar powered, there is no operating cost once they are deployed into orbit. It might not be blazing fast but it will offer people a way to electronically communicate in an anonymous fashion.
Also; queue the: "But the terrorists will use it to communicate", "Child porn distribution" and piracy nonsense.
I wonder how long it will be before these are launched without rockets by firing them into orbit directly from Earth in some way. Something like a rail gun with the satellite in a bullet shaped sabot-like shell with just a small retro rocket for orbital insertion.