9 ms·
So, you want to build a CubeSat?
- iyn 7y agoI highly recommend subscribing to The Orbital Index newsletter. One of the 3 newsletters that I actually read every week. It's (almost) completely outside my profession but very interesting to read nonetheless.
- JetSpiegel 7y agoNot sure why they don't advertise the RSS Feed: https://orbitalindex.com/feed.xml https://orbitalindex.com/feed.xml
- snickmy 7y agowhat are the other 2?
- 2dollars27cents 7y agoNot op, but The Prepared is great if you have any interest in manufacturing, supply chains, and modern infrastructure. https://theprepared.org/ https://theprepared.org/
- Jun8 7y agoBenedict's Newsletter (https://www.ben-evans.com/newsletter https://www.ben-evans.com/newsletter) is also one I find interesting, a collection of posts related to "tech and thought"
- lukejduncan 7y agoMatt Levine, Money Stuff
- blach 7y agoOne half of Orbital Index here… I highly recommend The Prepared as well. I happen to be guest editing it next month while the normal writer is on paternity leave, so I might be biased (but also a longtime happy reader :-).
- ant6n 7y agoNot op, but I find Julia Evans' programming wizardry comics, which she sends out each Saturday, to be fun and educational! https://wizardzines.com/saturday-comics/ https://wizardzines.com/saturday-comics/
- iyn 7y ago1. Already mentioned Benedict's Newsletter (https://www.ben-evans.com/newsletter https://www.ben-evans.com/newsletter) 2. James Clear's (https://jamesclear.com/newsletter https://jamesclear.com/newsletter), author of the Atomic Habits, which is a fantastic book about... habits (https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits) Both are no-bullshit and consistently provide value.
- erobbins 7y ago've been a subscriber for some time and they are great. No junk, no ads, no pitches, just news.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 7y agoWhy build it if the cost is 10K+ to deploy?
- tectonic 7y ago...it's really not that expensive anymore. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/20009/cubesat-launch-costs https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/20009/cubesat-laun...
- sfkdjf9j3j 7y agoAccording to your link the price is more like $100k+
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 7y agohttps://spaceflight.com/schedule-pricing/#pricing https://spaceflight.com/schedule-pricing/#pricing seemed like a great deal till I saw "Pricing in thousands (USD)"
- echelon 7y agoYou're not the primary audience for this (yet). This orders of magnitude cheaper than it used to be and will enable a broad wealth of new startups and applications in LEO. It's nothing short of a revolution.
- tectonic 7y agoThe point is that a launch cost of $100k is totally manageable by a startup, which is very different than a decade ago.
- craftyguy 7y agoThe point is that $100k > $10k, so stating that "it's really not that expensive anymore" is false.
- 7y ago
- fernandopj 7y agoHow effective is an internet connection from a CubeSat? I'm curious, I've read about radio comm and this article mentions using the GlobalSat or Iridium network is possible, but would that (or any other option) be a "broadband bandwith" available to whatever software is running on the CubeSat?
- tectonic 7y agoFor the radio & antenna you'll probably have on a small CubeSat, expect slow and unreliable, but it depends on if you're running your own ground station, in which case you may only be able to communicate for minutes a day or less, or are using a large ground station network or satellite constellation like Iridium, which will still be slow, but will offer much more frequent communication opportunities.
- ThePirateofOz 7y agoHere is a slow scan TV signal I picked up from the ISS one day when I was farting around with nothing better else to do. https://streamable.com/q9oa0 https://streamable.com/q9oa0
- jamiek88 7y agoThat is so cool!
- lozaning 7y agoIDK what speed you should expect, but Amazon's ground station solution should at least increase availability: https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/ https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/
- Rebelgecko 7y agoIt's relatively easy (emphasis on relatively) to use a RF module similar to what you'd get for $20 on Sparkfun or Adafruit and get dial-up levels of performance without needing to invest in a crazy ground station. You'd be limited on when you can downlink. I would imagine that for higher bandwidth communications (like enough for realtime video) you'd need to worry about radio licensing.
- tunesmith 7y agoWhat are some ways that an individual person could benefit from their own CubeSat?
- Jim- 7y agoFor the average person, probably not much; The main blocker will be that it costs about $10k to build, $20k to have it launched into space (USD).
- beamatronic 7y agoAdjusted for inflation that is not too much different from buying a couple of Apple Macintosh computers in 1984.
- erklik 7y agoHonestly, I might start saving for a few years and actually do it. It sounds like a thing that would be awesome to do and more so, a good experience in general. Would there be any restrictions for people not living in the USA?
- zaarn 7y agoTo my knowledge, you have to check with the space agency of your country, they probably know more too.
- asdfman123 7y agoNow I want to build a CubeSat that will point a laser pointer at different population centers as it passes around the earth. E.g. this pass of North America you choose LA, then NYC, then Houston, then Chicago... so you can see it streak by in the sky. My rough estimation is you could create a spot 2 miles across with a standard laser pointer at 400 miles high. Maybe you could use a different kind that would have a little more spread. And you'd have even more if you weren't beaming directly downwards -- maybe you could point it at 45 degrees or more with a powerful laser and get nice coverage.
- wickedlasers 7y agoMaybe check out the lasercube for a laser you can program https://wickedlasers.com/cube https://wickedlasers.com/cube
- xhgdvjky 7y agocool idea for ten minutes but this is exactly the kind of pollution I don't want from cheaper satellites
- asdfman123 7y agoI guess this is the space equivalent of when Clark Griswold's redneck cousin Eddie comes into town. Move over, high falutin' space types! I want a laser pointer pointing at my house every night!
- modeless 7y agoYou don't need a laser pointer. All you need to do is reflect sunlight. There was a recent attempt to deploy a cubesat that would become the brightest object in the night sky (besides the Moon), simply by deploying some white fabric. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your opinion (I lean toward the latter), it failed to fully deploy. http://spaceflight101.com/soyuz-kanopus-v-ik/mayak-lighthouse-in-the-sky-fails-to-deploy-solar-reflector/ http://spaceflight101.com/soyuz-kanopus-v-ik/mayak-lighthous... Many satellites are visible to the naked eye; some even brighter than the stars. If you want to see them, heavens-above.org is a great place to find out when to look. https://heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=42830 https://heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=42830
- mothsonasloth 7y agoI had this thought, why not build a small rifled tube with an explosive charge and bullet like projectile. The projectile has a rocket motor too. Get the cannon as high as possible with a balloon. At the limit, the cannon fires the projectile at high velocity. The rocket motor ignites giving the extra velocity. Do you think it could reach escape velocity? IANARS (I am not a rocket scientist)
- growlist 7y agoIt's called a Space gun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_gun You also might be interested in SpinLaunch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinLaunch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinLaunch
- brandmeyer 7y agoSatellites contain parts and joints that don't want to see a 10^5 m/s^2 acceleration.
- ravedave5 7y agoProbably not, orbit is mostly about going very very fast sideways rather than being high up.
- makerofspoons 7y agoYou may be interested in Project HARP which investigated such a concept in the 1960s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
- jcims 7y agoYes but its tricky. http://alnaspaceprogram.org/gun.html http://alnaspaceprogram.org/gun.html
- Rebelgecko 7y agoAir launch to orbit has been explored a bit, although mostly by launching from aircraft to get more horizontal velocity— the hardest part of getting to orbit isn't getting high enough, it's going fast enough horizontally that you don't fall down to earth. That's how the Pegasus rocket launches, as well as some rockets currently under development by companies like Virgin and Stratolaunch
- elkos 7y agoIf you are interested in open-source licenced Cubesat hardware, software and low earth orbit communications feel free to check out Libre Space Foundation https://libre.space https://libre.space Feel also free to check our repositories at Gitlab. https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation
- tectonic 7y agoWe're big fans!
- elkos 7y agoThanks. We try our best. Input and and code are much appreciated.
- marshall_law 7y agogo LSF! are y'all attending SmallSat this year? the Kubos team would love to meet up if so :))
- elkos 7y agoSadly no. But if you attend the ARRL/TAPR DCC conference there will be a four hour workshop on SatNOGS for the Sunday Seminar. :)
- dear 7y agoAny Cubesat forum/board you would recommend? I joined the Cubesat.org mailing list but it's very quiet.
- elkos 7y agoWe have a forum at https://community.libre.space https://community.libre.space most threads are about SatNOGS (our global satellite ground-station network) but there are several people from Cubesat teams that are hanging around there from time to time I also follow AMSAT-BB here to keep track of radio amateur activity in space https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
- kartikkumar 7y ago@tectonic: thanks for including mention of our website/resources in this newsletter! Looking forward to meeting next week at SmallSat :) If you're interested in understanding the state of the global space supply chain, check us out [1]. We're working on digitalizing the entire global marketplace and CubeSats are a huge part of the on-going commoditization within the sector. Kinda like "Octopart for space". The supplier ecosystem is really a lot larger than people think (including myself until we started this project). There are some legacy and strategic reasons for "hidden hubs". The supply chain is undergoing a lot of change, as organizations try to figure out how to not stay hidden and instead ride the on-going growth wave through international business/projects. [1] https://satsearch.co https://satsearch.co
- vemv 7y ago> So, you want to build a CubeSat? Not particularly, and even less so with this clichéd, condescending headline. It's a meme that needs to die, why do we have to see these titles popping up in HN every month?
- empyrean 7y agoAfter reading your comment, I understand why people stereotype HN comments as being negative, whiney and neurotic for no reason at all.
- bluejellybean 7y agoThis is an awesome post and I love the external links given. I've been reading a lot of satellite engineering books and resources lately but they're unfortunately mainly geared for much larger missions. This article, and really most cubeSat info, is really useful for the amatures like myself.
- eggy 7y agoI am almost finished working my way through the book "Building High Integrity Applications with SPARK"[1]. I dropped Rust and found SPARK easier to work with, and one of the book's authors is a professor at Vermont Technical College (VTC) in the CubeSat Laboratory[2] where Ada/SPARK are used. The book is a great way to get exposed to a lot of subjects around high integrity, secure software. Highly recommended. [1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/building-high-integrity-applications-with-spark/F213D9867D2E271F5FF3EDA765D48E95 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/building-high-integrity... [2] http://cubesatlab.org/ http://cubesatlab.org/
- zaarn 7y agoThe interesting challenge would be when the first cubesats launched by private persons reach the moon and send back a picture of earth rise. From what I can tell, cubesats might be able to get ride-alongs on future launches towards the moon, so that is basically what this challenge would be hinging on. You'd have to figure out long distance communication, a simple LoRa module won't cut it. Your power needs to handle 3 days of travel, possibly without power until the sat gets deployed and sees the sun for the first time. You'd have to figure out how to orient and point a camera outside the stronger parts of the earth's magnetic field (commonly cubesats seem to rely on magnets to orient themselves). Then you'd have to bring a camera with decent quality and that works in vacuum along, snap a picture or ten and finally send them back. It would be awesome if I, as a private person, could organize and launch that.