So, you want to build a CubeSat?

https://orbitalindex.com/archive/2019-07-30-Issue-23/

by tectonic • 7 years ago

215 69 7 years ago

orbitalindex.com

0xdeadbeefbabe2• 7 years ago

Why build it if the cost is 10K+ to deploy?

tectonic4• 7 years ago

...it's really not that expensive anymore. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/20009/cubesat-laun...

sfkdjf9j3j• 7 years ago

According to your link the price is more like $100k+

blach2• 7 years ago

There are starting to be some lower cost options. A recent Kickstarter promised a ~$250 price point for a Femtosat/Sprite size craft launched as a rideshare inside a 3U Cubesat: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ambasat/ambasat-1-an-ed... (not speaking to the likelihood of it actually launching, just that it is purportedly an option)

reaperducer• 7 years ago

Why build it if the cost is 10K+ to deploy?

"Why build a computer if it costs $10K+ for a special room?"- 1960's naysayers.

marshall_law2• 7 years ago

10 years ago the cheapest launch options were in the $1-10M, and that's if you could even find a secondary / ride-along deployment. most satellite launches then would simply purchase a whole rocket, on order of $100s of M.

While this isn't consumer pricing yet, the orders of magnitude cost decrease because of lower cost / smaller satellites have made this much more accessible, and it's only going to continue as launch costs come down.

iyn2• 7 years ago

I 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.

snickmy3• 7 years ago

what are the other 2?

2dollars27cents• 7 years ago

Not op, but The Prepared is great if you have any interest in manufacturing, supply chains, and modern infrastructure.

https://theprepared.org/

ant6n• 7 years ago

Not 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/

iyn2• 7 years ago

1. Already mentioned Benedict's Newsletter (https://www.ben-evans.com/newsletter)

2. James Clear's (https://jamesclear.com/newsletter), author of the Atomic Habits, which is a fantastic book about... habits (https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits)

Both are no-bullshit and consistently provide value.

erobbins• 7 years ago

've been a subscriber for some time and they are great. No junk, no ads, no pitches, just news.

JetSpiegel• 7 years ago

Not sure why they don't advertise the RSS Feed:

https://orbitalindex.com/feed.xml

fernandopj• 7 years ago

How 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?

tectonic4• 7 years ago

For 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• 7 years ago

Here 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

lozaning• 7 years ago

IDK what speed you should expect, but Amazon's ground station solution should at least increase availability: https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/

Rebelgecko2• 7 years ago

It'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• 7 years ago

What are some ways that an individual person could benefit from their own CubeSat?

Jim-• 7 years ago

For 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• 7 years ago

Adjusted for inflation that is not too much different from buying a couple of Apple Macintosh computers in 1984.

asdfman1233• 7 years ago

Now 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.

xhgdvjky• 7 years ago

cool idea for ten minutes but this is exactly the kind of pollution I don't want from cheaper satellites

asdfman1233• 7 years ago

I 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• 7 years ago

You 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-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

vkou• 7 years ago

Many satellites are visible to the naked eye; some even brighter than the stars.

And if you want to see an absolute cornucopia of satellites, grab a pair of binoculars, and look straight up, an hour or two after sunset.

You'll see faint little lights, crossing your field of vision, to and fro, on a very regular basis.

massimo-nazaria• 7 years ago

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

Interesting link. Another interesting one is https://spotthestation.nasa.gov about the ISS, which is probably the most visible to the naked eye.

snickmy3• 7 years ago

For a while I thought you would need too much energy, then I realized I don't know well enough the physics of how a laser works.

[Warning, very stupid idea ahead]: Since I don't know well enough the topic, why wouldn't be possible to use a satellite to collect solar energy (because outside the atmosphere you can collect ~40% more (edited) the solar energy due to lack of atmospheric filtering effect),and then transmit that energy back to earth via some sort of wireless energy distribution mechanism (laser?). I guess a YoYo satellite with real tens of KM of wire to earth has a lot of reasons for not be feasible.

asdfman1233• 7 years ago

It's actually not a terrible idea and it's been considered in depth before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power.

Like so many things it's got a few unsolved technical difficulties thought that make it not-quite feasible.

ohazi• 7 years ago

It's not 40x more, it's barely 40% more. [1]

Average annual solar radiation arriving at the top of the Earth's atmosphere is roughly 1361 W/m^2. The Sun's rays are attenuated as they pass through the atmosphere, leaving maximum normal surface irradiance at approximately 1000 W /m^2 at sea level on a clear day.

There are practical challenges, but otherwise, yes, it should work.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#Irradiance_on...

ChuckMcM• 7 years ago

Search "Solar power satellites". Lots of research, some unsolved problems, downlink is typically microwaves to a rectenna.

erklik2• 7 years ago

I think its not that crazy an idea. The biggest issue ( based on my very limited knowledge reading online articles ), is that the transmission without a physical medium leaves a lot to be desired. Secondly, waste heat disposal is enough of a problem in space, but when your craft is designed to accept as much radiation as possible, it becomes even more so.

I do think that its certainly going to be one of the ways humanity powers themselves going into the future. As our power needs increase, we will inevitably look to more efficently use the power eminating from our star and one of the first steps in doing that is by harnessing it without the atmospheric effects.

wickedlasers• 7 years ago

Maybe check out the lasercube for a laser you can program https://wickedlasers.com/cube

mothsonasloth• 7 years ago

I 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)

brandmeyer• 7 years ago

Satellites contain parts and joints that don't want to see a 10^5 m/s^2 acceleration.

ravedave5• 7 years ago

Probably not, orbit is mostly about going very very fast sideways rather than being high up.

makerofspoons• 7 years ago

You may be interested in Project HARP which investigated such a concept in the 1960s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP

jcims• 7 years ago

Yes but its tricky. http://alnaspaceprogram.org/gun.html

Rebelgecko2• 7 years ago

Air 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

oh_sigh2• 7 years ago

The last guy that tried this was murdered by Sadaam.

Most people underestimate the speed required to obtain a reasonable orbit, and the amount of tube required to accelerate an object to that speed.

opwieurposiu• 7 years ago

He worked for Saddam, he was murdered by Israel or possibly Iran.

growlist• 7 years ago

It's called a Space gun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_gun

You also might be interested in SpinLaunch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinLaunch

elkos5• 7 years ago

If 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

Feel also free to check our repositories at Gitlab. https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation

tectonic4• 7 years ago

We're big fans!

elkos5• 7 years ago

Thanks. We try our best. Input and and code are much appreciated.

marshall_law2• 7 years ago

go LSF! are y'all attending SmallSat this year? the Kubos team would love to meet up if so :))

elkos5• 7 years ago

Sadly no.

But if you attend the ARRL/TAPR DCC conference there will be a four hour workshop on SatNOGS for the Sunday Seminar. :)

dear• 7 years ago

Any Cubesat forum/board you would recommend? I joined the Cubesat.org mailing list but it's very quiet.

elkos5• 7 years ago

We have a forum at 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

kartikkumar2• 7 years ago

LSF FTW! :)

Great to see the SatNOGS network going from strength to strength!

elkos5• 7 years ago

We couldn't do it without our awesome community

kartikkumar2• 7 years 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

vemv• 7 years 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• 7 years ago

After reading your comment, I understand why people stereotype HN comments as being negative, whiney and neurotic for no reason at all.

bluejellybean• 7 years ago

This 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• 7 years ago

I 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...

[2] http://cubesatlab.org/

zaarn2• 7 years ago

The 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.

So, you want to build a CubeSat?

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