Makers in Space: What Was Old Is New Again
Setting the record straight on the history of Do-It-Yourself satellites.
satellite
DIY Satellites: Now and Near Future
Space is becoming increasingly accessible to more people thanks to plummeting costs, weight, and energy use of the technologies needed for freeflying satellites to sense and direct their orientation, communicate with the ground, and perform complicated computations in real time on orbit. The dawn of this new age of DIY satellite making is in no small […]
Settle Down With a Good Book This Holiday
These books are cheap, fast reads, covering everything from how to build an Arduino-compatible micro-controller on a breadboard, to how to build and launch a satellite, and will make excellent stocking stuffers this Christmas.
High School Students Launch Satellite With NASA
Brace yourselves, history’s first high school-built satellite is set for launch! At 7:30PM ET today, TJ3Sat (pronounced TJ-cube-sat) will launch from the Wallops Flight Facility alongside 27 other satellites. Our small, 10cm x 10cm x 11cm satellite will orbit the Earth at 500km and will function as an educational tool for schools and the general public worldwide.
RoboGames 2012 Report
Teams have gathered from all over the globe this weekend in San Mateo, CA to compete in 50+ categories at the 9th annual RoboGames . Various theaters of combat are arrayed across Fiesta Hall at the San Mateo Convention Center (also the site of Maker Faire Bay Area), featuring a whole range of environments, like […]
PhoneSat Aims to Send a Cellphone into Space (video)
At Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, Ben demonstrates PhoneSat, a project in conjunction with NASA done to prove that a cellphone can serve as a viable CPU in an orbital satellite. The Nexus One on board uses the Android OS and is monitored by an Arduino that also serves as a rebooting device.
Nexus One/Arduino SmallSat satellite test launch video
Matthew Reyes sent word that the RocketMavericks launch event on Saturday in Nevada’s Black Rock desert was a resounding success. Traveling 28K feet aboard James Dougherty’s Intimidator-5 rocket was a payload consisting of a Nexus One/Arduino SmallSat. Matthew and his cohorts Chris Boshuizen & Will Marshall are championing the use of smartphone components to lower the cost of deploying a satellite and expect it to become even more affordable with every revision.
