If you are interested in open-source licenced Cubesat hardware, software and low earth orbit communications feel free to check out Libre Space Foundation
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 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.
One 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 :-).
@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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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
> 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.
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.
> 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.
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.
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.
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.
Honestly, 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?
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.
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
interesting. For what I remember of reading this story many years ago is that he got on the badside of Saddam for not delivering what he promised to deliver. I'll have to reread the story.
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.
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)
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.
https://libre.space
Feel also free to check our repositories at Gitlab. https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation