By: Ferris Valyn
Fredrik – most cubesats are launched on launch vehicles (IE rockets) and usually are secondary payloads. The satellites are pushed out of a small pod (called a p-pod), when they get to their planned...
View ArticleBy: Nigel Depledge
I don’t know about cubesats, but back in about ’89 or ’90, the UoSsat amatuer radio satellites (made by the University of Surrey, hence the name) were launched as secondary payloads, by calibrated...
View ArticleBy: Satan Claws
@Stjnky(1): This reminds me of an interesting question, to get a “feeling” of how much “elbow room” there is in LEO: if each of the 7 billion people on Earth “had” one Cubesat orbiting at 350km up,...
View ArticleBy: Alex W.
I was wondering about the deployment procedure myself. Is it overarm, or undearm? I assume it’s more involved, because doesn’t orbital mechanics dictate that they would return to the ISS once every...
View ArticleBy: Maria
I’m also curious about the orbits and their interactions. I assume they are tracked, but they are so tiny! Really cool. It sure seems like a packed place up there, like “Hoarders” in space. Are there...
View ArticleBy: Chris
It’s obviously the Invasion of the Very Small Cubes from Doctor Who! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFOW2YLJmyw&feature=relmfu
View ArticleBy: Fizz
@8 Chris: I was just about to say the same thing. Run away if they start opening.
View ArticleBy: amphiox
re #8, #12; Not to worry. Due to a tragic miscalculation of scale, they’ll all be swallowed by a small dog.
View ArticleBy: DanM
I am reminded of a conversation I had with some folks from NASA a month or so ago. They were pushing for us to offer cubesat design as a project for our undegraduates. I have not yet had any...
View ArticleBy: Matt NY
One of those satellites will flash a message in morse code that you can see with binoculars: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/space/satellite-to-beam-morse-code-to-earth-1.1397719 Even if you don’t...
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By: John Branch
Excuse me, but this is nowhere near a new thing. The first amateur-radio-sponsored satellite, the OSCAR 1, went up in 1961. It too was inexpensive. An article about it I just read to refresh and...
View ArticleBy: kiljoy616
How stable are they in their respective orbit and do they fall back to the planet after a few years? Just wondering how bad it could get with all that space junk up there. Including retarded missile...
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By: Joseph G
@ Alex W. I was wondering about the deployment procedure myself. Is it overarm, or undearm? I assume it’s more involved, because doesn’t orbital mechanics dictate that they would return to the ISS once...
View ArticleBy: MadScientist
I’m a big fan of space junk, it looks so cool when it’s orbiting with the ISS. @killjoy#18: they’ll be up there for a few years; the orbit degrades due to air friction but there isn’t a lot of air at...
View ArticleBy: MadScientist
@killjoy#18: OK, after a little research I can give you a more definitive value for the air pressure at 300km altitude: about 2x10e-10 of the pressure at sea level. (So I was missing quite a few zeros...
View ArticleBy: Infinite123Lifer
Based on that 2nd picture … their not building a bypass . . . are they? “0.08 km^2 per Cubesat” yeah, thats about the time Earth gets obliterated. Oh well, we can always have another one built right? I...
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