Satellite powered by 48 AA batteries and a $20 microprocessor shows a low-cost way to reduce space junk BrownUniversity
They built a satellite on a shoestring budget and using off-the-shelf supplies available at most hardware stores. They even sent the satellite—which is powered by 48 Energizer AA batteries and a $20 microprocessor popular with robot hobbyists—into space about 10 months ago, hitching a ride on Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket.
The students added a 3D-printed drag sail made from Kapton polyimide film to the bread-loaf-sized cube satellite they built. Upon deployment at about 520 kilometers—well above the orbit of the International Space Station—the sail popped open like an umbrella and is helping to push the satellite back down to Earth sooner, according to initial data. In fact, the satellite is well below the other small devices that deployed with it.
Fleeter and the Brown students believe that their initial analysis of the publicly available tracking data serves as a proof of concept that this type of sail can be part of an effort to reduce the number of space debris in orbit around Earth. They hope similar sails can be added to other same-sized devices or scaled up to larger projects in the future.
SBUDNIC, however, is believed to be the first of its kind that was sent into orbit made almost exclusively from materials not designed for use in space and at such an astronomically low-cost when compared to other objects in orbit. The total cost of the student-designed cube satellite was about $10,000.we hear about in the news are amazing and inspiring, but they also send a message that space is only for those types of specialized initiatives," Fleeter said.
Students purchased materials they needed at local stores and online retail websites. They often had to engineer nifty workarounds to their materials so they could survive in space. The approach often meant coming up with test apparatuses that replicated specific environmental conditions of space, like the high vibration from the rocket launch, Cross said.
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