Friday, December 28, 2012

The rise of the personal space program

This article was originally posted on Google+.

Just over a year ago now, the first ever project I backed on Kickstarter was Kicksat. A project to put a swarm of small nano-satellites in orbit. The size of a couple of postage stamps each satellite has solar cells, a radio transceiver, and a micro-controller along with memory and sensors.

Today in the mail my souvenir satellite arrived, it's just 3.5 cm square. It's an engineering prototype, presumably one that failed verification, and it doesn't have it's solar cells attached, but otherwise its just like the ones that'll be flown into orbit.

An engineering sample of a flight ready Sprite nano-satellite.
At it's heart is a +Texas Instruments  CC430F5137. It's a whole system on a chip based around an MSP430 CPU, a 16-bit RISC ulta-low power micro-controller, along with an onboard RF transceiver operating in the sub-1GHz bands, a real-time clock and an integrated temperature sensor.

As well as the big solder pads at the top of the board for the solar cell there are a number of unpopulated pads on the board, including space for some through hole components, so there is certainly room for more sensors to be added on the board itself, and the MSP430 has the capacity to handle them.  

However the satellite is going to be entirely reliant on the solar cell for power, there is no battery back up on the board, and the satellite will only be able to operate on the Sun-ward side of its orbit. That means power is the limiting factor. The CC4305137 has good brown-out reset capability, probably one of the reasons it was chosen, however you have to wonder how much more can be crammed onto the board and still reliably operate. 

While it's might not seem much beyond a shrunken down Sputnik at that point, the Kicksat is ground breaking. In just fifty-five years we've advance from the point where it takes the might of one of the world's only super powers to put something like this into orbit, to the point where several hundred of them can be put into orbit by a graduate student with some enthusiastic backers.

Despite the pessimism I often express at the way the space programme is going, this is something that gives me a lot of hope that we aren't going the wrong way. That we aren't starting a march towards the abandonment of technology and a slow fall towards an age of declining possibilities and narrowing horizons.

Kicksat, the CubeSat designed to carry hundreds of these small Sprite nano-satellites aboard, is now on track for launch in the autumn of 2013 onboard the CRS-3/ELaNa-5 mission. This will be the third Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) flight to deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a +SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. KickSat, along with 5 other CubeSats, will be hitching a ride as a secondary payload thanks to +NASA's ELaNa  program.

15 comments:

  1. Well… that’s attractive post The rise of the personal space program but to be straightforward i have a hard time figuring it… wonder how others think about this..

    communication dissertation examples

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unfortunately it was not rise. Perhaps people have lost interest in this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there very cool web site!! Man .. Excellent .. Superb ..

    I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds additionally…I am satisfied to search out a lot of helpful information right
    here in the publish, we want work out more techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing. 토토

    ReplyDelete
  4. 온라인카지노 I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your website.
    It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come
    here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme?
    Exceptional work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am sure this post has touched all the internet users, its really really pleasant piece of writing
    on building up new webpage. 바카라사이트

    ReplyDelete
  6. 스포츠토토 I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!
    I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back down the road.
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice knowledge gaining article. This post is really the 토토사이트검증 best on this valuable informative and your blog is really good and impressive you made it mice article.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your article is great. I think it will be praised anywhere. I am a columnist and I am writing articles related to 안전한놀이터

    ReplyDelete
  9. my day because you never know how much you make my day happier and more complete.
    There are even times when I feel so down but I will feel better right after checking your blogs 메이저검증업체

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous6:49 pm

    Your post has really helped me a lot Please write good things from now on 토토추천

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous6:49 pm

    The Design looks very good 메이저사이트 The Design looks very good

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous6:50 pm

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate your Please write good things from now on 먹튀폴리스

    ReplyDelete
  13. I accidentally searched and visited your site. I still saw several posts during my visit, but the text was neat and readable. I accidentally searched and visited your site. I still saw several posts during my visit, but the text was neat and readable.국내경마

    ReplyDelete
  14. A student's life is not as easy as it should be. But I am glad that experts at Cheap Assignment Writing Service and bloggers like you are working so hard to make students' life easier. Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete