Build Your Own Linux-Based Satellite

An anonymous reader writes "For $10 million, SpaceDev is offering a Linux-based microsatellite that can be controlled over the internet using any laptop or desktop computer. The Modular Microsat Bus utilizes such things as plug and play USB, Ethernet, and other standards, while providing critical features such as power, maneuvering, and communication for you. Up to 40 kg of project space are at your disposal"

Problem is downlink

[everphilski]

Even on an oblique overhead pass, in low earth orbit maximum time in view is about 7 minutes. The article doesn't mention using a satellite relay network but of course... such things cost extra :)

-everphilski-

For an extra $1 million, it keeps sending a signal

[digitaldc]

In case you crash this satellite into the sun or it goes hurdling off into the nearest black hole, for the meager price of an additional $1 million, an uniterrupted signal will be beamed to your laptop for the duration of its expected lifespan. No more worrying about alien sabotage or space junk punching holes in your precious device, we have got it covered.
This way, you will never know that it has been destroyed, and you can still show off your $10 million toy to your jealous friends.

Re:$10 million and 40kg? Why not $250k and 1kg?

[salad_fingers]

I am a member of a team building a pico satellite at the University of California. The actual price for our entire project hovers around $50,000, of which 40k go to launch costs. This is the price tag for a Russian launch, I am sure the US would charge quite a bit more. The problem with these pico satellites is actually integrating a full fledged OS onto OTS parts. Data memory and program memory are in limited supply, along the lines of KB. We are using an Atmel CPU and are running AVR library from the http://www.avrfreaks.net/ [avrfreaks.net] website. The actual module we are writing is for the CPU scheduler. The interupt handler, bus protocols, etc are already written. Running this minimal amount of code is beneficial and doesnt overload the small amount of data memory we can utilize, so basically you can run less than a full on OS like linux and still get away with it.

"What imaging can you do for cheap -- what resolution, what wavelengths?"

The imaging comes down to the type of camera and it's power consumption. Image processing really loads the CPU and draws a lot of power, so compression algorithms are important. JPEG does the job fine, but is limited to around 320x res (in color) given our power constraints. The camera we are using is a CMOS imager, which works through the charging of capacitors relative to the intensity of incoming light. The wavelength of operation ultimately comes down to the FCC. They allocate you a bandwidth to use, most likely 2m or 440MHz. Other functions the satellite may serve is as a HAMsat, or a HAM radio repeater in space. You can tune you radio to the sat freq, and hit any place that the satellite covers with your signal. The preferred mode of operation is digital, so sat comm utilizes packet radio, which loosely resembles the TCP/IP stack. As far as a webserver goes, Im sure you could do it, but it would be limited to the length of one satellite path. Guess thats enough time for a 30 second pr0n clip...