Make Your Own Sputnik 118
An anonymous reader writes "What better way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sputnik than by making one of your own. The BBC says that you can build your own Sputnik satellite from stuff lying around the house. The BBC quotes an electronics hobbyist: "Technology now is way ahead of what was available in 1957, and making your own fully functional Sputnik would now be very simple indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if you could build one in a container smaller than a matchbox, weighing about as much as a wristwatch. The components, including a transmitter, battery and the sensors you'd need would probably cost less than 50 pounds [about 100 US dollars]. It really shouldn't be a problem to build and program the whole thing in under a day." Unfortunately, the BBC article doesn't go into technical details." And of course, actually getting it up into orbit might take a little more work.
Didn't we find out... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yay! More litter! (Score:2, Insightful)
DISCLAIMER:
No, I have not thought this through.
But, it would be interesting to see -something- done about the problem before the garbage makes extra-terrestrial travel even more dangerous than it already is...
Because Sergei Korolev is no big deal nowdays. (Score:4, Insightful)
Anybody with a public school education can outclass Werner Von Braun or Sergei Korolev with chewing gum and duct tape!
Please.
Re:Didn't we find out... (Score:5, Insightful)
What the hell would you need a fan for? (Score:2, Insightful)
This is ridiculous (Score:3, Insightful)
~Phil
Re:Yay! More litter! (Score:3, Insightful)
Orbit (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, it is probably a crime in most jurisdictions.
Re:Besides imagining a beowulf cluster of those... (Score:2, Insightful)
Now there's an image to ponder... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd be careful about saying that. While nerds may be in a minority everywhere they are found, in aggregate they are still a numerous and clever breed prone to accepting challenges like that. DJGPP came about because Stallman said it wasn't possible to run gcc under DOS. The thought of hundreds of thousands of sputniks in low earth orbit is scarey.