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.
How about going Old School? (Score:5, Interesting)
I do have a line on a bunch of old vaccum tubes that have been in storage for years....
Besides imagining a beowulf cluster of those... (Score:4, Interesting)
Can I do it with, say, $10,000 and without getting caught?
Getting into Orbit... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Besides imagining a beowulf cluster of those... (Score:2, Interesting)
I want to do this... (Score:5, Interesting)
Entirely feasible (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/qrpprojs.html [arrl.org]
It did beep faster/slower as temperatures rose/fell, I think, which you could basically implement using normal temperature variations in off the shelf resistors and capacitors.
On getting it into space... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:On getting it into space... (Score:3, Interesting)
The very first non-government satellite was AMSAT's own OSCAR-1.
The very first secondary payload was OSCAR-1. When other people thought they might be able to hitch a ride in to orbit the way AMSAT did, the Authorities suggested they look at how AMSAT did it.
The free rides in to orbit aren't as plentiful as they once were, but are based on one of two things: either stuff little satellites in to areas of the launch vehicle where "real" satellites won't fit, or take advantage of launch vehicles having excess capacity, since it's easier to build a really big rocket and launch a few tonnes of sand in to orbit along with your satellite than to have to reengineer your rockets every couple of years as satellites get bigger.
The launch system manuals are all available on line and make interesting reading - lobbing a satellite in to orbit is not trivial. You can read about little ones like Pegasus [orbital.com] or great big ones like Ariane 5 [arianespace.com].
There are also people who make payloads that look and behave like satellites, but send them up on balloons instead.
...laura
Re:Entirely feasible (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Entirely feasible (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.qsl.net/w5sjz/ntxballoonproject.htm [qsl.net]
http://www.jpaerospace.com/ [jpaerospace.com]
Plus hundreds of other links . . .
Re:Didn't we find out... (Score:3, Interesting)