Evaluating the Capabilities of Chip-Sized Spacecraft 96
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by
Soulskill
from the remember-when-we-had-people-sized-spacecraft dept.
from the remember-when-we-had-people-sized-spacecraft dept.
kgeiger writes "The Sprite project is testing the feasibility of chip-sized spacecraft. 'Rather than hand building one-of-a-kind spacecraft, we envision constructing spacecraft on wafers in much the same way that common integrated circuits are made today. During fabrication, solar cells and other components would be incorporated with microelectromechanical systems techniques. Instead of exhaustively testing each part, as is done with current spacecraft, engineers will be able to monitor Sprite quality in a less labor-intensive fashion by using statistical process control, testing a few chips from each batch to make sure they meet specifications.' The project's goal is to deploy true 'smart dust,' comprised of 5- to 50-mg single-sensor spacecraft capable of forming deep-space sensor arrays."
Re:Sounds like a good idea... (Score:2, Funny)
The deflector shields protect them, just like all of the rest of our space ships. Duh!
Sure, ignore SG-1 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:too small - space gravel (Score:4, Funny)
Obligatory XKCD reference... http://xkcd.com/865/ [xkcd.com]
Re:How big of a rocket? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:too small - space gravel (Score:4, Funny)
So here we are on our little mud ball, and something like the Vogons suddenly show up to collect from us for destruction of something they value... or worse they assume it was a stealth attack on a craft that was just going about it's business someplace far away from us.
Didn't they see the sign posted that reads "not responsible for damage caused by debris damaging your ship" it was posted in a locked box in a dark corner in the basement of an old ladies house. If they didn't take the time to read it, then that's not our fault either.