CubeSats Spurring Satellite Revolution 59
kkleiner writes "Thanks to the miniaturization of electronics, small CubeSat satellites have quickly become the standard for orbital Earth monitoring. Their modular design and lower cost makes them accessible to many, from university researchers to backers of crowdfunding campaigns. This year, the number of CubeSats launched will at least double the number in orbit to date."
Re:Next year's news... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Great (Score:5, Informative)
Great, just what we need, even more ... Damnit. First post AC beat me to it! But I had time to skim TFA and didn't see a reference to de-orbiting them.
They're in low-earth orbit. It's not an issue [qb50.eu], because they deorbit naturally.
CubeSat / Skybox Imaging satellites (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Great (Score:4, Informative)
To reach Earth's surface, a vehicle would have to dissipate several tens of millions of joules of energy per kilogram of the vehicle. And it will, by heating up the atmosphere and vaporizing the vehicle. If the cubesat isn't designed for reentry, then most of the vehicle will probably be vaporized long before it reaches the Earth's surface. Even if somehow, it were made of unobtainium, that could withstand the heat of reentry intact, it'd still slow down to terminal velocity in the lower atmosphere. That might mess up someone's car, but it's not nuclear bomb-scale "duck and cover".
Obligatory AMSAT plug (Score:4, Informative)
It's hard to believe an article like this gets posted without somebody mentioning AMSAT [amsat.org]. They've been building satellites since the 60's on a much larger scale. Help support the latest AMSAT model called the FOX-1 [amsat.org].
Dallas TX Workshop on CubeSat (Score:3, Informative)