Kicksat

[Frogfall]

...just in case you've missed this...

 

Kicksat is now in orbit - having been launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 18th April.  You can see where it is at this moment by visiting:  http://zacinaction.github.io/kicksat/

 

Soon (depending on battery charging rate, I think) the satellite will discorge 104 tiny single-board "sprites" - which will form an orbiting swarm.

 

Some people from the London Hackspace put some money into the project, and as a result have their very own sprite waiting in the satellite cargo bay ready for deployment. You can see their project page at https://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Project:HackSat_One

 

Transmissions from the kicksat, and the sprites, should be receivable using an SDR dongle, a pc, and a decent aerial...

[Frogfall]

Aaaargh!

A controller glitch on the Kicksat has reset the master timer and pushed back the Sprite deployment date.  Unfortunately, it has pushed it back beyond the currently predicted orbit decay and re-entry time!  This means the sprites may never be deployed - and will simply burn up along with the kicksat :-(

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacinaction/kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space/posts

[Dave Trencher]

sadly kicksat did burn up before deploying the sprites.  Fantastic achievement  to get that far and hopefully he'll have more success with Kicksat 2.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/251588730/kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space/posts