One project that I am especially looking forward to is following:
I built my own satellite and launch it into space ;-).
Well you will ask yourself, how is this possible?
Short answer, crowdfunding via Kickstarter make it possible.
The campaign was launched in May 2019 and ended in July 2019.
The so called AmbaSAT-1 is a small satellite (Sprite-class Space satellite).
The dimensions of the satellite are just 35 mm * 35 mm .
The sprites will be sent to everybody who backed a kit.
In the basic configuration the satellite is equipped with a gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, microcontroller (an Arduino compatible ATMEGA 328P-AU), memory, a Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) radio transceiver (RFM95) and in my case because I want to send the satellite into space, with solar cells.
Furthermore there are a few more options how to equip the satellite, I took a gas sensor AmbaSat-1 Sensor 03 – BME680.
The data is transmitted by the sprites in real-time using the LoRaWAN radio transceiver and the more than five thousand Earth-based The Things Network (TTN) receivers (Gateways) which are distributed over the earth. In first tests in July 2019 more than 700 km radio distance could be covered (Servet IV mission and G4lile0/High_Altitude_Balloon_Experiments).
I took the kit where I can assemble the satellite myself (soldering work, yeah :-) ).
The next step is testing the sensors mounted on the satellite, AmbaSat has therefore it's own dashboard.
About two month before the launch the spacecrafts will be send back to AmbaSAT and they will do pre-launch testings.
They will do a compliance-, two-week soak-, followed by a vibration test.
If everything is ok the spacecrafts will be send to Interorbital Systems (IOS) and deployed in a CubeSAT.
The CubeSat should transport about 200 sprites.
The launch of the rocket should be in the year 2021 with the first Neptune 2 rocket launch from Interorbital Systems (IOS).
However, due to COVID-19 crisis there are delivery difficulties and I did not get a satellite kit yet. ...
News from AmbaSat (2020-10-26)
"The latest batch of AmbaSat-1 kits are ready to ship", I can hardly wait to solder the kit :-). See more at the AmbaSAT Blog.
Recent News from Ambasat (2020-11-16)
AmbaSat has processed my Order from Febuary 2020.
Photos by AmbaSAT-1