Pocket Spacecraft
Discussion
I saw an article about this on TV just now. No idea why you'd want to send a DVD to the moon but this is what we're looking at:
http://pocketspacecraft.com/
http://pocketspacecraft.com/
This is a development of the CubeSat project.
That is a set of specifications to build a probe that occupies one litre of space or less, typically a 10cm cube. It is intended for university students to build and to be small enough to pay a low cost or even beg a ride into orbit on the rocket of a larger, more expensive mission. The UK's Beagle 2 Mars lander, that never made it, was an example of the idea, although that was not a CubeSat.
The Pocket Spacecraft idea builds on the CubeSat concept to allow school students the opportunity to do the same, with a dedicated CubeSat as the 'mothership' that releases the PSs in Earth or Moon orbit, or to land on either. They might even make it to Earth, being so small and light that they would slow down rapidly once they hit atmosphere and not burn up, but they would crash like meteorites onto the Moon.
No matter - they could send back data on anything that aschool student could imagine, as long as some Comms time was also available.
JOhn
That is a set of specifications to build a probe that occupies one litre of space or less, typically a 10cm cube. It is intended for university students to build and to be small enough to pay a low cost or even beg a ride into orbit on the rocket of a larger, more expensive mission. The UK's Beagle 2 Mars lander, that never made it, was an example of the idea, although that was not a CubeSat.
The Pocket Spacecraft idea builds on the CubeSat concept to allow school students the opportunity to do the same, with a dedicated CubeSat as the 'mothership' that releases the PSs in Earth or Moon orbit, or to land on either. They might even make it to Earth, being so small and light that they would slow down rapidly once they hit atmosphere and not burn up, but they would crash like meteorites onto the Moon.
No matter - they could send back data on anything that aschool student could imagine, as long as some Comms time was also available.
JOhn
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