Interorbital Systems, an American aerospace company that constructs rocket and spacecraft, has announced an exciting product development: you can now very cost-effectively buy, and launch your own satellite into orbit.

You couldn’t quite compare Virgin Galactic and Interorbital Systems (IOS) just yet, but IOS has a sound mission:

IOS’ mission is to develop an affordable Orbital, Lunar, and Interplanetary transportation system.

Founded in 1996, IOS has been developing this particular idea since 2009. It had the major goal of affordably trumping other much pricier options on the market – which cost a little under R1 million.

For the good price of approximately R60 000, IOS provides you with the TubeSat Personal Satellite (PS) Kit, complete with launch to low Earth orbit (LEO).

GizMag has the jargon:

In the last decade, interest in picosatellites, or satellites weighing less than about a kilogram, has been increasing rapidly. A TubeSat is a (very) low-cost alternative to the CubeSat, which is currently the leading picosatellite standard. Nearly 100 CubeSat’s have been built and launched. (Not all launches were successful.)

A CubeSat is essentially that – a nearly cube shaped satellite measuring 10x10x10 cm, although they are scalable along one axis – with a total mass of less than 1,33 kilograms. The basic structure of a CubeSat is about 0,4 kilograms, so a 0,9 kilogram payload can be accommodated. CubeSat’s have been proposed for everything from simple radio transponders to interplanetary missions. Despite their popularity, CubeSat’s are not inexpensive – by the time you have assembled a CubeSat and had it placed in orbit, your cost will be well north of $100 000, a fortune compared to IOS’s cost of $8 000.

The far more affordable TubeSat, oddly enough, has a hexadecagonal (16-sided) cross-section rather than the circular form one might expect from the name. This allows it flat surfaces on which to mount solar cells. A TubeSat has an outside diameter of 8,94 centimetres, an inside diameter of 8,56 centimetres and is 12,7 centimetres long. The maximum mass of a TubeSat is 0,75 kilograms. As the TubeSat with the standard electronics (power, communications, and microcomputer) installed weighs 0,5 kilograms, any additional payload must weigh no more than 0,25 kilograms, and must occupy no more than about 5 centimetres of the length of the tube – a payload volume of 288 cc.

The finished TubeSat is launched to self-decaying orbits roughly 310 kilometres in altitude, where it will remain in orbit for several weeks (the duration depends on the exact orbit and on solar weather conditions). They will not add to the orbital debris problem.

The TubeSat comes in the form of a kit, which includes the satellite’s structural components, printed circuit board (PCB) Gerber Files, electronic components, solar cells, batteries, 0,5 watt UHF transceiver, antennas, microcomputer, and the required programming tools. With these components, the builder can construct a satellite that can be received on the ground by a hand-held amateur radio receiver. Perhaps the simplest mission is to broadcast a repeating message from space, or to program the satellite to act as an amateur radio transponder, allowing ham radio operators to communicate using the TubeSat as a relay.

You might wonder what people do with these kinds of things, and rightly so.

Although a different satellite was likely used in this recent project to study the population size of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica – a population that turned out to be double the size of what scientists had earlier estimated – this is exactly one of the proposed uses of such affordable satellite technology.

IOS lists this, and several other uses:

• Earth-from-space video imaging
• Earth magnetic field measurement
• Satellite orientation detection (horizon sensor, gyros, accelerometers, etc.)
• Orbital environment measurements (temperature, pressure, radiation, etc.)
• On-orbit hardware and software component testing (microprocessors, etc.)
• Tracking migratory animals from orbit
• Testing satellite stabilization methods
• Biological experiments
• On-orbit advertising
• Space art
• Space burials

You can even buy your TubeSat online.

[Sources: GizMag, IOS]