Kids launch satellite

gameboy

A BUNCH of students has built a micro-satellite that will be launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome next week.
The satellite, which is built from bits found in various university workshops, is part of an education effort by the European Space Agency (ESA).

More than 400 students took part in the project, chatting through the internet as it all took shape.

SSETI Express, short for Student Space Exploration Techology Initiative Express, is a 136 pound (62 kilogramme) spacecraft that will snap photographs of Earth, test a cold-gas attitude control system and function as a radio transponder for amateur radio operators.

It will also launch three "pico" satellites, four inches (10 centimetres) wide, built by universities in Germany, Japan and Norway. The "pico" satellites will be ejected into space on orbit.

The satellite cost ESA Education Department less than $121,185 (€100,000) to piece together, thanks to donated material, equipment and expertise from participating universities and industry businesses, ESA officials said.

ESA also is looking at getting a teen onto the moon as soon as they can find one who can get out of bed before three o'clock in the afternoon.

Source: The Inquirer

__________________

Only he who does nothing, does nothing wrong.

BGonaSTICK

That sounds like a sack of ****... more space junk to keep track off...

'Pico satellites' AKA shrapnel.

Let's hope it's all in a decaying orbit.

__________________