BBC: 'Pocket spacecrafts' to become a reality
/BBC Radio 4 Today show has featured an item on the recently launched 437 MHz Sprite satellites and the new Pocket Spacecraft being developed by a UK radio amateur
The tiny Sprite satellites, measuring 3x3cm and just a few millimetres thick, contain a 437 MHz transmitter, solar cell, sensor and antenna.
The CubeSat KickSat-1 carrying 104 Sprites was successfully launched on April 18, however, a suspected radiation glitch meant they could not be deployed before the CubeSat burnt up on re-entry on 14 May 2014.
UK radio amateur Michael Johnson M0MJJ has developed Pocket Spacecraft known as ‘Scouts’. A ‘Scout’ is a wafer thin disk with flexible electronics, smaller than a CD, containing a transceiver, antenna and solar cells. It is hoped to carry them in a CubeSat which would deploy them in Lunar orbit. It is understood that frequencies in the 435 MHz and 2400 MHz bands may be used.
Listen to the BBC Radio 4 clip ‘Pocket spacecrafts’ to become a reality in which BBC Click’s Spencer Kelly discusses the development of pocket spacecrafts - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01z4q22
KickSat-1 launch - http://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/18/successful-launch-of-kicksat-carrying-104-sprite-satellites/
British Interplanetary Society: Sprite Technical Summary - http://www.bis-space.com/2013/03/09/9301/kicksat-technical-summary
UK radio amateur plans Lunar Pocket Spacecraft - http://amsat-uk.org/2013/08/26/uk-radio-hams-lunar-cubesat-to-go-ahead/
Pocket Spacecraft - http://pocketspacecraft.com/
