- Alba Orbital sells parts for satellites small enough to fit into your pocket
- Satellites built to the ‘PocketQube’ standard will be launched in November
- These include Morehead State University’s BearkerSat and the University of Maryland’s QubeScout-S1
PUBLISHED: 08:01 EST, 11 October 2013 | UPDATED: 08:04 EST, 11 October 2013
Space exploration is no longer the preserve of huge agencies who can spend up to £280 million on a single satellite launch.
Now amateur engineers – working in bedrooms, basements and garages – have the chance to launch their probes into space for just £12,000.
For the price of a car, anyone who can send a tiny 5cm cube satellite into orbit to take pictures of Earth and perform cosmic experiments.
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For the price of a car, anyone who can send a tiny 5cm cube satellite into orbit to take pictures of Earth and perform cosmic experiments
This has all been made possible by Glasgow-based start-up Alba Orbital who has recently begun creating and selling the building blocks for tiny satellites named ‘PocketQubes’.
Founder Tom Walkinshaw told MailOnline that he was inspired to launch the company after being rejected for a job at local company, Clyde Space.
‘My skillset at the time didn’t meet what they needed so I had to essentially create a company if I wanted to be involved in the industry,’ he said.
Clyde Space supplies CubeSats- a type of miniaturised satellite for space research that usually has a volume of exactly one litre and a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms.
Despite CubeSats’ small size, they can still cost more than $100,000 (£62,300) to launch, compared to the £12,000 it costs to launch a PocketQube satellite.
The smaller size of Walkinshaw’s PocketQube has driven down the cost of launch, and elements of a PocketQube can be stacked up to create a larger satellite.
‘We believe small satellites are on the cusp of a major breakthrough much the like personal computers were in the late 70’s/early 80’s,’ the company said on its website.
While space research is currently dominated by large agencies, the ability to launch satellites on the cheap could open up a host of opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
‘Small companies have short chains of commands, ideas can be implemented straight away and there is less bureaucracy and schedule slips,’ Walkinshaw said.
The PocketQube deployer, named the MR-FOD, will next fly on the Unisat-5 flight on a Dnepr rocket
PocketQube has teamed up with an Italian company called GAUSS which has brokered launch opportunities with a Russian rocket called Dnepr
‘They also have the freedom to try new things. Agencies may tend to stick to the popular choices as opposed to try something high risk with a low chance of success.’
PocketQube even helps find a launch vehicle. The group has teamed up with an Italian company called GAUSS which has brokered launch opportunities with a Russian rocket called Dnepr.
This wasn’t what Walkinshaw initially set out to do when he started a company.
Alba Orbital wanted to sell people the opportunity to have a space burial, with capsules of cremated ash being launched into orbit aboard a satellite.
But they had to change course due to some legal challenges with the UK Space Agency.
‘We have a really difficult environment for space startups to succeed in the UK which has forced us to change the plan more than once,’ he said.
‘Startups in general have lots of challenges and it is a constant battle to raise funds and sell products, hence why we are focused on this Kickstarter.’
The company, who is based in a MakLab in Glasgow, has developed a number of prototypes and is looking for Kickstarter funding to develop commercial structures that people can buy.
A number of satellites built to the PocketQube standard will be launched in November. These include Morehead State University’s BearkerSat and the University of Maryland’s QubeScout-S1.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2454251/Rise-DIY-satellite-Company-launches-initiative-allowing-ANYONE-send-probe-space—itll-cost-12-000.html#ixzz2hZ6eF9Bg Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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