

Planetary Resources shows off Arkyd-100  - 3327
http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/21/planetary-resources/
including their class 10K clean room.
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edlinfan
Planetary's approach to microsatellites is VERY daring. Instead of flying
bulletproof, radiation-hardened single vehicles (like NASA or JPL), they plan
to put up scads of cheap, disposable spacecraft using off-the-shelf hardware.

This is an uncommon approach, and IMO it perfectly meshes with their exclusive
use of unmanned vehicles. Who cares about reliability, it's just a robot and
there are many more where it came from...

As an example of the "off-the-shelf hardware" thing, they are even looking at
using WiFi (and high-gain antennas) to communicate with orbiting satellites
until they can get laser communications (or enough money to buy time on the
Deep Space Network).

EDIT: Another example is that instead of a purpose-built real-time OS (like
VxWorks, which JPL used on the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers), they are
using Linux with a real-time patch. Maybe it's not quite as reliable, but it's
much more powerful.

Source: Planetary recently gave a talk at my university. I'm sure most of this
is up on their website as well.

~~~
incision
>Planetary's approach to microsatellites is VERY daring. Instead of flying
bulletproof, radiation-hardened single vehicles (like NASA or JPL), they plan
to put up scads of cheap, disposable spacecraft using off-the-shelf hardware.

>Who cares about reliability, it's just a robot and there are many more where
it came from...

I'd expect anyone whose orbital hardware isn't cheap and disposable might care
about scads of unreliable, soon to be junk being tossed up there.

~~~
edlinfan
True, space junk is an issue, and I don't know what Planetary is doing to
mitigate that.

But, bear in mind that only the Arkyd 100 is supposed to stay in Earth orbit.
The planned 200, 300, etc. all boost off in various directions (investigating
and later, exploring asteroids) so their eventual fate doesn't matter as much.

~~~
meaty
Perhaps we need a startup that produces craft to deorbit all the junk...

------
InclinedPlane
Original press release: [http://www.planetaryresources.com/2013/01/asteroid-
mining-up...](http://www.planetaryresources.com/2013/01/asteroid-mining-
update-from-the-factory-floor/)

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DennisP
Looks like they're going to have competition:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5095706>

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troymc
Related: Check out MOST, "the world's smallest space telescope", developed in
Canada and launched about ten years ago.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOST_%28satellite%29>

~~~
Gravityloss
They use single string commercial components but have tested them in a
particle acceleration for radiation tolerance. Also the software must take
into account that upsets or breakage can happen.

NASA and other space organizations and companies do much more expensive and
comprehensive radiation testing, something like 100,000 dollars per integrated
circuit, while MOST probably did all the components in total for that kind of
sum.

And MOST is in a 800 km orbit, worse radiation than ISS.

It's space technology, all kinds of myths are spread around. If there would be
more openness, diversity and launch opportunities, progress would really take
off as new solutions could be simply tested.

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3327
I like the approach of a compact satellite. if phones can fit into your hand
its about time a satellite should fit into the trunk of a car.

