
Can Oregon's first nano-satellite, OreSat, get students interested in space? - JoshTriplett
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2018/01/oregons_first_nano-satellite_o.html
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cosban
I always wonder why articles like this are written from the perspective that
things are done to get children/students/people to be interested in space.
Perhaps I surround myself by a weird circle of people that are very interested
but also lack the immediate opportunity to go do anything about it.

One figure we could look at is sales figures for games like Kerbal Space
Program. It was one of the top selling games on Steam and has sold over 2
million copies [1] on that platform alone.

Don't get me wrong, I love that these ventures get media coverage, but I
dislike that there is a stigma that people aren't interested in space.

[1][https://steamspy.com/app/220200](https://steamspy.com/app/220200)

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nickysielicki
On the same topic, in just under 13 hours there will be a launch of another
amateur cubesat, FOX-1D. You can follow the live launch blog here:
[https://www.amsat.org/fox-1d-launch-live-
blog/](https://www.amsat.org/fox-1d-launch-live-blog/)

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davidcuddeback
That link is currently returning 404, because amsat.org is down:

> AMSAT web services are degraded due to emergency security maintenance. We
> apologize for the outage.

([https://www.amsat.org/](https://www.amsat.org/))

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rsbartram
I would hope so.

Program like STEM and STEAM are gaining popularity starting at a very young
age and this is driving the increased popularity and attention.

[https://latechnews.org/raymond-ealy-founder-
steamcoders/](https://latechnews.org/raymond-ealy-founder-steamcoders/)
[https://latechnews.org/stem3-academy-open-house-
november-4/](https://latechnews.org/stem3-academy-open-house-november-4/)

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forkandwait
I wonder if Free Geek can refurbish and donate some useful parts?

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Rescis
Its good to know my donations would have atleast some purpose.

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nhebb
> NASA will give OreSat a free ride to the International Space Station. From
> there, it will be shot out of the side of the space station to begin its
> orbit. OreSat will begin falling back toward Earth, but moving at such a
> high speed that it will pass some 4,000 times around the globe before it
> descends and burns up in Earth's denser atmosphere.

Anyone know how they propel it out the side?

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mciancia
They use spring. Really, as simple as that

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NanoRacks_CubeSat_Deployer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NanoRacks_CubeSat_Deployer)

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nhebb
Ah, that makes sense. I figured they wouldn't have anything blasting out of
the ISS, so I was wondering if it was some sling shot or mini-trebuchet
apparatus.

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penagwin
Might be hard to make/use a trebuchet in space ;)

(Or at least low gravity)

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nhebb
Yeah, that wasn't that brightest thought I've had. I guess I should have said
catapult.

