

Nanosatellites part of Endeavour payload - ChuckMcM
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/space-shuttle-endeavour-launch-minisatellites-.html

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ChuckMcM
This is a technology I've been watching for the last 15 years. Once you reach
a particular amount of compute at the scale of a playing card, you start
having the ability to create 'meta' satellites out of clusters. Thin whisker
like conductors trailing like long cilia beyond one of these can use the
magnetic field of the earth to do station keeping and move around without fuel
(using only electricity from solar cells to add charge to the whiskers.)

The 'smart dust' people and others are working along these lines and could
create a new market for satellite delivery which consists of filling various
voids in an otherwise 'full' launch with nano-satellites which, once deployed,
would work their way toward the rest of the group and then join into their
network.

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dodo53
What would be the implications for space junk in orbit? Is lots of dust-size
stuff more dangerous (would spread over a wider volume, or is it just like
having a normal satellite but only most of it is empty space)?

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noonespecial
It still seems like a long way off, but I'm quite convinced that model
rocketry's "sputnik moment" is coming.

