Boeing’s New Pico Satellite
In an industry that measures payload by the pound, it makes sense to keep things tiny. Boeing has just launched a pico satellite, that weighs about a kilogram. Called Cubesat Testbed 1, the vehicle is capable of determining its attitude by sensing the earth’s magnetic field and the sun, and adjusting it with something called a magnetic torque coil. It also has an antenna, rechargable lithium ion batteries, and two redundant radios. Or one redundant radio, really. I suppose the first one is non-redundant.
But wait, there’s more! According to Wikipedia, seven different Cubesats were launched on the same Dnepr rocket. Cubesat is a design specification, not a specific vehicle. Among the other mini-borgs was part of the “Multi-application survivable tether” program, designed to test applications of space ropes. Some day, they’ll enable spacecraft to use all sorts of acrobatics to boost orbits, swing payloads higher, even propel a spacecraft using the Earth’s magnetic field.
When I first read the Boeing press release, I immediately imagined a spherical vehicle,sort of a miniature Sputnik. But since there’s no pressurized compartment, and no need for streamlining, a cube makes perfect sense from a design standpoint. So much for tiny flying saucers.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:13 am
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