When we think of satellites and equipment in the same sector, it is natural to take into account that they are created and built by large companies. But this is not always the case. This cheap satellite, launched by SpaceX, has been a success, having been built with parts purchased from Amazon.
Project SBUDNIC: Made by students and launched by SpaceX
The news is provided by the Spanish channel Xataka, which says that a group of students from Brown University in the United States, thought of taking the concept of "cheap" to an extreme. In this sense, the group of students managed to build an inexpensive, fully functional satellite and also raised awareness of a growing and complex problem: space debris.
The SBUDNIC project was born in 2021 as a work between the Brown School of Engineering and the Italian National Research Council. The goal was to build a cheap satellite to launch on a SpaceX rocket within 12 months.
All materials for the satellite were purchased from hardware stores and online stores such as Amazon, which included a 20 euro CPU and 48 Energizer AA batteries. The university provided a 3D printer to build the various components of the satellite. One of those components was the drag sail, a Kapton polyimide film that was integrated into the satellite to help it return to Earth.
The satellite was ready on time and successfully passed SpaceX and NASA launch requirements.
Currently, about a year later, this satellite is about 470 kilometers above Earth. In addition to the materials used, as mentioned, this satellite also aims to raise awareness of the space junk that is piling up. It has been shown that it is possible to launch small satellites and thus significantly reduce space debris.
