Somewhere above us, a satellite no larger than a loaf of bread circles the planet, built by students for roughly the cost of a modest car. Its makers at Brown University set out to show that reaching orbit need not be ruinously expensive, and to answer, in a small way, the growing crowd of dead machinery and fragments that shares the sky with the living. Whether their quiet machine can actually help thin that crowd is still a question the evidence has not yet settled.
Brown Students' $10,000 AA-Battery Satellite SBUDNIK Offers a Low-Cost Path to Reducing Space Debris
Somewhere above us, a satellite no larger than a loaf of bread circles the planet, built by students for roughly the cost of a modest car. Its makers at Brown University set out to show that reaching orbit need not be ruinously expensive, and to answer, in a small way, the growing crowd of dead machinery and fragments that shares the sky with the living. Whether their quiet machine can actually help thin that crowd is still a question the evidence has not yet settled.
A satellite about the size of a loaf of bread is orbiting Earth, and it cost roughly $10,000 to build. Its name, SBUDNIK, nods to the first artificial satellite the Soviet Union launched. The builders are graduate and undergraduate students at Brown University, and they set out to prove that getting into space does not have to be ruinously expensive.
The team launched SBUDNIK in June of last year on a SpaceX rocket. They assembled it from off-the-shelf parts, including AA batteries and microprocessors costing $20 each. Their one major addition was a 3D-printed drag sail made of Kapton polyimide film, which opened like an umbrella once in orbit. The satellite has been photographing Earth and transmitting temperature readings, so it is doing real work alongside its role as a demonstration.
The sail connects the mission to the problem of orbital debris. Low Earth orbit holds an estimated 6,000 tonnes of material, much of it moving at about 18,000 miles per hour. Most satellites remain aloft for 25 years or more, so the junk keeps piling up. The students believe SBUDNIK could help, based on a new analysis of Air Force Space Command data. That conclusion comes from the team itself, and its details have not yet been independently examined.
A satellite about the size of a loaf of bread is circling Earth, and it cost roughly $10,000 to build. It is called SBUDNIK, a play on the name of the first artificial satellite the Soviet Union put into space. Its builders are a team of graduate and undergraduate students at Brown University.
The students launched SBUDNIK in June of last year, riding on a SpaceX rocket. Getting anything into orbit is hard and expensive, and the project set out to show that it does not have to be ruinously so. The team assembled the cubesat from off-the-shelf components, including AA batteries and microprocessors that cost $20 apiece.
Their one notable addition was a 3D-printed drag sail made from Kapton polyimide film. Once in space, the sail opened like an umbrella. The satellite has since been photographing Earth and sending back temperature data, so it is doing real work as well as serving as a demonstration.
The sail is where the debris question comes in. Low Earth orbit holds an estimated 6,000 tonnes of material, far too much for anyone to see with the naked eye. Millions of pieces, small and large, travel at about 18,000 miles per hour, which is seven times the speed of a bullet. Most satellites stay in orbit for 25 years or longer, so the junk accumulates, and every additional piece is a threat to the spacecraft already up there.
The Brown team now believes SBUDNIK could be part of an answer. Their conclusion rests on a new analysis of data from Air Force Space Command, which they read as suggesting that their low-cost satellite could contribute to reducing debris in orbit. The reporting does not spell out the details of that analysis or what the data show, and the claim comes from the team itself.
That caveat matters. The satellite's low price, its commercial parts, and its working drag sail are established facts. Its role in cleaning up orbit is the students' interpretation, and it still needs independent confirmation. The next thing to watch is whether outside analysts examine the same tracking data and reach the same conclusion.
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