$8,000 - The Price Of Launching Your Own Satellite

Now, building your own, personal satellite and putting it into orbit is not such a far-fetched idea. Interorbital Systems, a small aerospace company based in Mojave, California, is selling kits to design and build small satellites for as low as $8,000. Randa and Roderick Milliron, the brains behind the programme, have been developing the bare-bones, low-cost rocket system for the past 14 years.

“Planet Earth has entered the age of the personal satellite with the introduction of Interorbital's TubeSat personal satellite (PS) Kit. The price of the TubeSat kit actually includes the price of a launch into Low-Earth-Orbit on an IOS NEPTUNE 30 launch vehicle. Since the TubeSats are placed into self-decaying orbits 310 kms above the Earth's surface, they do not contribute to the long-term build-up of orbital debris. After operating for a few months (the exact length of time on orbit is dependent on solar activity), they will safely re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. TubeSats are designed to be orbit-friendly,” the company explains.

The hexadecagon-shaped satellite weighs about 0.75 kg and is about the size of a tissue box.

“Selling flights as a package deal with satellite-building kits is proving to be a winning combination, with more than a dozen customers signed up to fly on the debut launch early next year,” reports Discovery News.

The company is all set to launch its first of the four sub-orbital test flights next month. Out of the 34 kits, 20 have already been sold to customers. "The acceptance and enthusiasm has been overwhelming," says Randa Milliron, chief executive officer and founder of Interorbital Systems.

Interorbital says a TubeSat is designed to function as a basic satellite bus or as a simple stand-alone satellite. Each TubeSat kit includes the satellite’s structural components, safety hardware, solar panels, batteries, power management hardware and software, transceiver, antennas, microcomputer and the required programming tools.

With these components alone, the builder can construct a satellite that puts out enough power to be picked up on the ground by a hand-held HAM radio receiver. Simple applications include broadcasting a repeating message from orbit or programming the satellite to function as a private orbital HAM radio relay station. These are just two examples. The TubeSat also allows the builder to add his or her own experiment or function to the basic TubeSat kit.

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