"ArduSat" that anyone can take pictures from orbiting on an artificial satellite

"AruduSat" that you can upload your own program to a satellite that fly in space at a speed 18 times faster than the speed of sound and have the right to conduct experiments with 25 sensors and take pictures with just a few hundred dollars The project called Currently is underway in the USA.

This project is "Arduino(Arduino) "on the artificial satellite to create a development platform that can be used in the universe, aiming to open to the public widely, including not only developers and students, but also users who want to use for hobby It is said that it is done.

ArduSat - Your Arduino Experiment in Space by ppl4world - Kickstarter

It is uploaded to YouTubemovieStart from a fantastic image of the Earth taken from space.


The leader of the project is a man named Peter.


This project seems to aim to "Everyone can easily explore the universe (research)".


"AruduSat" is a 10 centimeter square satellite equipped with boards, sensors, cameras, etc. of "Arduino" created based on open source hardware project started in Italy.


If you participate by paying hundreds of dollars to the project, you will be able to send your own created program to the management team for content checks. And those that cleared the check are actually uploaded on the artificial satellite in space and developers can experiment and shoot freely using sensors and cameras and receive the results via the internet It is possible to do.

What kind of technology did you use to accomplish this project? It is as follows.


Mr. Jeron of the engineer will explain the parts.


Measure the electromagnetic wave spectrum that is installedSpectrometerYa


Optical camera, vibration sensor, light sensor, GPS etc.


In addition, it has a total of 25 sensors such as gyro sensor, Geiger counter and magnetic sensor.


The actual board is like this.


The progress of the project seems to be good, according to Mr. Peter "everything was as expected". And in order to actually launch this satellite into space, instead of getting financial aid from the proponents through the net, we will provide the right to conduct experiments in space.


The movie that the member describes about the details of the above can be seen below.

ArduSat Kickstarter Video - YouTube


For details of prototype sensor demo, please check the following movie.

Sensor prototype demo - YouTube


So, how do you actually launch this satellite in outer space? These two people who claim the engineer will answer Gimon.


The balloon test has already been completed successfully.


It seems that it was able to relay the live streaming video from the installed camera to the Internet by skipping the balloon about 30 km over such a feeling.


The pictures taken at that time are as follows.



And this is the launch rocket.


Two people to explain the mechanism with a model in hand.


An overview of the launch system to attach the rocket launcher to the larger balloon introduced earlier.


It is like this strategy to save the fuel etc by striking a rocket from high altitude, which is equipped with a launcher capable of adjusting the angle at the bottom of the balloon.


Experiments on rocket launching on the ground are being conducted ... ....


It seems that it seems to be successful if you look at the state that the sky is soaring high in a moment.


The situation of testing balloons and rockets used for the launch mentioned above can be seen in the following movies.

Team Prometheus partners with Ardusat! - YouTube


At the time of writing, this project won more than 60,000 dollars (about 4.8 million yen) from 427 people and it is breaking through the initial target amount.


Currently it raises the goal to 75 thousand dollars (about 6 million yen), and if it reaches this amount, you can double the size of the artificial satellite and install a higher performance camera etc.

So, what kind of services and products are available according to payment amount? An example is as follows.

· 1 dollar (about 80 yen): The right to receive discussion, participation in the comment page and thank you email.
· $ 150 (approx. 12,000 yen): The right to take and pick up 15 photos from outer space by choosing time and angle.
· $ 775 (about 62,000 yen) = Pioneer: The right to use a satellite for one week and execute its own application.
· $ 1,500 (approximately 120,000 yen) = Team Developer: In addition to the same right as "Pioneer" above, tests on the ground using a development kit including sensors and SciStarter's T-shirt etc.
· $ 10,000 (about 800,000 yen) = Platinum Partner: NASA's astronauts' right to name artificial satellites registered in the UN databaseStory · Mass Grave30 minutes Skype call with Dr. and so on.

Most of the top plans at the time of article creation are "sold" but since plans that do not have a limit on number of people are planned to accept applications until July 14, 2012, experiments using artificial satellites If you would like to take a photo shoot, please consider reviewing the registration.