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KickSat's tiny satellites may burn up before they're released
If you backed the KickSat project in hopes of getting your own tiny satellite into orbit, you'll want to brace yourself for some bad news. The host vehicle's master clock has unexpectedly reset while in space, pushing the mini satellites' release back to May 16th -- after the main craft is likely to burn up on reentry. It's possible to force a deployment once the host's uplink radio gets enough power, but that might not happen quickly enough to avoid a calamity.
Crowd-funded KickSat to carry over 100 tiny satellites into space this Sunday
It began with a Kickstarter project in 2011. This Sunday, KickSat creator Zac Manchester will see his poker chip-size satellites take flight when they launch from Cape Canaveral to an altitude of about 200 miles. More than 100 of the Sprite free-flying spacecraft will orbit the Earth as part of a technology demonstration. Each satellite includes a gyroscope, magnetometer, a Texas Instruments microcontroller, a radio, two antennas and solar cells for power. Once the Sprites are deployed from the KickSat cube sat on April 1st, the system will transmit telemetry packets that can be picked up by basic ham radio equipment back on Earth. Update: NASA has pushed back to the launch to March 30th.
