Monday, November 17, 2003
MICROSATS
At a mass of only 100 kilograms (a couple of hundred pounds) and described as being the size of "a domestic washing machine", the European PROBA-2 spacecraft marks an operational milestone in the development of microsatellites. Unlike previous micro-sats, this one carries a full suite of instruments to do useful science (instead of engineering material to serve as "proof of concept").
Devices like this represent the future of space exploration. Contrast them with the space probes of the past that weighed thousands of pounds. Then think about the difference in energy required to fling them off the Earth. The physics here is linear: Micro-sats require rockets an order of magnitude less powerful than the rockets used today. Even tasks that require great size -- like the employment of large antennas -- can be accomplished by fleets of micro-sats working in concert to create "virtual instruments."
I'm looking forward to the day when we have "nano-sats" -- devices the size of a cell phone, say, that can be launched with rockets that can fit on a roadable trailer. I envision a day -- not too distant -- when Earth orbit and the solar system is populated with a swarm of such devices, all networked together, that will give us permanent, real-time knowledge about all of our neighborhood in space.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 7:46 AM
