DIY satellites let you find your own space

National Public Radio (NPR) has broadcast an item on DIY satellites in which Audie Cornish interviewers one of the early purchasers of these $8000 TubeSat kits.

NPR report that a California company, Interorbital Systems, is offering a personal satellite kit that it says will open up space research for schools, hobbyists and amateur engineers.

The interview is with Professional astronomer Alex Antunes who bought a TubeSat kit with the intention of turning it into an outer-space musical instrument.

Antunes says the sun interacts with the Earth's magnetic field in the ionosphere and causes all sorts of activity. "Let's put something up there and convert that directly to sound data, so you can hear it."

The first TubeSats along with an Amateur Radio CubeSat are currently slated to launch on an Interorbital Neptune 30 rocket from Tonga at the end of this year.

You can listen to the NPR interview at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=128740683

CubeSat to launch on Neptune 30
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/
march2010/miniromit_1.htm

Interorbital
http://www.interorbital.com/

Getting started on Amateur Radio Satellites PDF
http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/408/168/

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