South Korean Artist Prepares to Launch His Homemade Satellite Into Orbit

Now thats pretty cool. Nice work!

"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon."

i envy him for he is able to make one, how i wish i could make one too but not satellite but a single man plane that is capable enough to travel a hundred miles,ehehehe

Load up an Ipod put it on that sucker and let everyone listen.

this is very cool but at the sametime represents a serious danger in our orbit. though this artist/scientist, whose DIY achievement is amazing, can build such a thing, to launch it shows that others can do this too. if many of these were launched, they are still traveling at 15k - 18k mph in orbit. i dont need to post the kinetic energy of a 1kg object moving at 18,000 mph. "dispersion" is a real danger. if this badboy hits another sattelite, or spacecraft, it will do some serious damage.

now im not taking away from his accomplishment and as an accomplishment it is awesome. def cooler than an electric plane going 200mph. however, we cant launch everything into space just because we can. i know im a nagging mom telling her children not to run with scissors right now but...

"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon."

@d13, i would assume there's space between the commonly used orbitals that could perfectly accommodate a 10 cubic centimeter object. however i don't agree with you when you say we shouldn't toss stuff into space simply because we can. we can and we will anyways but instead of just saying don't do it instead we should take the stance of "be responsible" every satellite should have a rocket mounted on it that when the kill switch is pressed shoots it straight towards the earth allowing it to be burnt up during re-entry.

to mars or bust!

I want to launch a satellite in space, with extreme digital lighting, which I can put advertisements for the entire world to see! ROFL...

Oh, great. More space junk.

I think the article meant to say that the satellite is 10 cm per side (10 centimetres cubed), and not "10 cubic centimetres." 10 cubic centimetres would be less than 1 cubic inch! If it's 10 cm to a side the satellite is (10 cm)^3 or 1000 cm^3 (exactly one litre).

@D13 and @jefro
I've heard of cubesats being placed in an unstable orbit. Eventually the tiny amount of atmospheric drag they experience in their low orbit will cause them to deorbit and burn up as they re-enter the atmosphere. This way they don't become another piece of space junk. This may well be what they're doing with this satellite.

He's an artist who wants to be a scientist.
I'm a scientist who wants to be an artist.
Why can we all just get along?

I don't think we have to worry about hobbyists junking up the orbits. Most of these satellites have extremely unstable orbits, no propulsion systems for orbital adjustment, and are in a low enough orbit to experience micro-drag (the phenomenon of atomic oxygen causing minute dragon spacecraft thereby degrading the orbit faster). I'll give his satellite a year lifespan tops.

Wouldn't balloons rather than rockets be a safer bet for making orbit? Hydrogen escapes our atmosphere, so why not just catch a ride on that to the level of orbit and release, with little boosters for equaling out?

You could potentially use the hydrogen from the balloon as your propellant right? and the higher you go the less dense the atmosphere, and lesser gravity combined should make it easier to launch from further up if need be..