KSP Community CubeSat

[lajoswinkler]

I'm all for crazy ideas but there's a million things that should be worked out right from the start if you're serious about this and not just daydreaming. Like the already mentioned fact that someone needs to build the satellite, manage the ground station (possibly build one), test, test, test and then test some more that all the systems work, make the contract with the launcher, take responsibility for it, go to a meeting or two, manage the delivery of the satellite to the launch agency IN TIME, operate and manage the ground station after the launch, manage all the legal and paperwork and take personal responsibility for the not-so-little 100k+ dollars of money involved. Don't be offended is SQUAD isn't jumping on the chance to promote this project until someone actually steps up to handle all the organization involved. If something goes wrong and the 100k gets wasted or missing you can only imagine the bad PR for SQUAD.

I'm 100% confident that people on this forum have the ability to build some kind of CubeSat, it's the other stuff I'm more worried about.

True. Logistics is a and I don't think it can be done on a forum or under one year of time, but as I've said before, this needs experimental missions. Boosting PR, experimenting...

The place - United States. Most forumers live there.

[Nicholander]

EpicRootHairCell, but what if it does fail? That would be hundreds of thousands down the drain, and i don't think after that we'd be able to fund anything more after that. But i see that your first point is pretty valid.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Nicholander

[Aethon]

I think that once the NASA PR dept. hears about how "inspired" we all are by the GREAT! ARM pack and their collaboration with Squad, they'll be all over us like stink on a monkey.

Not sure of the conversion rate between monkey stink and launch cost reduction tho.

[dharak1]

Since we may be doing balloon drops we should do it somewhere flat wide and open like a desert in New Mexico or Nevada.

[EpicRootHairCell]

While Nicholander i understand you point about not being able to fund anything further, i see that we have 1 chance to launch a cube sat so lets fulfil that human instinct to go out and explore.?

[Nicholander]

I see, and I would love to send a lander to Phobos, but it seems that we need to do multiple missions. I suggested a plan earlier, and I think it is possible to do multiple KickStarters.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Nicholander

[Kryten]

How exactly do you intend to do transfer to and landing on Phobos using a cubesat? Precursor missions don't help if your goal is physically unfeasible.

[EpicRootHairCell]

If we go for multiple missions i think having the missions as stretch goals would be better

[shynung]

How exactly do you intend to do transfer to and landing on Phobos using a cubesat?

Looking at some other numbers, with successful gravity assists, aerobreaking on Mars, and another 600m/s of delta-V, it'd be possible to land on Phobos.

That's why it was on the poll.

[Nicholander]

Yeah, I see how having the further destinations being stretch goals, I infact suggested that before.

[Rakaydos]

How exactly do you intend to do transfer to and landing on Phobos using a cubesat? Precursor missions don't help if your goal is physically unfeasible.

GTO deployment to LTO to solar orbit, wait a year, earth flyby to get mars intercept, mars aerobreak into phobos transfer orbit, decellerate.

[EpicRootHairCell]

The mission to Phobos is hitch a ride to GTO, small burn to lunar intercept, lunar slingshot to escape + a small velocity, C.1 year later earth slingshot, arrive at Mars aerobrake into Phobos intercept orbit, then burn into Phobos orbit, all in all the figure banned around is 1.5 KM/s

[dharak1]

I think we should plan our location first. Then we can plan some equipment we want on our LEO mission make a budget and think about funding.

[PlonioFludrasco]

Voted for the Phobos mission as the ultimate goal.

BUT I think the only way to get there is to get a ride on someone else's spacecraft not only to Earth orbit but to Mars, when this will be possible.

Think about it, the interplanetary transfer takes about 8 months, and requires an high precision tracking and communication system, plus hardware that have to survive the radiation envrionment for a lot of months.

If the cubesat is deployed directly into Mars orbit, you won't need powerful transmitter(as you relay on other's satellites), and your hardware have to survive only for the mission time and not the whole transfer.

Plus, you'll need a lot less delta-v, and the saved weight could be used for SCIENCE!

But for now, I think we shold focus on suborbital/LEO mission, as it's currently the only target we could be capable for.

The debris deorbit or RV it's a really cool idea, as Kessler syndrome is seriously becoming something we should take care of, and may attract a lot of interest from space agencies.

Plus, on such mission you can demonstrate orbital maneuvering, attitude control ecc. capabilities needed to go beyond LEO.

[PakledHostage]

Prepare to be even more amazed. This is, after all, a community of armchair scientists that have played KSP.

This is a key point. In almost three years of hanging around this community, I've observed that playing KSP gives players the mistaken impression that spaceflight is easy. It isn't. When you're 16, 18 or even 22, anything can seem possible, but the sad reality is that it isn't. Great things are only possible with a lot of hard work, luck and talent.

The chorus of voices on this thread (some more polite than others) trying to quell the enthusiasm should be listened to. You'll need to come up with a proposal for an achievable goal with an emotional "hook" if you're ever going to convince people to get behind this project with thousands of their own dollars and/or thousands of hours of their free time. A cubesat in LEO is achievable but not very interesting and won't fire people's imaginations. A cubesat landing on Phobos is interesting but would sound (to anyone with the real means to make it happen) like the delusions of a dreamer. You'll need a well thought out goal that lies between boring and impossible to inspire people to commit any time and/or money to the project. And your kickstarter campaign has to be infectious.

Good luck with it. I'm happy to help in any way that I can. But someone needs to sell me (and people like me who have the skills, professional experience and/or money to make a significant contribution) on the belief that their contributions won't be wasted before the idea will go anywhere.

[EpicRootHairCell]

I think we will function as international body linked via the internet but with construction taking place probably in the U.S. but the U.K would be a good bet to.

P.S. i'm British

[Rakaydos]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how that 1.5 KM figure will be affected by less-than-optimum launch timing? The coordination of launch trajectory, Moon, and mars make it unlikely to find an existing carrier that will get us where we want to go in a single orbit. So how much do we have to overengineer it to account for the launch opportunities we're likey to get for GTO?

[EpicRootHairCell]

Did Kenedy know in 62 that america would walk on the moon in that decade? no. Is he renound as a great man because he made that pledge? yes. Lets go in that spirit.

[Nicholander]

So the construction of the CubeSat will take place in the US, but where in the US? I'm assuming that K^2 lives in the US, so I think it'll be constructed where he lives.

[PakledHostage]

Did Kenedy know in 62 that america would walk on the moon in that decade? no. Is he renound as a great man because he made that pledge? yes. Lets go in that spirit.

Kennedy was a great speaker and inspired a nation, but he also had a lot of luck to help him out. Like getting shot... (if you'll excuse the dark humor). The Apollo program retained its momentum in large part because Kennedy was assassinated.

[dharak1]

We need to start small. Maybe a 2U in LEO to start with and figure things out. People would be more likely to back future projects if we have some experience. The U.S. is probably the best place to construct as that's where the most users are and probably has the cheapest shipping because that's where the parts are already.

[lajoswinkler]

People, we will not deploy anything outside LEO, so stop wasting time and clogging the thread with it.

It's naive and stupid to think it's possible. This is not KSP, it is real world.

[EpicRootHairCell]

While it is hard to under value experience, it is even harder to undervalue the PR and monetary benefits of mad had (but possible) scheme that pushes the envelope persuaded by a small bunch of eccentrics.

[EpicRootHairCell]

They deploy on GTO orbits albeit for more money than LEO

[Nicholander]

dharak1 is right, we need to sort out what our first mission will do. I think the max it could be is a 2U or 3U debris de-orbit tech demo. (We could either find some small enough debris, or seperate a small little module on the spacecraft, get some distance from it (100-300 Km or something) and then rendezvous with, attach to it, and finnaly de-orbit it.)

Edited July 15, 2014 by Nicholander