Interorbital Systems

United States

Planet Earth has entered the age of the Personal Satellite with the introduction of Interorbital's TubeSat Personal Satellite (PS) Kit. The IOS TubeSat PS Kit is the low-cost alternative to the CubeSat. It has three-quarters of the mass (0.75-kg or 1.65-lb) and volume of a CubeSat, but still offers plenty of room for most experiments or applications. And, best of all, the price of the TubeSat kit includes the price of a launch into Low Earth Orbit on an IOS modular launch vehicle. Since the TubeSats are placed into self-decaying orbits 310 kilometers (192 miles) above the Earth's surface, they do not contribute to the long-term build-up of orbital debris. After operating for a several weeks or months (the exact length of time on orbit is dependent on solar activity), they will safely re-enter the atmosphere and burn-up.

CubeSats are designed to function as a Basic Satellite Bus or as a simple stand-alone satellite. Each CubeSat kit includes an aluminum chassis, printed circuit board (PCB) Gerber Files, electronic components, solar cells, batteries, transceiver (requires an authorized frequency allocation from the FCC or equivalent non-US entity), antennas, and an Arduino microcontroller. With these components, the builder can construct a satellite that can send a signal from space. This signal can be picked up on the Earth's surface with a hand-held amateur radio receiver. Simple applications include broadcasting a repeating message from orbit or programming the satellite to function as an orbital amateur radio relay station. . .