The Smallest Satellite In Space

[@alexkaplan3126]

I took a class from him last year at Stanford. He is working on a doing a constellation to replace the Argos system right now.

[@moldzillam261]

That’s super cool!

[@dkosmari]

"Then a random cosmic ray happened." That's actually my first thought when I saw what those kicksats look like. At least wrap them in aluminium foil. The whole reason space tech not being the bleeding edge is because it needs, among other things, radiation hardening. Otherwise we could just send up a smartphone with a very expensive roaming data plan.

[@beaconrider]

The thing will manage to get a signal through the foil?

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

You can if you keep the antenna sticking out of the foil. Not that its a big deal, even cellphones get signals inside a aluminum box just fine. The technology we have today don't require a very strong signal to communicate

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Tin foil blocks CIA mind control rays, why not cosmic rays too?

[@alexbaker4518]

If tinfoil can stop all those government gay frogs then why not save tiny satellites with it

[@willblack7353]

They actually sent android cubesats lol

[@alphaadhito]

So, they can launch the *smallest* satellite with two cubesat with 100 sprites each, with the *smallest* rocket (on previous episode)? And by that, can they technically beat the previous world records?

[@alecdegraaf442]

Scott I won't skip many ads on your videos, but I'm sorry if it gives me the option to I will be skipping the emoji movie ads.

[@General12th]

What's wrong with the EMOJI MOVIE? Coming July 28th!

[@terrydavisgaming8689]

It gave me oral cancer

[@kendokaaa]

I still can't believe they made an actual movie...

[@logansilverman2733]

Alec Degraaf Ignoring the Emoji Move, regardless of whether or not you skip an ad, Scott still gets the money for the ad.

[@longswordhana]

Logan Silverman they only get revenue from ads not immediately skipped. That's why unskippable ads cost more to advertisers.

[@thomasmaxfield8953]

Last time I was this early, CAREER mode was "coming soon" for about 3 years.

[@finno-px6of]

Thomas Maxfield console update was "coming soon", couple months later... "it will be ready when it's ready"...

[@JustinKoenigSilica]

Finn O'Sullivan Byrne a major update was coming soon. and it came. it just wasn't major, it was just language support. nobody cares about that, that's not a major update haven't played since.

[@amxx]

"Fly by Alpha Centauri and get the data back ..." → The bigest chaleng migth be to get the data back. How would you make a microscopic satelite send the data back to earth ?

[@chris45724]

That's a good question. maybe on one of the pylons that hold the solar sail thing you could stick an antenna. although i don't think that would be good enough to send data to earth.

[@scottmanley]

The starshot plan uses the light sail to take high power laser pulse from earth and reflect it back to recievers on earth, data can be sent by changing orientation of sail.

[@xavierrodriguez2463]

The solar sail could also act as a radio dish, maybe?

[@rich1051414]

I understood its long range communication to be more like morris code with light, by selectively reflecting back the light to earth. Regardless, I think you are combining two stories into one. The solar sail idea and the sprite cluster idea are two separate ideas.

[@amxx]

Even with a large radio dish you would need a gigantic amount of energy to send enough power to hope receiving any of it. We are not talking about a probe somewhere around Jupiter or Pluto ... we are talking interplanetary distances, over a thousand of time further then Voyager I & II (they are within a 24light-hour radius from earth ... Proxima Centauri is 4 light-years away) ... and dont forget that signal strengh decrases with the square of the distance !

[@ordelore]

I love these real space videos. KSP is fun and all, but these really set you up to be a very knowledgeable person

[@Krasbin]

The laser sail mentioned near the end, wouldn't that overheat with such an amount of power focused on it? The only way the sail could lose heat is through black body radiation, that might be too slow.

[@kelduck8851]

Perhaps you design the system to not heat up, make the sail reflective, after all you only want the beam to bounce off the sail to impart momentum.

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

It has to be almost perfectly reflective or it will explode in the first millisecond. Cooling off isn't an option.

[@Enatbyte]

FYI, Kicksat-2 was a success! The Sprites were successfully deployed in orbit back in early 2019. I think this video needs an update.

[@Exevium]

When I tell my friends there are satellites as big as a cellphone, they look at me like I'm crazy. Next time I'll show them this vid. Tnx for uploading!

[@jonathanemery9557]

If you want to be technical than the smallest satellite is probably a pebble just orbiting somewhere as a satellite is just an object orbiting another so the moon is technically a satellite I found that one interesting. Anyways nice video.

[@witchofengineering]

5:45 100 Gigawatts?? Great Scott, You could power 82 time machines with that power!!!

[@dosmastrify]

Wiktor Guzowski no no, it was a jiggawatt. I don't know what magnitude that is but it's more than giga

[@FireStillPlays]

Great Scott! 400 Giga Watts!?!

[@ChozoSR388]

We're sending you back to the future!

[@CombraStudios]

Did I just miss a back to the future reference

[@Ruddpocalypse]

Yes, Scott is Great

[@michaelparker2449]

It's pronounced Jiggerwatts.

[@yourdad5717]

Pun intended

[@shiitakestick]

if they intercommunicate they can make a nerve tentacle ( or metastacize, depending on your pov) reaching further into time at higher speed than ever before . plus the string can be added to continually . maybe each could also speed the next along with a boost of stored energy.

[@astronot1997]

I haven't seen in the comment section but these things might survive reentry. Since their kinetic energy to surface ratio is lower than big satellites, they decelerate strongly. The reentry heat might not.be a problem in that case.

[@gregsmith80]

Launching tiny, programmable satellites into space sounds like a great concept for a Zack-like game.

[@niels_m_h]

What sort of orbits could you achieve if you launched one of these gram-sized satellites from a "cannon" in space? I.e. giving it some strong push without any active mechanics or thrusters on the satellite itself. Could you bring one to solar orbit with a cannon launch from the ISS? Also, how light could you make an attitude control system for these?

[@valken666]

Is there a way to stop those near speed of light satellites yet? Maybe some tiny propellers?

[@jaystone3730]

Put the lasers in space to lessen the atmosphere scattering. Use the incoming laser to return information by changing its phase so it doesn't interfere with the lasers pushing it

[@monke1987]

Wouldn't the smallest satellite technically be some chip of paint or something that came off of a spacecraft?

[@caveofthewumpus6329]

Reality check: hitting 4 grams (+sail) with Gigawatt lasers (sufficient to hit the sails with Megawatts of power) will effectively turn *anything* into plasma. Eventually you will need radiators made out of gold leaf that are larger than the huge sails, but still you have the problem that hitting relativistic speeds (before flying past Mars) requires megawatts of power per gram. Even if the sails/mirrors are 99.999% efficient, the thing is going to melt.

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Apparently not, though.

[@TheBynirn]

Would the satellites from the proposed Alpha Centauri mission be able to take pictures, or are they too small?

[@ZOMBIEHEADSHOTKILLER]

this is interesting, lately ive been thinking it would be cool to have a bunch of tiny satellite, small and cheep enough for just about any one, to launch into space. ( Astronaut Farmer style).... particularly i think it would be cool to "shot gun blast" the moon, with a bunch of tiny satellites with cams, and map the moon, with more and more detail, as they get closer and closer to it, and transmitting the pictures, back to earth just right untill the impact...... this should give very good detail of the surface sense they will be getting soo close to it.

[@TheAkashicTraveller]

Well it was recently discovered that lasers can be combined using diamond allowing the use of multiple smaller lasers rather than one big one and reducing wast heat. So that's one technology that could be one step to the starshot.

[@askhowiknow5527]

Releasing 100 or so very small satellites at 51.6 degrees and near the altitude of the ISS...? That just sounds scary

[@the_imperfectionest]

You know, with this and the small boosters you recently discussed on a previous video, why doesn't someone make a mass media (usb, cd-rom,) type of payload and make it sub orbital, and safely enter the atmosphere over N. Korea and safely separate high in the atmosphere? I wonder if the costs (and crowd funding efforts) could make such a thing possible.

[@rich1051414]

I would fear collisions when firing them at such a high velocity, but I suppose it probably only seems like a greater risk than it is, with how much space there is between stuff in space.

[@johnbuckingham4904]

loving the TLD jumper! 3 days till launch, thanks for being the first in my subbed to show off the game!

[@wangyeeee]

The problem with those satellites is that they are made of commercial grade components which may work in the harsh space environment for couple of days if not hours before they fail.

[@LexieAssassin]

What I want to know though is, what's the smallest thing that you could launch from Earth, go to the Moon, land, and return...?

[@Veptis]

How much does it cost to launch 4 grams? I would do a mini constellation of tiny SATs with a Lepton sensor and some gyros to image our inner planets or look for Quasars redshifted into LWIR. The Mayak sounds interesting and But we need help to get the correct orbital data and more pictures on heavens-above! Could you share you thoughts on the project?

[@MTd2]

Try to launch one of those tiny satellites in realistic earth in KSP! Thus, you can make the smallest rocket. I'd recommend you to launch the rocked in Peru or Bolivia, because they are closer to the equator.

[@huegass1650]

First Artificial satellite was Sputnik 1

[@alphaadhito]

Hue Gass Slow clap👋, slow clap... 👏

[@xramejin]

Clever.

[@mrskwid1]

Hue Gass got him

[@RyanTheCreator]

You nearly triggered me, thank god.

[@strika2000]

World war

[@Dovahkiir96]

with the light sail, would it work attaching the laser onto the satellite to propel itself or would that not work?

[@BaronVonQuiply]

Hey, Scott. I was wondering if there are designated orbital "lanes" to keep things somewhat orderly or if it's a free-for-all matter of launching your craft and keeping an eye on it to avoid potential collisions.

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Both.

[@SgtMcGee-dy2ds]

At 5:36 the space craft flex's but it shouldn't flex in space because there is no drag to make it do so

[@CombraStudios]

it flexes because edges get less kick than center it's not drag it' unequally distributed force

[@djredrover]

"When one of the rockets he was working on, exploded... basically in his face" ahah I laughed out LOUD.

[@nwmancuso]

So speaking of microchip boards, can you do a video about "Tin Wiskers" and their effect on Satellites?

[@rancidmarshmallow4468]

What if you tied a big Estes rocket to one of these? Super high t/w ratio, wonder if you could get to the moon?

[@ZOMBIEHEADSHOTKILLER]

the light/solar sale satellite animation, seams to show the satellite 90 degrees off from what it should be. the animation shows it flying through space like a shurikin , rather then a sail.

[@VAPhillyFan54]

Have we calculated the effect on the earth from this laser?

[@Dan-qp1el]

Hey Scott.....I'm interested in how cube sats are being used by HAM radio. Care to do a piece on cube sats?

[@kardeef33317]

I know very little about amateur rocketry, since they are so small and light, could one be put in to orbit with a model rocket?

[@julianschwienbacher2958]

The „Max Valier Sat“ is the satelite of my scool in Italy💪🏻

[@ThePiGuy24]

these need little iddy biddy ion thrusters

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

And a teeny weeny little fuel tank.

[@AdMBandLeader]

You actually have a point. A teeny weeny self steering thruster system will help em stay on course in orbits.

[@erratichomelessmanwithagun6726]

Twirlip Of The Mists i think ion engines dont require fuel but they do need batteries.

[@drspastic]

@@erratichomelessmanwithagun6726 not fuel but reactive maas. mercury is good

[@nickierv13]

Interesting question to consider with something this small is how much of a navigational hazard will they become? Granted the launch/deployment area is known but they will drift over time. It doesn't seem like the orbits will decay that fast so will you end up with a cloud that will show up on the navigation sensors or is the relative velocity low enough to make safety for other satellites a relative non issue?

[@GiantSavage117]

Man im seeing this question, or ones like it, all over the place. Apparently Scott wasn't clear enough in his explanation, shame on you Scott. They are being deployed in lower orbits which cause them to burn up in the atmosphere shortly (months) after deployment, that's why the second one sent up failed. The timer that was meant to deploy them when they were far enough away for other orbits to be safe, failed, and the whole thing burned up without ever releasing its payload. From Scotts explanation I gathered these are just tests, they just want to see if its even possible to have a viable micro-satellite, I doubt their going to be putting huge clouds of these in Earth orbit. These would probably be more effective as an alternative to the huge probes we use to explore our solar system and possibly others. Being so small it wouldn't cost as much getting them up there, we could send multiples of them in different directions at once, and each one probably costs less in general than a conventional probe/satellite.

[@HobkinBoi]

What about using a protocol like LoRa? Sure, itll make the satellites a bit more expensive, but I feel like it'd work reasonably well for its range

[@romeodavis1052]

Oh hey this is the guy who did the xenonauts play through back in 2014. great to see you are still uploading!

[@headrockbeats]

At one point during your explanation of all the calamities that befell these things, I was expecting you to say that the next tiny satellite "burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp".

[@MatthewSuffidy]

Getting the right orientation for those would be tricky on their own for the solar.

[@imaginerus]

Thanks for putting the link at 1:25 in the video but not in the description, so that I have to memorize it and then type it in the URL bar... :P

[@kateapples1411]

They could maybe work with the Military a bit, to fund that Starshot array. They're into lasers right? Perhaps the Starshot array could help with Defense or serve some additional purposes in general. Lasers that precise and powerful ought to be able to take down some missiles at least, I would think?

[@friedmule5403]

If we start to design small rackets

[@ghostbirdofprey]

What sort of controls have been placed on launching these micro sats aside from avoiding the path of the space station? The number and diminutive size of these sounds like it risks Kessler Syndrome.

[@NecroBones]

And after they get smaller and more capable, they'll learn to self-replicate and miniaturize further and further, until we get the "grey goo" scenario... ;)

[@CombraStudios]

a grey goo built of space debris and molecules of thermosphere I wonder if it starts raining or stays in orbit preventing us to break the barrier forever

[@davidwuhrer6704]

Eh, it's going to have a hard time outcompeting pink goo and green goo.

[@kalebbruwer]

Why not launch a falcon heavy or something with a few extra (small) stages ending at a microsatelite? Well, add a few extra mircrosatelites to detatch early and act as relays, powering them in the middle of nowhere would be kind of hard, though.

[@CarterDDana]

I met Zachary Manchester at NASA Ames in 2013 (+ or - a year) during a tour for my high school engineering camp. He said he had trouble convincing NATO to let him release his satellites because they weren't traceable on their scanners and they didn't want their $300 million satellites to get peppered by, what he dubbed, "Crap Sats". Pretty funny anecdote and a very interesting dude.

[@brianwyters2150]

Can you do a video on crew escape systems?

[@wild6702]

Now we know how Thargoid ships move without thrusters. LASERS

[@jadegecko]

Are there problems with thermal management (I assume not, since surface area would increase), with power density, or with the relatively higher atmospheric-drag-to-momentum ratio deorbiting them faster? (I know the electrodynamic tether was suggested by some people in Michigan to counteract the problem of high drag on chipsats.)

[@Microtonal_Cats]

That thing looks like the inside of a really old iPod.

[@ThatSlowTypingGuy]

Question: Don't we already have enough debris in low Earth Orbit? Or are their orbits expected to degrade quickly enough that they won't be an issue?

[@scottmanley]

Of course. on both points.

[@dr.ofdubiouswisdom4189]

* file photo of Max Valier caught on his morning commute to work @ 3:05.

[@Elimba78]

Nano satellite's could have less mass and move faster, in theory some interesting things happen the faster a object move's through space and time, if a nano satellite of barely any mass, moved fast enough, things that small can move faster much easier and go to nearby suns much quicker. Hopefully the nano satellite's spiral, as they move through space, maybe it will somehow put energy into its system's, sort of energy transference, like and is convection and like a battery, their is life.

[@calaphos]

Thats neat but what is the equivalent of a cellphone mainboard useful for in Orbit? I guess you can use them for magnetic measurements or as a (extremly low power) transmitter, but I dont see any point for them

[@AVMamfortas]

Very soon there will be so much 'stuff' up there that any Aliens trying to invade will hit a debris wall.

[@aristideau5072]

How would a 5 gram device be able to transmit a signal 5+ light years?, no amount of miniaturisation or future advancements will be able to overcome the need for what I would think would be a very narrow multi mega watt beam aimed directly back to Earth. The only way I could see this working is if you sent up thousands in weekly or intervals and inline where they would each act as relay stations. Come to think of it, you would probably need millions.

[@lordzadd]

Lazers in phase... so to launch starshot, we need to build a mini-deathstar lazer array.

[@nerd1000ify]

Given the proposed power output and beam focusing abilities, the starshot laser is pretty much the deathstar already. It wouldn't be planet-explodingly powerful, but it would be powerful enough to destroy practically any manmade object in the solar system. Any sufficiently powerful propulsion system is indistinguishable from a really, really big gun.

[@kingadami]

This is good stuff and has great potential but also demonstrates, at least in my opinion, the currently largest technical hurdle for these nano satellites and that is radiation hardening. LEO is a relatively tame radiation environment because of earths magnetic field, and one of the cubesats mentioned in the video still had a problem due to radiation. I have also seen videos on people putting cell phone hardware into cubesats as a cheap and high power processing unit, and it is that. The reliability of the cubesat will not be very good though because phones are note designed for a space radiation environment. Hopefully, we also figure out the reliability issues through either radiation hardening and better error algorithms. Maybe self healing circuits.

[@QuantumBraced]

Question -- how do chips stay cool in space? Heatsinks obviously won't work without a medium. Direct radiation is super slow, isn't it?

[@alaskanbas6507]

It would be funny to see an astronaut take a modified smart phone into ISS EVA and throw it away like a frisbee.

[@mathias5618]

Do they neet to heat these tiny chips or is the heat from the electric current enough?

[@GunnerRA155]

I like the idea, but how are these tiny craft going to be able to transmit data all the way back here from Alpha C? I sometimes cant get a phone signal, and I'm only a mile from the nearest mast, let alone 4 and a bit light years!

[@sweatyspaghetti500]

i'm actually really worried about this from the perspective of space junk, i mean the smaller they are the less chance to hit them, but remember what a little dust speck did to the window at the ISS considering how much force these little buggers could have if they broke in some way, well it's a lil terrifying to say the least.

[@themonkeydrunken]

Always appreciate your videos, Scott! Where did you get those Kerbal action figures?

[@joehopfield]

You called them satellites when describing Breakthrough Starshot - wouldn't they be space ships / star ships / probes, since not specifically orbiting anything? (Also what does a starshot probe look like entering an atmosphere at 0,8C?)

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

Ive always wanted nasa to launch a bunch of these small cameras like this to other planets and shower them all over. just give us eyes to see the vistas.We can learn so much from visual images if they done it cheap enough to cover large area.

[@L337f33t]

It's all about working up that IRL tech tree!

[@DemitechHD]

What Do These satellites Do in Orbit? Do they have any reason to be launched

[@CombraStudios]

they are your personal legacy if you bought one

[@trcostan]

So how do they plan on sending data back from a few gram satellite over interstellar distances? Your talking about needing huge amounts of power and large antennas or high power lasers to get anywhere near the link budget to communicate over that distance.

[@scottmanley]

+Tyler Costantini they use the laser accelerator array to send a beam across space and then the probe reoriented the sail to modulate reflection back to source embedding a signal.

[@trcostan]

Scott Manley inverse square for 8.74 light years with the loss involved in reflector sounds very difficult to say the least I would like to see the math on the link budget,, thanks for the reply..

[@Kelsmith2]

Is your shirt hinting at more Long Dark videos from you in the near future?

[@yaldabaoth2]

"Let's make stuff in space as small as possible so we will never find them again!" - Engineers 20 years before all launch windows are blocked by space debris

[@Not.Your.Business]

new drinking game! take a shot whenever Scott Manley says "however" :)

[@ManicJamieTheBawss]

I see that Long Dark tee. Excited for the update, I see.

[@Renegade30]

The long dark shirt!! Ready for the release Scott? :D

[@nickfelten5068]

What's heavier: the smallest launch vehicle or the biggest sattelite?

[@scottmanley]

+Guardian of sikrit documints there are satellites heavier than entire launch vehicles.

[@ThisIsCoffee]

Imagine trying to dock with this

[@2010ngojo]

1:24 "we get nice pictures of that", *sees a bunch of garbled mess*

[@Wemdiculous]

chips are able to continue functioning after 30000 g's? theres a sail that wont be melted by those lasers? if we eliminate atmospheric disturbances by putting 100 m^2 of lasers on mars or the moon or some u2s and fire the lasers for 1000 min, seems like that would be more likely not to explode.

[@2openhere]

Hi Scott would you be able to update Femotosatellite topic in relation to Cygnus Satellite re-entry news from NASA Johnson's latest Space to Ground news video. Had to come here to find out what they were, thanks for the informative as always video.

[@forecaster182]

Drink a shot every time Scott says "however"

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

*"1.21 GIGAWATTS???!!!"* 《grin》

[@MajSolo]

can a small thing like that send a signal several light years back home that we can hear?

[@alric8]

So these are effectively packed inside cubesats and then released?

[@gabriellittler6434]

I hate to put some brakes on the hype train but Project West Ford (1961 US) probably beats you at the smallest artificial designed satellite (as opposed to orbiting protons left by second stage burns/ general space junk), the mass of each satellite was 39.5ng. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_West_Ford The project itself is a pretty interesting story, basically, the US military tried to create an artificial ionosphere (the part of the atmosphere that you can bounce radio waves off of for over the horizon radio communication) by putting 1.78cm dipole antenna into orbit. In short, everything failed (surprise surprise).

[@jcoronet2000]

100 gigawatts could power 82 time traveling delorians!!

[@theta682pl]

Just looking in the background and questioning the amount of space beer there

[@Sha.ll0w]

What type of information on Magnetic Fields exactly?

[@herrjonna2007]

0:32 - are you sure thats a radio, and not a timing-crystal for the mcu?

[@PongoXBongo]

Nothing new should be added to Earth orbit that doesn't contain a "self-destruct" de-orbit mechanism. The last thing we need up there is tons of new debris. These sprites could have little CO2 cartridges, for example. Non-proprietary tracking would probably be a good idea too (any old sat is every new sat's concern).

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Stuff in low orbit has a short lifespan before drag brings it down. No worries, unless they start launching them into higher orbits. A thruster and sufficient fuel would add significant weight. I would say, use Earth's magnetic field instead. (Tiny solar powered magnet on board.)