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Southampton engineers a Raspberry Pi SupercomputerSouthampton engineers a Raspberry Pi SupercomputerPosted Sep 14, 2012 21:48 UTC (Fri) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)In reply to: Southampton engineers a Raspberry Pi Supercomputer by dlang Parent article: Southampton engineers a Raspberry Pi Supercomputer
Lots of sats failed just after the launch. And to be useful you need at least a couple of years of service. And then there's a question of reliability - if you ground infrastructure can't trust the satellite to remain available tomorrow then you need to plan for this.
The problem with non-space-rated parts is that probability of failure is cumulative. And it's already non-trivial even for space-rated parts so duplicate and triplicate redundant systems are used.
> remember we're only talking about a couple weeks here, so a non-rated part that will last a month in space is just as good as a rated part that will last 10 years)
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Southampton engineers a Raspberry Pi Supercomputer Posted Sep 14, 2012 21:52 UTC (Fri) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]
> A couple of weeks is not useful for anything but publicity stunts and some rare experiments.
And this is exactly what we are talking about
the $8K package puts the satellite in a low orbit that will only last a few weeks before re-entry, so you aren't going to get multiple years of service in any case.
nobody planning a multi-year service satellite is going to be planning to use an Android phone to power it, but for an experimenter, this is a reasonable thing since it gives you a lot of stuff in a small, low-power package at a low cost.
Southampton engineers a Raspberry Pi Supercomputer Posted Sep 16, 2012 4:39 UTC (Sun) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] That $8K doesn't include your ride to space.It's a sin to send crap into space. At least the LEO orbits don't pollute orbital space for long, they de-orbit fast enough. But given the cost, and the fact that so few people can get their experiments flown, it is the experimenter's responsibility to not be frivolous. Sending up something that can't dissipate its own heat, that outgasses the electrolyte from its capacitors, etc., is just stupid and wasteful.
Southampton engineers a Raspberry Pi Supercomputer Posted Sep 16, 2012 20:00 UTC (Sun) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] Oops, they say it does include a ride to space. But they are a year late in launching any. It seems a very low cost for such a ride, and the satellite design looks kind of lame too - solar panel area is really small, transceivers very low powered, etc.And they are also advertising a lunar sample return mission! File under "too ambitious to be real" for now.
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