Personal satellites that fly into space
Unwrapping devices like smartphones and tablets is sure to bring people joy on Christmas Day.
Free software and plummeting hardware costs have made designing and building new gizmos that were once the fantasies of "Star Trek" a reality.
Search around the Internet and you'll find guides and instructional videos on how to build everything from automatic plant waterers to remote-controlled drones.
Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and his company SpaceX, along with countless researchers and weekend warriors, have stepped in to fill the void left by NASA's closure of the space shuttle program.
[...] working out of NASA's Ames Research Center, Manchester decided to finance his project through crowdsourced funding site Kickstarter.
The little gizmos are comprised of a radio transceiver, solar panels for power and a very small computer to store information and operate the sensors - all crammed onto a surface the size of a small cracker.
On this mission, the Sprites will carry gyroscopes and magnetometers (a fancy compass) so that we can measure their spin and orientation relative to the Earth's magnetic field.
A big part of what SpaceX is doing is trying to reduce the cost of putting things into space by bringing mass production into the launch vehicle industry.
NASA has closed its space shuttle program - what does that mean for do-it-yourself space exploration?
Q:
Besides your research, what's your favorite example of DIY space travel?