Home made sputnik... help please

[gingerjedi]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7049002.stm

Right now I've built it does anyone have any ideas on how I should get it into orbit? They seem to have left off that bit.

Next week they're making a Voyager II replica, I hope they include the bit that tells me how to get it beyond the boundaries of our solar system.

[Moose423956]

That's not Sputnik. Sputnik was round. FFS.

[BoredBloke]

I've got a replica of that Beagle thing. I made it by dropping an microwave off a block of flats.

[MrRobin]

Add a battery and perhaps a fan programmed to come on when the temperature rises above a certain level

Hahahaha!!! What will that do exactly?? IT IS A VACUUM! Actually the only thing this will do is increase the heat, from the fan motor, and start spinning the craft in the opposite direction to the blades.

BBC muppets.

[NotAllThere]

The contents of the case are not in a vacuum. It says so further down.

[threaded]

I've got a replica of that Beagle thing. I made it by dropping an microwave off a block of flats.

[MrRobin]

Oh yes, so it does. Well this is just more nonsense... what is the point of that? You'd be massively adding to the weight by encasing it all in a pressure vessel and for what - to measure the pressure of the earth's atmosphere, in space?!

[gingerjedi]

The air is for the hamster, silly! The real question is how big does the elastic band need to be so I can launch it?

[MrRobin]

Still can't understand why it needs a fan though.

Exactly, if you want to control the temp of components in a satellite you need to thermally couple or decouple them from the structure so they can conduct heat away or are insulated from the rapid, large fluctuations in environment outside.

As said already, switching on a fan will also make the craft start spinning in the opposite direction.

[gingerjedi]

As said already, switching on a fan will also make the craft start spinning in the opposite direction.

Ah that’s where the hamster comes in, he runs on a wheel in the opposite direction to counter balance the torque of the fan, the wheel is connected to a generator that charges the battery that runs the fan that keeps him cool.... Genius.

Well that’s how NASA would have designed it, which reminds me of the old (wildly exaggerated) story about the zero gravity pen they designed whilst the Russians just used a pencil.