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posted by mrpg on Friday August 10 2018, @07:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the space-drones dept.

It's one of the most recognizable images in aerospace: Highly specialized workers clad in gowns, hair nets and shoe coverings crawl over a one-of-a-kind satellite the size of a school bus. The months-long process is so delicate that even workers' metal rings must be covered with a translucent tape to prevent static transfer.

Contrast that with how things are done at Planet Labs Inc. in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. Satellites no bigger than a loaf of bread are propped on work benches, tended by technicians wearing simple rubber gloves and light lab coats. Largely using commercially available tech components, they can crank out and test 25 of these pint-sized satellites in a week.

Befitting its location, the Earth-imaging company's approach is more akin to that of a tech start-up than a traditional aerospace firm. Giant satellites might cost north of $1 billion and last for a decade or more. Planet churns out satellites that cost a tiny fraction of that—how much, it won't say—with a lifespan of just two to three years.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday August 10 2018, @10:15AM (3 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday August 10 2018, @10:15AM (#719854) Homepage Journal

    that was in the news when I was in high school. I think it was Spielberg anyway. But he wouldn't tell anyone what he was going to orbit.

    I was made a Student Shop foreman at Caltech so I could qualify for the key to the expensive and delicate tools cabinet and so stop pestering the guy who ran the place. That led a couple other students to always be pestering _me_.

    It turned out that what those two were building was the experiment whose Shuttle transport Steven Spielberg paid for. I had no idea.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by datapharmer on Friday August 10 2018, @11:38AM

    by datapharmer (2702) on Friday August 10 2018, @11:38AM (#719872)

    For anyone interested that was a Plant Gravireception and Liquid Dispersion experiment G-033 on STS-7
    https://archive.org/stream/nasahistoricalda05vann/nasahistoricalda05vann_djvu.txt [archive.org]
    https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/green/cargsumm.pdf [nasa.gov]

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @10:31PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @10:31PM (#720097)

    MDC, really... write a book about your life. I'd be interested, there seems to be a lot of interesting shit going on :D

    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday August 11 2018, @04:11AM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday August 11 2018, @04:11AM (#720200) Homepage Journal

      But it's going to have to be a collection of essays. I'm an essayist, I was long ago forced to conclude, not a book writer.

      That's me in the picture, just outside Fleming House at Caltech. My camera at the time had a shutter delay timer. The camera I've got now does not. Not much I can do about that other than to purchase a new camera.

      I _am_, however, attempting to write a proper book. This one is intended for dead-trees, that I hope to earn a little coin, but I'll place a few sample chapters on my site.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]