When you walk into Best Buy to get the latest technology your probably like me and don’t bother to look into that $4.99 bargain bin they always have sitting in some obscure area. It’s always packed with some outdated casino games, mouse pads, or half empty cans of compressed air. But what if you dug around and found a cheap satellite? What? It could happen! Actually NASA recently launched the first satellite of its kind called FASTSAT. The Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology SATellite was made in only ten and a half months with a cost of only $4,000,000. The microsatellite was designed by Marshall Space Flight Center's Edward Montgomery with what he say’s “scrounged parts” from other projects, off the shelf components instead of specially ordered parts, and all housed in aluminum instead of titanium keeping the total weight of the satellite to around 400 pounds. FASTSAT is also simplistic in its design. It uses magnets for attitude control as opposed to jets, which eliminates onboard storage of gas; it also has no moving parts which helps keep costs to a minimum making it a relative bargain for experiments. FASTSAT’s first mission is basically a run through of hardware performance and science experiments to calculate the feasibility of the FASTSAT project. Depending on the outcome, FASTSAT could be on the fast track to delivering the most cost effective satellite system ever built.
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