College students built a satellite with AA batteries and a $20 microprocessor

By Andrew Paul | Published Mar 17, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

It costs a lot of money to get a satellite into orbit aboard a rocket—around $50 million minimum, to be more specific. While this massively restricts who can access the space industry, it’s not all bad.  According to NASA, there are approximately 27,000 hunks of space junk orbiting high above humans’ heads at the moment, with an average of 25 years before they fall from orbit and burn away upon atmospheric reentry.

Still, lowering costs while also shortening satellite lifespans is important if space exploration and utilization is to remain safe and viable. As luck would have it, a group of students and researchers at Brown University just made promising headway for both issues.

Last year, the team successfully launched their breadloaf-sized cube satellite (or cubesat) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the comparatively low production cost of $10,000, with a dramatically shortened lifespan estimated at just five years. What’s more, much of the microsat was constructed using accessible, off-the-shelf components, such as a popular $20 microprocessor powered by 48 AA batteries. In total, SBUDNIC—a play on Sputnik as well as an acronym of the students’ names—is likely the first of its kind to be made almost entirely from materials not specifically designed for space travel.

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