Transcriber: Tijana Mihajlović Reviewer: Mile Živković
When I was young, I used to have this dream of becoming an astronaut,
a dream of exploring the vast blackness that looms above our heads.
Let's be honest, that's probably not going to happen,
but I can do the next best thing:
I can send something I designed into space.
I am building a satellite.
I stand here as a part of history,
a long line of innovation in satellite technology.
The first satellite was sent into space in 1957 by the Soviet Union.
Sputnik weighed 84 kilograms and had a diameter of 58 centimeters.
It was huge, but it didn't do much except send signals back to Earth.
It was basically a giant floating battery with an antenna.
Thanks to technology, we've been able to do so much more.
We've sent telescopes into orbit,
we've created a communication system dependent on these satellites,
and now we rely on GPS to even cross the street.
So, we should be sending a lot more satellites into space, right?
Yes, but there is a huge barrier: cost.
The average satellites that can track and monitor hurricanes
cost 290 million dollars to build and launch.
Money has always been a daunting obstacle.
In fact, the expense of space technology was one of the main factors
that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Even in the West, money has vastly slowed down progress.
Well, until the CubeSat standard was developed.
The CubeSat standard described
a small cube weighing less than 1.5 kilograms.
It aimed to bring satellite development to students, universities,
and even small businesses.
These CubeSats took off like a rocket.
(Laughter)
Why? Because they cost less than $100,000 to build and launch.
Now, this is a lot of money, right?
But compared to $290 million, it's pocket change.
They're able to achieve such a low cost
because they're made from off-the-shelf parts.
No extra money is wasted
on designing and manufacturing specialized, integrated circuit chips.
And because these rockets are designed to launch with a specific mass,
many companies loved the idea of fitting the rockets with these small satellites,
instead of sending more junk into space.
This lower sum is a great improvement,
but it still isn't cheap enough for a student like me.
So I opted for the even cheaper solution: the PocketQube standard.
The PocketQube standard defines a tiny satellite,
5x5x5 centimeters in size, weighing less than 125 grams.
That's about this big, and weighing as much as your phone.
Its best feature?
It cost $3,000 to build, and only $17,000 to launch.
(Laughter)
You may be wondering, "Why are we making our satellites smaller?"
The answer is simple: exploration.
The smaller form factor allows for anyone to build a satellite.
It allows for anyone to design an experiment
and carry it out in space.
It no longer takes a few hundred million dollars
to test the effects of radiation on electronics up there.
Due to the popularization of CubeSats, and now pocket CubeSats,
space is closer to us than ever before.
So, what goes into one of these satellites?
Well, each one consists of five main subsystems:
the structure, the electronic power system, the flight controller,
the communication system, and the payload.
The structure is the body of the satellite,
and it's made from aerospace grade aluminum.
It has to withstand the stresses of a launch
and protect the electronics from shock.
It usually looks like a piece of Swiss cheese
in order to save weight.
Next is the electronic power system.
The electronic power system has one job,
to charge the batteries using the solar panels around the satellite.
The solar panels have to be made from scratch using special solar cells,
which are the only space-grade component,
meaning that they are extremely efficient, expensive.
The flight controller is the brain of the satellite.
It has to control the radio, the camera,
and collect all the data from the sensors on board.
The communication system is the most important system,
because the satellite you can't talk to is just another piece of space junk.
And if you just launched one without one, you just wasted $20,000.
(Laughter)
The payload is the equipment specific to your mission.
This could be a camera, a telescope,
or anything else you wanted to send up there.
Now that you know a bit more about satellites.
I'd like to present SASSat,
the Singapore American School satellite.
SASSat is a PocketQube satellite with a camera,
a temperature sensor, and a radiation sensor.
Its main mission is to take a picture of the Earth.
It's something that I always wanted to do,
since I saw the blue Earth photo so long ago.
(Laughter)
Finally, the first thing I did was to design the structure.
I spent hours learning how to use the software,
and then more time over winter perfecting my model.
When school finally started in January,
I was able to print out this 3D model.
I took this model and my research to school,
who provided me with the initial funding to turn my dreams into reality.
So, the idea for SASSat came out of a conversation with my friend
about whether or not it would be possible to create a private Internet.
After hours of research, I determined that this was not possible.
But building a satellite was a barrier that I could break.
It was a barrier that I could break.
And it was an experience that would teach me more
about designing electronics rather than just using them.
So, now I was ready to begin work in my lab,
well, my tiny room with a soldering iron.
(Laughter)
Till now, I've managed to complete
the electronic communication system,
the power system,
and I'm just starting work on the solar panels.
This is a lot of work.
(Laughter)
So I hope to launch SASSat by next June, on the UNISAT 7 launch vehicle,
and if all goes well,
by next June we'll have some beautiful pictures of the Earth
and a little bit of SASSat in space.
So, Sputnik may not have been
the most advanced piece of technology, right?
It was an old battery,
but it's part in the age of innovation in satellite technology
that extends until today.
Sputnik's launch in the early days of the Cold War sparked
a radical revamp of the education system in the United States,
leading to America's leadership in space operation today.
Until very recently, involvement in this exciting field
came after years of research and training.
Now for the very first time, students, even our junior right here at SAS,
can actually build something that goes into space.
Sure, this may sound interesting, but why is this important?
Many people believe that we should focus our resources and attention
on the problems here on Earth,
whether it would be poverty, or ISIS, or tsunamis.
I don't think that breaking the barriers of science and technology
is incompatible with this ideology.
In doing so, we can open so many doors to solutions
than ever thought possible.
For example, there's a company from San Francisco called Planet Labs,
and they've managed to create a system of CubeSats
that are able to take an image of the Earth every 24 hours,
which means that they're able to take pictures of the Nepal earthquake
before anybody was actually able to get there.
They are able to - for example, let's say there is a tsunami.
They are able to get the necessary pictures
faster than Google Earth can.
This is the main reason that Pocket Cubes are so important to our society.
They allow anybody to send something into space.
Reaching for the stars used to be just an expression.
I'm learning to make it a reality.
Thank you.
(Applause)