A satellite of your very own!

I am still waiting for my replacement Sanguinololu but here is a really interesting story to help pass the time:

The folks at Evadot have designed a board to be the brains of your very own satellite.  A CubeSat is a low cost micro-satellite platform that universities and others have been using for a while.  Of course, "low cost" is relative.  A basic CubeSat kit costs anywhere from 7,000 - $10,000 and the launch costs are another $40,000 at the moment.  On top of that you would have to add your own sensors, etc. for whatever mission you have in mind.  Evadot wants to open things up a bit by offering a much cheaper alternative to the present CubeSat kits on the market.

Give the article a read and keep an eye on these folks.  These boards can also be used for a variety of other cool hackerish purposes, including robotics.  Keep in mind however, that launch costs are dropping and you might actually be able to afford to launch your own satellite in a few years.