BBCNews has an interesting post on their site about building your own Sputnik using the most commonly found household items. I am trying to summarize the entire post below. The entire post can be read here
As per this interesting post, the Sputnik satellite can easily be summarized as:
- Metal Sphere almost 61 cm in Diameter.
- Had a Radio Transmitter.
- Also had a battery.
- Equipment to measure Temperature and Pressure
- Pressure and Temperature activated switches.
- A fan to avoid overheating.
- Sent “beep beep” signals indicating sudden shifts in temperature or a pressure change owing to puncture of the metal sphere.
Now, in order to create your own Sputnik style satellite all you need to do is go ahead and get stuff which can replace the above mentioned summarized items.
So here goes the list which can be used to go ahead and get your own Sputnik.
- Transmitters can be used from Mobiles, Baby monitors, wireless routers or cordless phones. All these instruments do have such transmitters which are used to send back the signal to the base station.
- Temperature switches can be used from Thermostat’s from your favorite IRON, Washing Machines, Electric Oven etc.
- Party Balloon can be used as a pressure switch. As the pressure outside drops, a partially inflated balloon shall certainly expand and burst.
- Fan’s can easily be found from your CPU’s cooling unit.
- Batteries too can easily be found from your computer UPS or Laptop.
- Metal sphere can also be easily found at your favorite Hardware shop.
1. Tomy baby monitor – transmitter and aerial
2. Wireless router – backup transmitter and aerial
3. Mercury thermometer – temperature sensor
4. x4 large batteries – power supply
5. Balloon – pressure sensor (expands and pops if case punctured)
6. Power-pack – backup power supply
7. Domestic thermostat – activates fan and changes radio signal
8. Battery powered fan – moves heat to casing (once tin lid is on)
9. Biscuit tin with foil – houses components and reflects solar radiation
Though, all these summarized items look easy to find, the real challenge as always lies in assembling the components and programming them to work in the desired manner. The picture above from the post, gives a rough sketch of how your own Sputnik might look.
Go ahead and read more for further details here