Yes, we not only built it, but also conducted all the tests and launched it into space! We are completely open; therefore, all documents are available here for review.
Approximately a year and a half, after approval of the draft project.
Our satellite is probably one of the cheapest in the world; its manufacture cost was only 5 million rubles. All our expenses are reflected here.
It’s great! You are welcome to the Moscow Polytechnic University or the Bauman University!
This project was conceived 3 years ago by Sasha Shaenko, a popularizer of cosmonautics and the Head of the educational program at the the Moscow Polytechnic University.
If he has enough money, yes, surely :)
If you are just a student or a young specialist, you should contact the heads of your university, asking them to send a request to Roskosmos: they support young professionals!
We raised money on the Boomstarter site; we also received support from RocketBank. Our budget can be found here.
Mayak is a 3U Cubesat-standard microsatellite. In the transport state, its dimensions are 10×10×30 cm. In the working state, it is a pyramid with a side length of 3 m.
Everyone is used to think that flying into space is a privilege of state and military corporations. We wanted to prove that space is simpler and closer than it seems, and a team of enthusiasts can launch a satellite into space!
Certainly, it has! We study the efficiency of using an aerodynamic brake to pull dead spacecraft from orbit. In the future, this would help reduce the amount of space debris in the near-earth orbit. Read more here.
The RocketBank’s team are excellent guys who were in our place 4 years ago: nobody believed that a hipster team could make a bank. But they could and now RocketBank is the coolest bank in the world. Thank them for supporting us, still other crazy enthusiasts :)
No, military spy satellites are developed by the Research and Production Association named after Lavochkin.