Chapter 5. Detectors and Instruments and Sensors, Oh My!

The first question you’ll get asked when you announce you’re building a satellite is “What will it do?” While building the satellite platform is a fun engineering challenge, choosing and creating your satellite’s payload involves both science and engineering. Payloads are fun, and what distinguish one satellite from another.

Some satellites will carry sensors that make measurements of either the area around the satellite, or something the satellite is pointing to. Other satellites will deploy a piece of gear that does something interesting or useful. A third category of satellite missions is there to explore technical and operational capabilities such as flying multiple coordinated satellites ...

Get DIY Instruments for Amateur Space now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.