Arduino-Based Personal Satellites Could Launch This Fall

The Arduino platform has become a common component in robotics and an array of do-it-yourself (DIY) tech gadgets. Now, Arduino boards, based on Atmel AVR megaAVR 8-bit and ARM processor-based microcontrollers, are poised to power personal satellites that could get launched into space as early as this fall.

One of the driving forces behind these cracker-sized satellites, dubbed “Sprites,” is Zac Manchester, who recently talked to the San Francisco Chronicle about his Kickstarter-funded project. Working from NASA’s Ames Research Center, Manchester and his team are aiming to get 250 of the personal satellites into space via a container placed inside the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which resupplies the International Space Station.

More on the Sprite project here. What would you do with your own personal satellite?