Low cost satellits

The aerospace industry is a sector with so high investment that only large agencies like NASA or ESA, or the multinational companies can afford. An international team of students and engineers of UPC is developing a project to send a satellite into space for less than 1,200 euros. The challenge is part of the “N-Prize” competition that encourages low cost space technology.
The project of Joshua Tristancho and his team plan to use a weather balloon, inflated with helium, that will slowly rise a shuttle to 35 km altitude. From there an integrated two-stage rocket will take off. The first stage will ascend to 270 km and reach a speed of 2.7 km/s. The second stage will inject the satellite into orbit at a speed of 7.7 km/s, ie about 30,000 km/h, 22 times the speed of sound.