Sandy Antunes: Building Satellites to Listen to Space

Over the next year a dozen or so tiny, homemade satellites will be launched into space. They’ll conduct experiments in low earth orbit—about 140 to 600 miles up, roughly as high as the International Space Station. After three months, they’ll drift toward earth and reenter the atmosphere, incinerating into memories.

Sandy Antunes is the champion of these so-called picosatellites, which usually weigh less than 2.2 pounds. He spent about a decade as a NASA programmer and has since become a professor at Capitol College in Laurel, Md., where he teaches courses in satellite operation and instrumentation. Students learn about his adventures building a miniature craft named Project Calliope, as do readers of his two books—DIY Satellite Platforms and Surviving Orbit the DIY Way.