A few years from now, we might be able to send small satellites
into deep space for cheap using a new propulsion system being developed
by University of Michigan engineers -- assuming they raise enough money
via Kickstarter. Called CAT (CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster), it's designed
to propel 10 x 10 x 10 centimeter CubeSat
blocks far beyond the planet's orbit using only solar energy for fuel.
Thus far, similar satellites can only orbit the Earth after going along
for a ride on current rockets that are larger and more expensive. In the
future, CATs could head to the asteroid belt, or even as far as Saturn
and Jupiter to investigate water on their moons.
The $200,000 its engineers aim to raise (in exchange for your name
etched on the golden layer of a spacecraft panel) will go towards the
CAT engine's development and testing. The team could send an
experimental thruster to space as soon as 2014 with help from NASA-Ames
and Google, with a spacecraft launch targeted for 2015.
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