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If you are the Tech obsessed Gadget fiend that needs to be ‘one step ahead’. If you are the one The Jones’ are trying to keep up with, then forget about the latest iPhone, 3D television, or super computer. What you want is something that is even more exclusive than your very own Aston Martin custom painted pink with some sort of flame design (The idea here being that in order for you to commit sacrilege of such magnitude you need to be seriously rich). What you need is the Tube Sat Personal Satellite Kit.

As the good folks over at Interorbital Systems tell us:

“Planet Earth has entered the age of the Personal Satellite with the introduction of Interorbital’s TubeSat Personal Satellite (PS) Kit”

They go on to say that due to the self decaying orbit the TubeSat is placed into they will not contribute to any long-term build up of space debris, instead re-entering the atmosphere and burning up after just a few weeks. Launches are set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010, and for just $8,000 you can have your very own satellite in orbit for a few weeks. The TubeSat allows addition of personally programmed experiment or function to the basic TubeSat kit. Examples of add-on experiments or functions include the following:

• Earth-from-space video imaging
• Earth magnetic field measurement
• Satellite orientation detection (horizon sensor, gyros, accelerometers, etc.)
• Orbital environment measurements (temperature, pressure, radiation, etc.)
• On-orbit hardware and software component testing (microprocessors, etc.)
• Tracking migratory animals from orbit
• Testing satellite stabilization methods
• Biological experiments
• On-orbit advertising
• Private e-mail

Unfortunately although the price includes launch to orbit, you will need to put the equipment together and conduct any required testing prior to launch yourself, followed by despatch of the completed satellite to California ready for launch.

Granted this scheme is obviously geared more towards educational institutions, and experimental use than personal, but surely it can’t be too long until this is available? After all, the first manned space flight occurred 48 years ago in 1961, with Virgin Intergalactic making flights to the edge of space accessible to just about anyone in the not too distant future, so why not our own personal satellites within the coming years as well?