[Server-sky] First prototyping steps

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 12:59:32PM -0700, Charles Radley wrote:
> (I know of one maker-space in Portland called ADX , I went to their 
> annual party)

Folks keep asking to see a mockup.  The current thinsat design
is embossed aluminum foil with chip-filled cavities, fine pitch
circuit board style wiring, deposited thin-film InP solar cells
and electrochromic mirrors.  It's way too much effort to build
a working prototype - that will cost millions of dollars for
the first article, tens of dollars in high volume production.

Embossing a foil substrate and painting it to look like a thinsat
is a lot easier.  We can make templates with a makerbot to cast
hard embossing die.  A makerbot can paint the embossed foils. 
The result would only be plausible fakes, but they are a step
towards prototypes.  With suitable marketing ("own a piece of
history and the future") we could raise money selling the
prototypes as they are replaced by better ones.

The first big production milestone will be semifunctional thinsats
mounted between sheets of glass, powered by spotlights and talking
to "ground antennas".  Developer kits may sell for $10K each, with
the opportunity to launch the resulting open source code on a
matching flight-grade thinsat.  Sales will pay for a lot of
development.  Yes, it will cost a lot, but compared to buying your
own ViaSat1 for $800M, "surprisingly affordable".

Keith

P.S. The 1/4 scale cardboard prototype of the Apollo LEM lunar lander
is prominently displayed in a glass case on the engineering floor of
the Geisel Library at UC San Diego.  Prototypes have value.

P.P.S.  Production embossing die will be made with wire EDM on tool
steel, edges finished with CO₂ lasers.  Too expensive for hobby work.

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993