Rocket Lab @lemmy.nz llamacoffee @lemmy.world 3 mo. ago

Rocket Lab-built Mars smallsats arrive at launch site

spacenews.com Rocket Lab-built Mars smallsats arrive at launch site

A pair of smallsats built by Rocket Lab for a NASA mission to Mars have arrived in Florida for a launch this fall on the inaugural flight of New Glenn.

5 comments

If these are smallsats, what does a normal sized satellite look like?
- Each of the twin spacecraft — called Blue and Gold after the colors of the University of California Berkeley, which will run the mission — weighs 524 kilograms
  
  These days, anything under ~1 tonne or so is considered "small". Spacecraft like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Psyche were each over 2 tonnes at launch, and some geostationary communications satellites can be upwards of 10 tonnes and the size of a school bus.
  
  I was thinking a cubesat was a small satellite 😃. I guess thats micro or something.
  
  I guess I've never considered how big the satellites were until seeing that picture next to the people.
  
  I guess with the square-cube law, one 10 times as heavy might only be twice as tall.