The Beacon: Hard Science Fiction by Brandon Morris (red white and royal blue hardcover TXT) 📕

“No thanks. I don’t need it right now.”

“Suit yourself, Peter. What’s the planned mission duration?”

If he only knew! It would be best if the beacon would send forever and ever. But he probably couldn’t ask for that.

“Twenty years would be good,” he said.

“Oh. Are you sure?” Miguel put the CubeSat back on the shelf.

“Is that a problem?”

“In more ways than one. With such a long operating time, we need to harden the electronics against cosmic rays. We also need a chemical engine to sustain orbit for that long. A 3U model certainly won’t cut it there. May I be frank?”

“Of course.”

“With such requirements, I would have to advise a standard satellite in the 200-kilogram class. But that quickly takes us into the higher six-figure range. And I have a feeling that’s not quite what you can afford. Please don’t get me wrong.”

Peter swallowed. The avatar had been implanted with an awful lot of self-confidence. But she was right—Peter didn’t have a million euros, and it was easy to see when you were standing in his living room. He might be able to come up with 600,000 euros if he sold the house that had belonged to his mother, who’d died last year.

“Then I guess I’ll have to go somewhere else—” he began.

“Not at all.” The avatar smiled broadly. “There is a simple alternative. We’re banking on a mission duration of twenty-four months, and before those two years are up, we’ll simply send a replacement into orbit.”

“But then we need ten CubeSats for twenty years. That’s even more expensive, isn’t it?”

“You’re forgetting about technological progress. Hardware prices have been cut in half over the past five years. Startup costs have dropped by two-thirds. Competition is so strong that this trend will continue. In ten years, shipping three kilograms into low Earth orbit will cost less than shipping to Australia. After all, Earth orbit is only a few hundred kilometers away!”

“That sounds too good to be true.”

“It is true, though. All the market researchers say so.”

The Avatar took a larger box from the shelf. It was the same length and width as the first one but twice as deep.

“However, we won’t be able to get by with the 3U model even with two years of mission time. We need a lot of power, for one thing. Look at this 6U option, which is roughly ten by twenty by thirty!”

Peter watched as Miguel moved one latch on each of the four sides of the base of the box. Next, she folded the side surface upward. On its inner side, which now faced outward, were solar cells. The avatar repeated this process on all four sides until the CubeSat had a cross-shaped ring of solar panels. Then she reached to the other end, loosened one latch per side there as well, and flipped out four more panels that were connected to the other end of the satellite. Peter saw that solar cells also covered the CubeSat’s basic framework.

“So, that makes a total of six panels, each with a base area of thirty by twenty square centimeters, and six more, each with thirty by ten square centimeters, so that makes 5,400 square centimeters,” Miguel explained. “If we also equip the backs of the fold-out panels with cells, we even get to 9,000 square centimeters, but with lower efficiency then. That leaves us at a pretty decent price for the system.”

“But then there’s no room for the antenna,” said Peter.

“Oh, yes there is. It’s in here,” Miguel said. The woman reached her hand sideways, moving it deep inside the box. Then she pulled out what looked like a collapsed umbrella. The construction unfolded into a bowl.

“That’s where we’ve got the good stuff,” Miguel said. “It’s a JPL development, a retractable high-gain reflector. With a 12U unit, we could even integrate a second antenna like that, but that would be quite expensive.”

“Define expensive,” Peter said.

“Just a moment. For your particular mission, the CubeSat needs attitude control. I suggest that we combine a launch tracker with a magnetorquer. The launch tracker will determine the position and attitude change of the satellite. The magnetorquer then adjusts the attitude accordingly. That way, we can prevent the satellite from going into a spin while efficiently aligning the solar panels.”

“What’s a magnetorquer?” Peter asked. “Do you have time to explain it to me?”

“Of course. My company has licensed twenty instances of my AI. Currently, only three are in use, so we don’t have a capacity problem.”

“I understand.”

So somewhere, two other avatars of the same AI were standing and explaining to other customers what they wanted to know.

“An excellent question,” said the holographic woman. “Basically, we run electricity through a magnetic loop, which causes the loop to align with the field lines of the Earth’s magnetic field. It’s a fairly primitive technique that doesn’t require special electronics. But it works very well in low Earth orbit, and provides enough angular momentum.”

“Good. And that’s it?”

“Well, we won’t be able to do without thermal management, but good insulation and heat dissipation of the processor will probably be enough for that. I’d go for consumer-grade silicon, but doubled for safety.”

“Meaning?”

“We’re using conventional circuitry like you would use on Earth. But, to reduce the risk of a failure, we build everything in twice.”

“Ah, sure. That sounds smart.”

“It saves a lot of money.”

“That strikes the right note.”

“Yes, Peter, I think so too. I just had the engineering team sign off on the design proposal in the background. So it’s feasible as a 6U CubeSat.”

“And how soon?” Peter asked.

The hologram of the woman turned the hologram of the CubeSat in her hands, looking at it. It looked as if she was lost in thought, but she was probably talking to the engineers. Or with the engineers’ AI?

“These are standard components,” the avatar then explained, “but integrating the power supply and reflector is a bit more involved. The engineers estimate that it will take four weeks. I know that’s a conservative estimate, though. According to the statistics of