Credit card PCBs bring satellite tech to businesses

Newbury was able to offer advice regarding the orientation of the boards, and were able to accommodate the changing demands of the project as it evolved over a two month period. Following an initial production of 10 boards, the company is about to start producing a second batch for use by the Catapult in a series of public events being held later in the spring.

The current size and weight of satellites means that they incur significant launch costs, but by reducing the size and weight there is scope for what is known as 'constellation launches' where up to a dozen satellites can be launched at one time. As a consequence the launch costs can be reduced and then shared between different organisations making the benefits of this technology far more accessible to businesses and organisations, regardless of their size.

Chris Brunskill, Upstream Technologies Lead, Catapult, explains more; “Making satellite technology and the benefits it can deliver available to a wider audience is one of the goals of our organisation. Currently the smallest viable satellites are about the size of a loaf of bread but we have now been able to develop a prototype, the PocketQube (pictured above) that has the same functionality but is the size of a pack of butter and weighs only 180g. We couldn't have achieved this without Newbury Electronics input and specialist engineering skills and it is great that there are UK companies with this world beating knowledge and expertise.”