Space Access ’11: Aye Matey, ‘Tis the KC Space Pirates!

KC Space Pirates
Frank Smith

• Work on laser power beaming
• Some of power beaming money won by LaserMotive
• Power Beaming competition — still has $1.1 million remaining – only 1 team (LaserMotive) can compete in terms of cable climbing
• KC Space Pirate’s laser provider decided to sell its laser to someone else for $1 million — won’t let them borrow it
• About $1 million short of a new laser
• Officials are considering changing the remaining competition to avoid climbing — would involve beaming power between two points
• Tether experiment
  • small sat (< 1 kg)
• Ashes to Orbit
  • one ounce of ashes into polar orbit
  • open the container — ashes end up in a cloud
  • Re-enter the orbit in 1-2 weeks
  • spread the ashes over the entire Earth
  • one of the team is from India — if you can lower the price, would have millions of people wanting to scatter ashes in space — cultural element
  • hope to launch to launch one capsule per month by the end of the year
  • have a launch provider that doesn’t want to go public yet