A clip:
A TubeSat is basically a space-going Pringles container, a shell and kit that’s sent to you for assembly. And the wonderful thing is that you can stick anything you like in it so long as it doesn’t break the mass or volume restrictions. Pack it up, send it back and those nice people at Interorbital Systems will combine it with 32 other TubeSats in the nose of a Neptune launcher and bang the lot up into low Earth orbit. The TubeSats are then deployed, in a controlled sequence, into their own orbits, which are designed to degrade in three or four weeks and cleanly incinerate upon re-entry.
The basic kit is absolutely Sputnik-level, allowing you to broadcast a repeating message or having the satellite function as a private orbital ham-radio relay station. But Interorbital does provide a list of suggestions for customisation: video cameras for Earth imaging and tracking; a private email server (in space!); biological experiments and more. The space available is quite small, but if you cut some bits off a tiny puppy first, it would probably fit. Even space burials are feasible (I once wrote a story wherein astronauts confess to having found Timothy Leary’s ashes in space, thawed them out and snorted them).
I don’t think, however, that Interorbital Systems has fully embraced the science-fictional condition. There is one important omission in its list, and it’s the reason why I need to borrow $8,000 from you.
Orbiting death rays.
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