If your building an Amateur satellite the simple choice would be to assemble a device with all the latest satisfyingly advanced and complex tech. The $50SAT team made a decision to go against convention and produce a design with the minimum of components.
$50SAT was the first of a new class of satellite pioneered by Professor Bob Twiggs; the PocketQubes, designed to be small and light so they would be cheap to launch. $50SAT was launched in November 2013 using a Dnepr rocket from Dombarovsky Air Base in Russia and remained working in orbit for 20 months, the team had only expected it to last for a month at best.
I will be on-site most of the weekend, so even if you cannot come to the talk, stop me and have a chat, I am the guy walking around with a full size working satellite.
