The Project Calliope satellite is a music/science sonification project that will convert the ionosphere to MIDI data for transmission back to earth. Detectors include magnetic, electric field, thermal, and light. Data is gathered constantly and downlinked as bandwidth is available. Data is sent as unencrypted time-stamped MIDI file packets via amateur radio, transmitted as much as IARU allocation allows. Data usage rights are granted to anyone who can receive it. The satellite will operate continuously within its power and radio budget until re-entry.

A TubeSat picosatellite lifts 200 grams of payload. That’s about 7 ounces. Looked at one way, that’s less than half a can of soda. But it’s enough to lift an entire Nintendo DS game handheld into orbit. Two hundred grams can be a lot of electronics.