#citizensatellites

By Harri Laitinen

If you think space is only for engineers in lab coats or university students with grants, think again. A new generation is listening in. Building up. Beaming out.

We’re talking about Gen Alpha—kids born between 2010 and the mid-2020s. They’re digital natives. Touchscreen thinkers. AI conversers. And now, some of them are interacting with satellites before they hit their teens.

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., through our icMercury platform, we’ve seen firsthand how this generation is transforming space tech from an elite domain into something familiar—and even playful.

Meet the New Space Natives

For Gen Alpha, space isn’t abstract. It’s interactive.

These are kids who:

Use apps to track PocketQubes from their backyard

Hear satellite beacons as part of school STEM kits

Write their own satellite commands in simple scripting languages

View downlinked data like it’s just another part of their digital life

They’re not amazed that satellites exist. They’re amazed that they can talk to them.

How We’re Supporting Their Curiosity

At icMercury, we believe it’s never too early to get involved in space. So we’re making sure our tools:

Simplify complexity with age-friendly dashboards

Offer guided mission builder kits for classrooms

Include visual data storytelling tools so even 10-year-olds can interpret telemetry

Provide open callsigns where students can help “name” live satellites they’re tracking

Partner with schools to design payloads that include creative and cultural inputs from Gen Alpha learners

Because what we teach now becomes the tech they’ll lead tomorrow.

Real Stories, Real Kids, Real Satellites

A 9-year-old in the Philippines designed an icon-based satellite control interface using Scratch

A primary school in South Africa used icMercury data to track weather patterns over their village

A girl in Finland drew a comic strip that was encoded and uploaded as an orbital time capsule

A Gen Alpha user in Mexico became a local media hero after detecting his first satellite signal using a homemade antenna

They’re not waiting to “grow into” space. They’re already growing with it.

Why This Matters

When we include kids this young, we’re not just sparking interest in STEM. We’re laying the groundwork for:

A generation that feels ownership of orbital tech

Engineers who understand space not as cold and distant—but personal

Global citizens who care deeply about data ethics, space sustainability, and accessibility

Creators who won’t just fly satellites… but imagine entirely new ways to use them

And in a world that’s more connected—and more chaotic—than ever, we need young voices shaping the future of space.

The View Ahead

As Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc. prepares for the 2025 Go Global Awards in London, we’re not just highlighting our tech. We’re highlighting the kids who already use it. The ones growing up fluent in orbital language. The ones who won’t ask “Can I access space?” They’ll ask, “Why wouldn’t I?”

By Harri Laitinen

If you’ve ever stared at a stream of satellite telemetry—raw, unfiltered—you know it’s not exactly love at first sight. Voltage. Temperature. Uptime logs. Signal strength. Hex dumps. It’s… technical.

But here’s the thing: if you really look—beneath the numbers, beyond the graphs—telemetry tells a story. And when visualized with intention, it reveals something else entirely:

Beauty.

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., we work with a growing community of creators through our icMercury platform—students, artists, engineers, and citizen scientists—who don’t just analyze telemetry… They reinterpret it.

Because orbit isn’t silent. It speaks. And we’re learning how to listen visually.

What Is Satellite Telemetry, Really?

In the most literal sense, telemetry is the data a satellite sends back to Earth about its own health and environment.

Think of it like:

Body temperature = thermal sensor

Heart rate = power draw or solar charge

Breath = radio signal strength

Sleep cycle = uptime logs or reset counters

Mood = payload activity and status pings

It’s alive in its own way. And just like a living thing, it fluctuates—quietly, subtly, predictably… or sometimes not.

Turning Numbers into Narratives

We’ve seen users transform telemetry into:

Color maps that change with onboard temperature

Soundscapes, where signal strength or beacon pulses drive ambient music

Animated visual loops, where orbit progress becomes an abstract dance

Sculptures, 3D-printed from altitude or magnetometer data

Live dashboards that feel like breathing digital portraits of satellites in motion

Each approach asks the same question: What if we felt the satellite, instead of just reading it?

Why It Matters

Visualizing telemetry isn’t just about aesthetics. It deepens understanding.

Engineers catch patterns they’d miss in raw logs

Students see real-time cause and effect from their experiments

Artists discover orbital rhythms they translate into public exhibits

Communities become more emotionally invested in missions they helped launch

When data becomes tangible, it becomes meaningful.

And in a world drowning in dashboards, these visualizations offer something rarer: connection.

Tools We’re Building at icMercury

To support this growing creative movement, we’ve started including visualization modules in our ecosystem:

Real-time payload data plots

Export tools for creative coding platforms like Processing and p5.js

Beacon-to-sound conversion (experimental, but promising)

Template dashboards for storytelling with telemetry

And soon, an “Orbit Canvas”—where users can map data points into art directly from their downlinks

Because numbers deserve more than graphs. They deserve interpretation.

The Aesthetic of the Invisible

As Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc. prepares for the 2025 Go Global Awards in London, we’re reminded that sometimes, the most powerful part of a mission isn’t the launch or the tech.

It’s the moment someone sees a jagged battery voltage spike… and turns it into a song.

It’s the realization that 5 volts and a heartbeat sound the same.

By Harri Laitinen

Walk through any lab at Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., and you’ll eventually find it: a whiteboard, scribbled with names. Some are underlined. Others circled. A few… have stars next to them.

It’s not a launch list. It’s not a to-do chart.

It’s the Satellite Naming Wall—a space where our users, team members, and collaborators jot down their ideas for what to call the satellites they help create.

And let me tell you: the creativity is out of this world.

From mythology to memes, from Shakespeare to Star Trek, our community has turned satellite naming into an art form. Because for many, this isn’t just a project. It’s personal.

Why Names Matter in Orbit

Sure, every satellite gets a technical ID—like "ICM-01" or a registry number. But those aren't the names people remember.

People remember HADES-ICM, our PocketQube launched with Alba Orbital. They remember callsigns like ASTROMUSE, JELLYBEAM, or NANOTROOPER—because those names reflect something more than function.

They reflect story.

Naming is the moment where the mission becomes real. It’s where a few grams of metal and code becomes something with personality, with purpose.

Inside the Naming Process

Some icMercury users pick their names early—before a circuit is even soldered. Others wait until their satellite has passed thermal testing or integration.

The inspiration comes from:

Mythology: Names like Selene, Anubis, Tlaloc, or Puck

Pop Culture: From DobbySat to GroguBeacon

Family Tributes: One user named theirs after their grandmother’s radio handle

Jokes & Puns: Like LoCube (for a particularly minimal design)

Cultural Roots: Regional languages, traditional phrases, or local flora/fauna

Science & Math: Acronyms like FIRMA (Flexible Imaging Relay for Micro Atmospheres)

And yes, we’ve had at least three satellites named after cats. (One even transmits a “meow” in Morse code.)

Community Challenges and Polls

To keep things fun—and inclusive—we often run naming challenges before big launches:

Submit a name with a short backstory

Vote on your favorite from a shortlist

Win a mission patch if your entry flies

Sometimes the best names come from unexpected places—a student who draws a comic about their payload, or a teacher who asks their whole class to brainstorm ideas during lunch.

Callsigns in Action

Once the satellite’s in orbit, that name becomes more than just flair—it’s how the world recognizes the mission.

It gets spoken aloud by ham radio operators. It gets typed into tracking dashboards and heard in decoded beacons. It becomes the voice of the satellite itself.

What Will You Name Yours?

As we prepare for the 2025 Go Global Awards in London, we’re celebrating the fact that PocketQubes aren’t just technical platforms—they’re creative canvases.

So the next time you see a tiny satellite pass overhead, blinking its signal across the sky, remember: it probably has a name. And behind that name? A person. A moment. A message.

By Harri Laitinen

The tools to access space are no longer locked behind military doors or billion-dollar aerospace firms. Today, with platforms like icMercury, students, hobbyists, and small teams can design, build, and launch their own satellites. That’s a victory for access. For equity. For imagination.

But with this freedom comes a harder question:

What are we putting into space? And why?

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., we believe it’s time for the amateur satellite community to consider something deeper than specs and signal bands. We believe we need a “Space for Peace” pledge—a commitment to ensure that the low-orbit future we’re helping shape remains peaceful, collaborative, and beneficial to humanity.

Because the frontier is open. But the stakes are growing.

The Rise of the Citizen Satellite Era

PocketQubes, CubeSats, and SDR-based ground stations have made it possible for almost anyone to participate in space. That’s exciting—and we’re proud to be part of that revolution.

But in this rush of creativity, it’s easy to overlook the ethical layer: What messages are we broadcasting? What behaviors are we normalizing? What responsibilities do we carry as we climb into orbit, one small payload at a time?

We’ve seen payloads that promote science, art, and connection. We’ve also seen proposals that blur lines—military-style tracking systems, encrypted signal tests, and payloads with unclear purposes.

So… how do we draw the line?

Why a Peace Pledge Matters

A "Space for Peace" pledge wouldn’t be about restriction. It would be about intention.

Here’s what it could include:

No Weaponization: Amateur satellites will not carry, simulate, or support weapons of any kind—directly or indirectly.

Transparency: Payload objectives will be clearly declared and publicly accessible.

Non-Interference: Satellites will not jam, interfere with, or disrupt other space assets.

Open Communication: Wherever possible, satellites will use open-source protocols and accessible frequencies.

Global Respect: No payloads will carry messages that threaten, divide, or provoke harm—nationally or culturally.

Environmental Responsibility: Every mission should consider debris mitigation and orbital sustainability.

Educational and Humanitarian Focus: Prioritize missions that elevate human understanding, inclusion, and peaceful collaboration.

In essence: If you’re going to space—go with care.

The Symbolic Weight of a Small Satellite

A PocketQube may be small. But its impact is symbolic. It tells the world who space is for—and what we believe it should be used for.

If we flood orbit with noise, ego, and edge cases that skate near harm… we lose the very openness we’re trying to protect.

But if we elevate missions that promote peace, that broadcast hope, that teach, that share—we reshape space as a shared cultural achievement, not just a technical one.

What Comes Next

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., we’re beginning to work with partners, schools, and citizen developers on a draft pledge—something simple, meaningful, and voluntary.

We don’t want a gate.

We want a guiding star.

And as we head to the 2025 Go Global Awards in London this November, we’ll be sharing this vision—not just as a company, but as a community of makers who care about what we launch, not just how we launch it.

By Harri Laitinen

Space might be borderless, but the people reaching for it come from everywhere.

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., one of the most exciting things we’ve seen through the icMercury platform is just how global the PocketQube movement has become. From garage tinkerers in Argentina to university teams in Japan, from educators in Ghana to tech collectives in Estonia—our users are launching tiny satellites into orbit from every corner of the planet.

And it’s changing what space access looks like.

The PocketQube World, at a Glance

We’ve been mapping it—not just to track launches, but to celebrate a growing constellation of dreamers. Here’s a glimpse of where icMercury users are designing, building, and launching from:

Accra, Ghana: University-led STEM groups creating educational payloads

Tokyo, Japan: Precision-engineered student missions from small academic labs

Santiago, Chile: Environmental monitors designed by citizen scientists

Budapest, Hungary: Amateur radio and comms experiments led by local hobbyists

Toronto, Canada: Art-focused payloads transmitting Morse-code poems

Bangalore, India: Young engineers prototyping CubeSat-to-PocketQube transitions

Nairobi, Kenya: Community workshops building first-time missions for underrepresented youth

Berlin, Germany: Collaborative missions focused on sustainability and orbital ethics

Jakarta, Indonesia: DIY engineering collectives working with recycled components

Tartu, Estonia: High school teams integrating open-source SDRs into test payloads

And the list is growing—every week.

Why It Matters

Because this map tells a different story than traditional aerospace ever has.

This isn’t a race between nations. It’s a network of people. It’s a signal that the future of space doesn’t just belong to big agencies or billionaires—it belongs to educators, creators, and communities that have never had a chance to launch anything before.

PocketQubes lower the cost. Platforms like icMercury remove the friction. And the result? A constellation of participants who look like the world.

What the Map Doesn’t Show—but You Should Know

Behind every dot is a story.

The student who stayed late every night soldering panels in Manila. The retired engineer in Poland who finally built the satellite he dreamed of in the '80s. The school in rural South Africa that held a launch countdown party with just a speaker, a tarp, and belief.

This is not just a map of where we are. It’s a preview of where we’re going.

As Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc. heads to London this November for the 2025 Go Global Awards, we’re not just carrying a pitch deck. We’re carrying a map. And it’s dotted with proof that space isn’t elite anymore. It’s distributed. Diverse. Decentralized.

The orbit is crowded with innovation—yes. But it’s also alive with hope.