How to build your own Sputnik
It seems incredible that the technology that went into building the first successful satellite 50 years ago can now be found lying around the average house. You could even build one yourself, as Paul Rubens explains below. Fancy having a go? Then, sign up to the Magazine's Sputnik Challenge at the bottom of this page.

You could probably find most of these components lying around your home. There are transmitters in mobile or cordless phones, wireless internet routers and baby monitors, and you may well have a thermometer in the medicine cabinet.

That one pic has someone letting a dog paint it!

Wondering if he's painting some coded instructions to his E.T. friends to leave the furry four leggers alone.