Registered in October 2015, the Alchemy Team took a late start into n-prize competition.
The progress is continuously monitored on https://alchemyteamblog.wordpress.com/ . The Team is open for new members, being rather small for now.
Short summary:
-the vehicle used is a rocket, for simplicity. A rocket is needed anyway to reach the orbiting speed, so we just made things easy. The fuel is sugar and fertilizer, an inovative combination meant to provide between 200 and 220 seconds of specific impulse, instead of classical 160 seconds. First tests will take place in December this year.
-from a couple of very few experiments conducted, a set of cheap sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and altimeter), available for less than 10$ from China is enough for guiding the vehicle. Also a ground radar will illuminate the vehicle all the way. Well, the software for those sensors has to model every particular condition for every stage in order to reach the required precision. More tests will follow by the end of this year.
-the satellite will be a 10 cm diameter white sphere of 19.99 grams. The number of orbits and the altitude will be measured with a telescope. Currently in testing phase.