Small satellites, also known as CubeSats, are shown after being deployed into Earth orbit from a small satellite orbital deployment device on the outside of the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. The CubeSats were delivered aboard the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter and will serve a variety of educational and research purposes for public and private organizations around the world. Credit: NASA/Tracy Dyson
Most CubeSats weigh less than a bowling ball and some are small enough to hold in your hand. But the impact that these instruments are having on space exploration is gigantic. CubeSats—cheap, agile, miniature satellites—are revolutionizing the way scientists study the cosmos.
TO Standard size CubeSat It is small, about 4 pounds (about 2 kilograms). Some are larger, perhaps four times the standard size, but others weigh no more than a pound.
like a professor of electrical and computer engineering Anyone who works with new space technologies can tell you that CubeSats are a simpler and much less expensive way to reach other worlds.
Instead of carrying many instruments with a wide range of purposes, these Lilliputian-sized satellites typically focus on a single, specific scientific goal: either discovering exoplanets or measure the size of an asteroid. They are affordable throughout the space community, including small startups, private companies, and university laboratories.
Small satellites, big advantages
The advantages of CubeSats over larger satellites are significant. CubeSats are cheaper to develop and test. Saving time and money means more frequent and diverse missions along with less risk. That alone increases the pace of space discovery and exploration.
CubeSats do not travel under their own power. Instead, they hitchhike; they become part of the payload of a larger spacecraft. Stuffed into containers, they are ejected into space by a spring mechanism attached to their dispensers. Once in space, they light up. CubeSats typically conclude their missions by burning up as they enter the atmosphere after their orbits slowly decay.
Case in point: a team of students from Brown University built a CubeSat in children under 18 months for less than US$10,000. The satellite, about the size of a loaf of bread and developed to study the growing problem of space debriswas deployed from a SpaceX rocket in May 2022.
Smaller size, single purpose
Of course, sending a satellite into space is nothing new. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in Earth orbit back in 1957. Today, approximately There are 10,000 active satellites availableand almost all of them are dedicated to communications, navigation, military defense, technological development or Earth studies. Only a few – less than 3% – they are exploring space.
That is changing now. Satellites large and small are quickly becoming the backbone of space research. These spacecraft can now travel long distances to study planets and stars, places where human explorations or robot landings are expensive, risky, or simply impossible with current technology.
But the cost of building and launching traditional satellites is considerable. from NASA lunar reconnaissance orbiterLaunched in 2009, it's about the size of a minivan and cost about $600 million. He Mars Reconnaissance Orbiterwith a wingspan the size of a school bus, it cost more than $700 million. He The European Space Agency's solar orbiterA 1,800-kilogram (4,000-pound) probe designed to study the Sun cost $1.5 billion. and the Europe Clipper – the length of a basketball court and scheduled to launch in October 2024 to Jupiter's moon Europa – will ultimately cost $5 billion.
These relatively large and surprisingly complex satellites are vulnerable to possible failuresa not uncommon occurrence. In the blink of an eye, years of work and hundreds of millions of dollars could be lost in space.
Exploring the Moon, Mars and the Milky Way
Because they are so small, CubeSats can be launched in large numbers in a single launch, further reducing costs. Deploying them in batches (known as constellations) means that multiple devices can make observations of the same phenomenon.
For example, as part of the Artemis I mission in November 2022, NASA launched 10 CubeSats. Satellites are now trying to detect and map water on the Moon. These findings are crucial, not only for the upcoming Artemis missions but also for the quest to maintain a permanent human presence on the lunar surface. The CubeSats cost $13 million.
MarCO CubeSats – two of them – accompanied NASA's Insight lander to Mars in 2018. They served as a real-time communications relay to Earth during Insight's entry, descent, and landing on the Martian surface. As an added benefit, they Captured images of the planet. with wide angle cameras. They cost around 20 million dollars.
CubeSats have also studied nearby stars and exoplanets, which are Worlds outside the solar system.. In 2017, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory displayed ASTERIAa CubeSat that observed 55 Cancri ealso known as Janssen, an exoplanet eight times larger than Earth, orbiting a star 41 light years from us. By reconfirming the existence of that distant world, ASTERIA became the smallest space instrument to ever detect an exoplanet.
Two more notable CubeSat space missions are on the way: herascheduled for launch in October 2024, will implement the The European Space Agency first deep space CubeSats to visit the Didymos asteroid systemwhich orbits between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt.
and the M-Argo SatelliteWith a launch planned for 2025, it will study the shape, mass and surface minerals of an asteroid that will soon be named. The size of a suitcase, M-Argo will be the smallest CubeSat to carry out its own independent mission in interplanetary space.
The rapid progress and significant investments already made in CubeSat missions could help turn humans into a multiplanetary species. But that journey will be long and depends on the next generation of scientists realizing this dream.
Mustafa AksoyAssistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University at Albany, State University of New York
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