Recently in CubeSats Category

NASA Notice: Scientific Payload for Multipoint Space Physics Measurements: Nanosat Cubesat

"This notice is to solicit information from the small satellite community. NASA is seeking sources to develop and deliver a low cost, 1/2U (10cmx5cmx10cm) scientific payload for multipoint space physics measurements on a NanoSat Spacecraft of 1.5U CubeSat form factor. Please see the attached "Draft" Statement of Work (SOW) for additional details regarding this future acquisition."

NASA Seeks Proposals For Edison Small Satellite Demonstrations

"NASA is seeking proposals for flight demonstrations of small satellite technologies with the goal of increasing the technical capabilities and range of uses for this emerging category of spacecraft. Small satellites typically weigh less than 400 pounds (180 kg) and are generally launched as secondary payloads on rockets carrying larger spacecraft. The small satellite category includes softball-sized "CubeSats," which are standardized, small, cube-shaped spacecraft that can carry small payloads, and even smaller experimental spacecraft."

NASA Solicitation: Edison Small Satellite Flight Demonstration Missions

"NASA, through this BAA, plans to seek proposals for low-cost, flight demonstrations for small satellite technology. This procurement will accelerate the development of small spacecraft capabilities for NASA, commercial, and other space sector users. Successful proposals will provide a compelling infusion strategy that ensures that the proposed technology will find active utility after the completion of the flight demonstration mission. The small spacecraft demonstration missions under the Edison Program are intended to flight- validate one or more small spacecraft subsystem technologies or mission capabilities with game-changing and/or crosscutting potential, specifically maturation from NASA Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 5 or 6 to TRL 7."

Istanbul, Turkey International Conference on Student Small Satellites (CSSS 2012)

"CSSS 2012 will be held in Istanbul, Turkey. The first goal of this conference is to provide a selective and interdisciplinary forum for research in Small Satellites Systems. The second goal is to provide a remarkable opportunity for the academic and industrial community to address new challenges and discuss future research directions in the area of small satellites. The third goal is to give the young participants a chance to meet experienced professors and experts from the industry."

UKube-1 final design approved

"The UK space Agency and Astrium have just approved the final design of UKube-1 - the UK's first CubeSat mission. On Thursday and Friday last week (3rd and 4th November 2011), a young team of engineers from Clyde Space presented their final design to a team of experts for the Critical Design Review (CDR) - the typical 'gateway' for space missions to proceed into the flight build and implementation phase. The CDR for Ukube-1 thus marks an important point in the development of the mission, establishing the robustness of the design, the level of technical risk and the schedule/resourcing for the completion of all the tasks to build the flight spacecraft."

ESA Cubs delivered for first Vega flight

"The first CubeSats to be sponsored by ESA's Education Office have been delivered to the agency's Space Technology and Research Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. The ESA CubeSat programme began on 28 May 2007, when Antonio Fabrizi, the Director of Launchers, and Rene Oosterlinck, the Director of Legal Affairs and External Relations, signed an agreement to include an educational payload on the maiden flight of the Vega launch vehicle. The announcement of opportunity issued by ESA's Education Office in February 2008 offered the possibility of launching up to nine university CubeSats free-of-charge on Europe's newest launcher."

CubeSat Documentary, Geek Mountain State

"A couple of weeks ago, we posted up a notification that Vermont Public Television would be airing a documentary on Vermont scientists working on a CubeSat project. Now, the documentary is online for your viewing pleasure" Watch video at UVM

NASA to Launch Vermont's CubeSat in 2012

"NASA's 2010 CubeSat Launch Initiative Competition has been awarded a launch slot to the Vermont CubeSat Lunar Lander Project. Faculty and students from Vermont Technical College, Norwich University, UVM and St. Michael's College are developing the satellite for this launch opportunity. It will be launched into Low Earth Orbit as part of a NASA launch payload in 2012. The single-unit CubeSat for this launch will perform critical on-orbit testing of the robotic navigation system that will autonomously guide the eventual three-unit CubeSat Lunar Lander package into a lunar orbit, followed by a landing on the Moon."

Vermont Lunar CubeSat Project

Chipsat pioneer named NASA's chief technologist, Nature

"Mason Peck 's interest in chipsats, and an experiment called Sprite, might be even more radical. These satellites pack all the communication and navigation capabilities they need onto a chip the size of a dime; for fuel, they can simply ride on the wave of the solar wind, like a miniature solar sail. Right now, Peck has a few Sprites being tested on the space station, but he foresees all sorts of future uses: clusters of chipsats, stationed at the Earth-Sun Lagrangian point, for monitoring dangerous outbursts of Solar wind; a benign chipsat cloud surrounding larger spacecraft to serve as inspectors and sentries; or an armada of chipsats, sent plunging into the atmosphere of an outer planet, in order to return basic physics and chemistry data."

NASA Names Cornell Professor To CTO Position, Information Week

"At Cornell, Peck is the principal investigator on the CUSat in-orbit inspection technology demonstration, a pair of satellites the university has built that are scheduled to launch in 2013 on a Falcon 9 rocket through the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's University Nanosatellite program."

CUSat

NASA And Space Florida Small Satellite Research Center Partner In Space Launch Challenge

"The Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge is to launch satellites with a mass of at least 2.2 pounds (1 kg) into Earth orbit, twice within the span of one week. The new challenge has a NASA-provided prize purse of $2 million. The objective of the competition is to encourage innovations in propulsion and other technologies, as well as operations and management relevant to safe, low-cost, small payload delivery system for frequent access to Earth orbit. Innovations stemming from this challenge will be beneficial to broader applications in future launch systems. They may enhance commercial capability for dedicated launches of small satellites at a cost comparable to secondary payload launches -- a potential new market with government, commercial, and academic customers."

DICE - Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment: DICE will map geomagnetic Storm Enhanced Density (SED) plasma bulge and plume formations in Earth's ionosphere. Two identical spinning spacecraft will measure plasma density and electric fields to determine the how and why of variations in ionospheric plasma density that affect the performance of communications, surveillance, and navigation systems on earth and in space.

Just-launched tiny USU satellites studying solar disturbances, Desert News

"The DICE satellites, known as "nanosatellites," are smaller than a toaster. They were put together by students at Utah State University and launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta rocket that also carried NASA's satellite, known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System."

Twin USU Built Small Satellites Delivered to California for Launch Prep

"Two Utah State University completed Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment (DICE) satellites have been delivered to the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, for final launch readiness. Cal Poly will place the two National Science Foundation funded miniature spacecraft in an ejection canister and verify that the assembly is ready for launch."

AubieSat-1: "AubieSat-1 is the first student built satellite in Alabama. It is a 1U CubeSat: 1000cm³ in volume and weighing 1.03-kg. It is entirely designed and built and tested by Auburn University undergraduate students, without using components off the shelf. It will study radio wave propagation through the ionosphere and test solar panel protective films. It is part of the ELaNa3 Mission."

Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX): "RAX is a joint venture between the University of Michigan and SRI International. Its primary mission objective is to study large plasma formations in the ionosphere, the highest region of our atmosphere. These plasma instabilities are known to spawn magnetic field-aligned irregularities (FAI), or dense plasma clouds known to disrupt communication between Earth and orbiting spacecraft." Twitter: @RAX_2010 Facebook RAX

Michigan Multipurpose Minisat (M-Cubed): "The objective of MCubed is to obtain a mid resolution image to date of Earth with at least 60% land mass and a maximum of 20% cloud coverage from a single cubesat platform. S3FL is also developing the MCubed bus with the intention of making it a heritage design, thus allowing for future missions to be flown on the same bus." Twitter: @UMCubed Tumblr: M-Cubed

Michigan Exploration Laboratory

M-CUBED and RAX Photos below

MSU satellite orbits the Earth after early morning launch

"Early Friday morning, shortly before 4 a.m. Mountain time, a student-built satellite called Explorer-1 [Prime] roared into the sky on a NASA rocket launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Almost two hours later, the satellite separated from the rocket and starting circling the Earth. Within three hours of launch, ham radio operators in France, England and The Netherlands had reported hearing from the satellite. ... Updates on Explorer-1 [Prime] are available on the Montana Space Grant Consortium Facebook page."

NASA Request for Information (RFI) - Future Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies

"ESTO is funding several CubeSat-based technology validations as part of a pathfinder process. ESTO is now interested in defining the parameters of a possible future competitive program to space validate selected Earth science technologies. That future program is the focus of this RFI. The program may consist of one or two parts. The first part would be a continuation of the current CubeSat-based validations or validation using suborbital reusable launch vehicles (sRLV). The second part would be a somewhat more robust program, expanding the class of possible technologies to validate. NASA is issuing this RFI to seek the high-level details of various projects which might fit in either one or the other of these classes."

MSU's twin satellite to launch Oct. 28 on NASA rocket

"The twin of a Montana State University student-built satellite that was launched in the spring but failed to reach orbit as a result of an anomaly with the TAURUS-XL rocket is scheduled to be launched Friday, Oct. 28, on another NASA rocket. This miniature research satellite - also called Explorer-1 [Prime] in honor of the first successful U.S. satellite - is set to launch between 3:48 and 3:57 a.m. Mountain time on a Delta II rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Maria, Calif. MSU students and faculty members plan to watch from the Air Force base, as well as from MSU's Space Operations Center in Cobleigh Hall, said Dave Klumpar, director of MSU's Space Science and Engineering Laboratory."

Winners of Space App Competition announced

"Space technology experts from Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) have announced the four lucky winners of the 'Space App Competition' who will see their Android Applications run on smartphone-powered satellite STRaND-1, due for launch into space next year. Applying through a competition held on Facebook, the four winners were chosen for their app's scientific benefits, their creativity, or the app's ability to get young people enthusiastic about science and technology."

Radar Calibration CubeSat developed by undergraduate and graduate students of the Small-Satellite Program at the University of Hawaii.

Drexel University's experiment, Characterizing the Performance of the CubeSat Deployable Boom in Microgravity has been selected to participate in NASA's 2011 Grant Us Space Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. This flight will take place in Houston. The flight week the team participated in was July 7-16, 2011.

Students Build Planet-hunting Miniature Satellite

"Most college finals end up in a stack on a professor's desk. For one group of MIT students, however, their three-semester long project has a slightly different destination - outer space. The final in this case is an exoplanet-finding "CubeSat" - a small, rectangular satellite that's about as long as a skateboard and as heavy as a bowling ball. Over the course of three semesters, MIT students have developed parts of the mission from initial concepts to functioning hardware, aiming for launch in 2012."

UK Smartphone CubeSat STRaND-1, AMSAT-UK

"STRaND-1 will carry an Android Smartphone and plans to use data rates of 9k6 or 19k2 bps for the AX.25 packet radio downlink. A software-based speech synthesiser will be included to pay homage to the UOSAT family of satellites. The 3U CubeSat measures 30 by 10 by 10 cm and weighs 4 kg. Unlike previous CubeSats it will feature full 3-axis control with the attitude an orbit control system comprising a nano-magnetorquer, nano-reaction wheels, GPS receiver, 8 pulse plasma thrusters and a butane thruster. STRaND stands for Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Demonstration and the programme is intended to be a long-term arrangement between the space company SSTL and academic researchers at the Surrey Space Centre (SSC), with STRaND-1 the first of a long line of STRaND nanosatellites. The SSTL employees involved with the STRaND programme are volunteers. It is a condition of the programme that volunteers from SSTL and SSC use their own, free time for STRaND activities (such as lunches and breaks). The project has no budget for staff so is entirely dependant on volunteers."

See Smartphone Satellite, OnOrbit.com

Cubesats Tapped For Orbital Networks, Aviation Week

"If scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) get their way, in a few years there may be networked clusters of dozens or even hundreds of small, cheap, easily replaceable satellites working together in place of the large, expensive and difficult-to-replace birds now in orbit."

Ready To Go - Pumpkin NanoLabs, Nanoracks

"We have been working around the clock to not only create proposals for NASA's SBIR 2011, but to answer questions and work with other companies that are submitting proposals based on NanoRacks' facilities and standards. It's been a strange experience. Multiple times over the past couple of weeks, Mike Johnson and his team have found themselves helping companies understand our system and our weak points. Why are we helping other companies? The hope is that we are on the cusp of having an "ecosystem" of multiple products designed to leverage services for customers using our facilities."

Clyde Space is working with the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh on a feasibility study into high resolution Earth observation from a 3U CubeSat. The system in this video has a performance estimated at less than 1m resolution from a 400km orbit. Source: ClydeSpace

This is the first test of a stored energy deployment system of a dragsail, or aerobrake, for CubeSats. The objective is to provide a reliable means of de-orbiting CubeSats and other small satellites at end of mission by increasing the effect of atmospheric drag on the spacecraft. The dragsail uses stored mechanical energy and therefore does not rely on power from the spacecraft to activate. Caution: includes laughter... Source: ClydeSpace

Kris Kimmel of Kentucky Space is organizing the first hackerSPACE Workshop, which provides an opportunity for makers learn about building spacecraft from space professionals and engineers. The focus of the workshop is on the CubeSat satellite platform. The workshop is November 11-12 in Lexington, Kentucky. The workshop will be led by Bob Twiggs, Emeritus professor and former director of the Space Systems Development Lab at Stanford University, now professor at Morehead State University and also with Kentucky Space. Bob is credited with inventing the CubeSat spacecraft, which is now helping to revolutionize space, putting it within reach of more people than ever. More

NASA is seeking proposals for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets planned to launch between 2012 and 2014. These miniature spacecraft, known as CubeSats, could be auxiliary payload on previously planned missions. CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than three pounds.

NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) is hereby soliciting information about potential sources for the design, assembly, test and manufacture of pico- or nanosatellites. Vendors having the capabilities necessary to meet or exceed the stated requirements are invited to submit appropriate documentation, literature, brochures, and references. More

NASA is currently preparing for upcoming CubeSat Launch Initiative announcements. As part of CubeSat Launch Initiative, NASA will seek for CubeSat payloads that address an aspect of science, exploration, technology development, education, or operations encompassed by NASA's strategic goals and outcomes, which are identified in the NASA Strategic Plan and Education Strategic Coordination Framework. NASA anticipates using its authority to enter into a collaborative Agreement to support the 2011 CubeSat Launch Initiative. Under the Agreement, NASA would provide integration and other services needed to complete the launch activity. For information about last year's initiative please refer to the 2010 announcement seeking participants for its pilot program. For FY2012, NASA is expanding the available CubeSat positions available to proposers. NASA will accept proposals for 1, 2, 3 or 6U satellites. More

ROSES-11 Amendment 9: New proposal opportunities for Earth and space science experiments using short duration orbital platforms including CubeSats.

Short duration orbital platforms, such as CubeSats, may offer new capabilities for the conduct of NASA scientific research, education, and technology advancement. NASA has commenced a CubeSat Launch Initiative and begun regularly providing launch opportunities for CubeSats as secondary payloads on NASA launch vehicles.

We're hosting an imromptu webcast for the NASA Make Challenge next Tuesday! Dale Dougherty hosts: The NASA Make Challenge is an invitation for makers to participate in the exploration of space and give students an opportunity to build an experimental kit that can be flown on a future space flight. These experiments will be based on the CubeSat modules. To help makers think about building kits for space flight, we'll bring together some experts who have developed and used the Cubesat program.

Wednesday April 19th, 11am PT/2pm ET

Watch at makezine.com/space or on UStream Please join us in the UStream chat to interact live with the show.

Dynetics announced today that FASTSAT-HSV01 has successfully completed scheduled science operations for multiple payloads. Mission operations are managed and controlled at NASA's Huntsville Operations Support Center in Huntsville, Ala. FASTSAT is a commercial satellite developed by Dynetics in partnership with the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation (VCSI) and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville for the Department of Defense Space Test Program (DoD STP).

Two satellites designed and constructed by students at the Cockrell School of Engineering successfully separated in space March 22, completing the most crucial goal of the mission since its Nov. 19 launch and making them the first student-developed mission in the world in which satellites orbit and communicate with each other in real-time.

"Are smartphones so smart they can operate a spacecraft? NASA wants to find out. The space agency has for months been conducting tests to see if smartphones can survive by literally sending them to the edge of space. NASA last week conducted the most recent of these tests, sending an Android phone up nearly 100,000 feet on a balloon. Last August, it was a Google Nexus One phone on a rocket. "The cell phone industry has invested billions of dollars in these phones. They've packed a lot of capability into a really small volume," said Chris Boshuizen, a senior systems engineer at Logyx, a California-based technology firm. The power of today's smartphones rival those of many desktops and even exceed that of many satellites, said Boshuizen, which allows them to cheaply transmit photos and data. Phones running the Google Android OS have gigahertz processors, half a gigabyte of RAM, and accelerometers and magnetometers to measure gravity and direction." More at Fox News.

Students and satellites go together like NASA and space. NASA's Launch Services Program is partnering with universities to launch small satellites called CubeSats as part of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites, or ELaNa, mission. Nicknamed CubeSats, because of their shape, they were built by college teams from Montana State University, the University of Colorado and Kentucky Space, a consortium of state universities.

Join NASA's Digital Learning Network for a webcast on Feb. 22, 2011, from 1-2 p.m. EST, to meet the teams as they describe their experiences and to learn more about the project and how you can get involved in launching satellites with NASA. For more information about this webcast, visit http://dln.nasa.gov/dlnapp/webcast/webcast.do. If you have any questions about this webcast, please contact Christopher Blair at Christopher.E.Blair@nasa.gov.

NASA has selected 20 small satellites to fly as auxiliary cargo aboard rockets planned to launch in 2011 and 2012. The proposed CubeSats come from a high school in Virginia, universities across the country, NASA field centers and Department of Defense organizations. CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh 2.2 pounds or less.

Spaceflight Services (Spaceflight) and Innovative Space Logistics BV (ISILaunch) announced today that they have teamed to create a global spaceflight services provider for small and secondary payloads. Spaceflight and ISILaunch currently offer spaceflight services on a variety of orbital and suborbital vehicles for small and secondary payloads, with operations centered in the United States (US) and Europe respectively. Under this joint marketing agreement Spaceflight and ISILaunch will provide a global spaceflight service for the launch of small and secondary payloads by jointly marketing a combined set of products and services to prospective customers.

"This is a first prototype of an aerobrake system being developed by Clyde Space and the University of Glasgow. The objective is to deploy this 1m2 foil sail at the end of the mission to de-orbit the spacecraft using drag. The unit demonstrated here has dimensions of 10cm x 10cm x 3cm. Future prototypes are planned to be more compact so as to minimise volume required on the CubeSat."

• YouTube: Aerobrake first prototype for CubeSats.
• Vietnam CubeSat to launch in 2011, Southgate Amateur Radio Club
• F1 cubesat - Vietnam, Bird on a Wireless
• UK Space Agency kicks off CubeSat pilot programme, wired.gov
• A deployable aerobrake for CubeSat deorbit, University of Glasgow
• Concordia in Space, The Link
• BTH CubeSat , Blekinge Institute of Technology
• DoD Space Test Program-S26 (STP-S26) Mission, USAF Space Command
• SRI International Launches CubeSat for Space Weather and Atmospheric Research, SRI
• Stanford students fly in zero gravity to protect satellites from tiny meteoroids, Satnford
• Merritt Island High to Build CubeSat, University of Central Florida
• CubeSat Canopy Experiment: Dealing with Interplanetary Flyspecks, Coalition for Space Exploration
• FUNcube Yahoo Group reaches 100, Southgate Amateur Radio Club
• CubeSat Toolbox Module Subsets and their API pages, Princeton Satellite Systems
• Pre-made CubeSats, Science 2.0
• CubeSat for the UK: UKube1 seeks payloads, Astronomy & Geophysics
• Variable Pricing for a NanoSat Launcher, Space Business Blog
• 3-Unit CubeSat Deployer, CubeSatShop.com
• NASA Solar Sail Satellite May Not Have Ejected from Mothership After All , Space.com
• Space tethers, USNA
• Help needed with educational outreach (FUNcube), HamChatForum
• NRL Launches Nano-Satellite Experimental Platforms, NRL
• NPS Crushes CubeSats for DARPA Challenge, Naval Postgraduate School
• Vermont Lunar CubeSat Project, VT Space Grant Consortium/ NASA EPSCoR
• Earthlike planet detection with combination of satellite missions from MIT
• CubeSat Challenge Workshop, UK Space Agency

NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) is seeking partners interested in developing competitive proposals in response to NASA Announcements of Opportunity (AOs) or other agency proposal calls. ARC is interested in partners that can perform science investigations and research activities. Information is also sought on potential partners that, in addition to performing substantial research, can provide hardware, equipment or instrumentation necessary to implement that proposed science investigation or research activity. Full solicitation.

NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Small Spacecraft Division has a requirement for mission operations and ground support services and associated research and development of technologies and processes critical to support flight missions. This requirement includes development of documentation such as Mission Operations Plan and Procedures, Test and Verification Reports, Space to Ground Segment Interface Control Documents, and Mission Review presentations, support to project development and management, and advanced payload and aerospace technology development. The anticipated period of performance is approximately 21 months (through September 15, 2012).

At this time, it is not clear that NanoSail-D ejected from the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite (FASTSAT) as originally stated on Monday, Dec. 6. At the time of ejection, spacecraft telemetry data showed a positive ejection as reflected by confirmation of several of the planned on orbit ejection sequence events. The FASTSAT spacecraft ejection system data was also indicative of an ejection event. NanoSail-D was scheduled to unfurl on Dec. 9 at 12:30 a.m., and deployment hasn't been confirmed. The FASTSAT team is continuing to trouble shoot the inability to make contact with NanoSail-D. The FASTSAT microsatellite and all remaining five onboard experiments continue to operate as planned.

On Dec. 6 at 1:31 a.m. EST, NASA for the first time successfully ejected a nanosatellite from a free-flying microsatellite. NanoSail-D ejected from the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT, demonstrating the capability to deploy a small cubesat payload from an autonomous microsatellite in space.

Nanosatellites or cubesats are typically launched and deployed from a mechanism called a Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD) mounted directly on a launch vehicle. This is the first time NASA has mounted a P-POD on a microsatellite to eject a cubesat.

NASA's Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT, launched at 7:25 p.m. CST Friday aboard a Minotaur IV rocket from Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska. FASTSAT is a unique platform that can carry multiple small payloads to low-Earth orbit creating opportunities for researchers to conduct low-cost scientific and technology research on an autonomous satellite in space.

NASA is preparing to fly a small satellite about the size of a loaf of bread that could help answer astrobiologys fundamental questions about the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe. The nanosatellite, known as Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses, or O/OREOS, is a secondary payload aboard a U.S. Air Force four-stage Minotaur IV rocket planned for launch on Nov. 19, 2010.

Turning Retired Military Jets into Next-Gen Nano-Satellite Launchers, Popular Science

"The idea is to make space launches affordable to commercial and academic ventures that can't afford the high costs associated with piggybacking on a NASA mission or launching a single-use rocket. With small satellites constructed by universities or other institutions expected to increase dramatically over the next decade, the need exists for a service that can get them into space for less than $10,000 (the average cost associated with building and launching a CubeSat has ranged from $50,000 to $150,000 in the past)."

Nanosatellites Take Off, Forbes

"The average American consumer might not yet realize the purpose of launching his own personal box of silicon and aluminum into space, admits Andrew Kalman. In fact, Kalman isn't quite sure of it himself. Then again, the 46-year-old Stanford professor points out, a few decades ago no one quite saw the point of putting a box of chips and software--the personal computer--into American homes. Since Kalman's firm, Pumpkin Inc., entered the satellite business ten years ago, the four-person San Francisco company has become the world's top supplier of "CubeSat" kits--collections of components for building 2-pound, 4-inch-tall Rubik's cubes of hardware ready to be launched into Earth's orbit. Those $7,500 packages have made Kalman the closest thing the space industry has to a Henry Ford as he works to put a pint-size unmanned spacecraft in every garage in America."

• Air Force's STP-S26 Mission Loaded with New Technologies, Space News
• UK Space Agency kicks off CubeSat pilot programme, UK Space Agency
• Nanosail-D, solar sailing cubesat, set to fly, Kentucky Space
• Aalto-1, the Finnish student satellite, Southgate Amateur Radio Club
• Inside next week's launch from Narrow Cape, Kodiak Daily Mirror
• This month in CubeSats, Make
• Recycled Military Jets Serve as Satellite Launchers, Space.com
• Turning Retired Military Jets into Next-Gen Nano-Satellite Launchers, Popular Science
• Students Build Finland's First Satellite, Uutiset
• Turning Retired Military Jets into Next-Gen Nano-Satellite Launchers, Popular Science
• Nanosatellites Take Off, Forbes

• A modular assembly method of a feed and thruster system for Cubesats, IOPScience
• CubeSat Workshop and IAA Conference in Rome, Southgate Amateur Radio Club
• NASA awards Poly with contract to build satellites, Mustang Daily
• Moon team to test 2U CubeSat in March, Kentucky Space
• AubieSat–1 goes to infinity and beyond, Auburn Plainsman
• UAF to Launch Satellite Into Final Frontier, Sun Star
• Mini-Satellites: Ideal for Teaching and Research, Credit Suisse
• CU students help Lockheed Martin create satellite, SatPRNews
• Quicklaunch, Cubesats and Open Source Satellite Initiative, Next Big Future
• CU students help Lockheed Martin create satellite, Denver Post
• Students help shrink satellite to football size, Internatinal Business Times
• Firefly Satellite to study lightning, ScienceNews
• ESA offers additional educational CubeSat opportunities, ESA
• Small-scale satellite presents a big challenge, University of ALberta
• CubeSat Lunar Lander/Orbiter Project, Vermont Technical College
• 1st IAA Conference on University Satellite Missions, cubesat.org
• ITUpSAT1 first year in orbit celebration, Southgate Amateur Radio Club
• Student-Built Satellite Scheduled for Launch, University of Michigan
• Florida CubeSat Program, NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium

NASA has announced the award of the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployers, or P-POD, service contract to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. This new contract is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity award for five years with a maximum cumulative potential value of $5 million. The award will provide a broad range of P-POD services for NASA's CubeSat program.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than 2.2 pounds.

CubeSat User Manuals now online

"To help speed up the CubeSat design process, Clyde Space have published their full User Manuals online."

Small could be the next big thing in satellite tech, Hindu Business Line

"It happened with our desktop computers shrinking into laptops and palm-sized gadgets and our mobile phones getting tinier. In the satellite industry too, 'small' could be the next big thing in the coming years. A small satellite can equally suit communications, earth observation or surveillance, disaster monitoring or scientific experiments -- the jobs that its bigger cousins do. It would weigh a few hundred kilos versus the 2-to-10-tonne giants that circle the earth today. 'Smallsats' cost less, weigh less, can be built fast and launched quickly in multiples and pack in just as much punch, according to Mr D.V.A. Raghav Murthy, ISRO's Project Director for Small Satellites."

Small satellites fire up colleges, The Hindu

"Bangalore: Buoyed by space projects taken up in universities abroad and by the success of Indian student satellite StudSat, a bevy of colleges have approached ISRO to help them create miniature satellites. B.Tech. students from around 25 universities across the country have approached the space agency for technical guidance to develop small satellites, and to provide them a free launch-pad, said Project Director of Small Satellites, ISRO, Raghav Murthy in his presentation at the Bengaluru Space Expo 2010 on Thursday."

CubeSat EPS and Battery NASA GEVS Vibration test (video)

"Three Clyde Space CubeSat Electrical Power Systems (EPS) [a 1U EPS, 3U EPS and an XUEPS], were qualified to NASA GEVS vibration and shock levels to verify the manufacturing procedures we use for these products. Also included in the test were a 3U Battery and Battery daughter board."

Colorado Space Grant Consortium, Lockheed Martin To Develop CubeSat, Lockheed Martin

"Students from the Colorado Space Grant Consortium (COSGC) have teamed with Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT] to develop a miniature satellite, known as ALL-STAR, which stands for Agile Low-cost Laboratory for Space Technology Acceleration and Research. The ALL-STAR program, designed to inspire and develop America's future technological workforce, will provide students hands on experience in applying science, technology, engineering and math skills to building operational space systems. Lockheed Martin funded the program and company engineers from Sunnyvale, Calif., Palo Alto, Calif., Newtown, Pa., Albuquerque, N.M., and Denver are supplying their system engineering, program management and systems integration expertise to mentor the COSGC students as they design, develop, manufacture and deliver the CubeSat."

CubeSat Propulsion, SouthGate Amateur Radio Club

"Two videos on YouTube video show the concept for a CubeSat propulsion system using plasma electrolysis of water. This prototype shows that thrust can be produced by plasma electrolysis - it burns water, so to speak. The system has to be optimized to avoid "unburned" droplets. In this early prototype the water injection is triggered manually by short pumping bursts of an electric membrane pump. The next version will be designed to have an active burn control and the ability to operate with low voltage (high amps)."

How to make affordable solar pannels for CubeSat pico-satellites?, Northern Arizona Wind & Sun

"I am currently working on a CubeSat 10x10x10 cm cubical satellite whose total mass must not exceed 1 kg. I mention that this is a school project and it is unlikely the satellite will actually go in orbit. Most probable, once finished, the cubesat will remain in the lab."

NASA's chief technologist seeks to develop transformative programs, SJ Mercury News

"Ames has specialized in recent years in building closer ties with technology companies such as Google and Microsoft, and Braun said his office is exploring whether NASA can adapt another aspect of Silicon Valley, perhaps working with venture capitalists to develop some of those high-risk, high-reward technologies. "Venture capitalists, angel investors, they know how to take risks, and there is a lot that we can learn from them, and there is a lot that we can leverage," he said. Braun also said that NASA's future may not be about building bigger, more powerful rockets, but about building tiny satellites with the flexibility to accomplish a wide variety of missions in space -- somewhat like the 10-cubic centimeter "Cubesats" that were originally developed at Stanford and other universities."

NASA has announced a second opportunity for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets planned to launch in 2011 and 2012. These CubeSats could be auxiliary cargo on previously planned missions.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than 2.2 pounds.

For more information on NASA's Education Strategic Coordination Framework, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/performance/strategic_framework.html

The UK Space Agency has announced a one year pilot programme to design and launch a CubeSat - a miniature, cube-shaped satellite that will allow the UK to test new space technologies and carry out new space research 'cheaply' and quickly. The pilot programme, named UKube-1, will use the Clyde Space CubeSat platform and will involve a competition amongst companies and academic groups to come up with the most innovative ideas for payloads. UKube-1 will be launched on the satellite in mid 2011.

Speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow, the Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts, said, "Britain's first CubeSat will bring major benefits to the UK space industry. Firms will now have a cheap and quick way to test their latest prototypes. Running a competition to see which experiments will go up with UKube1 is an inventive way to ensure it is fitted with the most creative and innovative payload ideas."

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va., -- Not much bigger than a child's toy block, two spacecraft designed and built by university students in Kentucky and California will fly in space for a short period this month to gather information that may be applied to future small Earth orbiting space vehicles.

The spacecraft will fly on a NASA suborbital Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket between 6 and 9 a.m.(EST), March 11, from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The backup launch days are March 12 and 13.

NASA is announcing a new initiative to launch small cube-shaped satellites for education and not-for-profit organizations. CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called picosatellites, having a size of approximately four inches, a volume of about one quart, and weighing no more than 2.2 pounds.

This is NASA's first open announcement to create an agency-prioritized list of available CubeSats. They are planned as auxiliary payloads on launch vehicles already planned for 2011 and 2012.

"We're anticipating some exciting proposals for this pilot program with hopes to break down the barriers to the launching of CubeSats," said Jason Crusan, chief technologist for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. "There are organizations that have been waiting a long time for a chance to see their satellites fly in space."

Proposed CubeSat payloads must be the result of development efforts conducted under existing NASA-supported activities. Investigations proposed for this pilot project must address an aspect of science, exploration, technology development, education or operations encompassed by NASA's strategic goals and outcomes as identified in the NASA Strategic Plan and/or NASA's Education Strategic Coordination Framework.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) anticipates that launch opportunities for a limited number of CubeSats may be available on launches currently planned for 2011 and 2012. These launch opportunities would constitute a pilot project intended to demonstrate viable launch opportunities for CubeSat payloads as auxiliary payloads on planned missions. The pilot project is intended to support, and will be limited to, CubeSat development efforts conducted under existing NASA-supported activities. The pilot project will be open to not-for-profit and educational organizations ("collaborators").

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