Session
Technical Session VI: Small but Mighty
Abstract
In previous conferences, we have presented a statistical history of university-class small satellites. Those studiesneed to be revised, because university-class spacecraft have reached a significant inflection point: in 2010-2011, wecan identify a strong trend towards independent schools flying “real” CubeSat missions. For that trend, we mustcredit NASA and ESA for their sponsorship of competitively-selected CubeSat flights.For this paper, we will revise previous studies in two ways:1) Include the results of the past two years, which will show a continued upward trend in the number of universityclassmissions, a continued downward trend in the size of the spacecraft, and a not-so-continued dominance of theflagship universities. Have we hit a second turning point in the history of CubeSats, where they switch fromnovelties to actually-useful missions? (The preliminary answer: maybe.)2) Expand the study to consider other small spacecraft mission types: specifically the professionally-built CubeSats.We will perform side-by-side comparison of the two.The results will be used in a brave but ultimately naive attempt to predict the next few years in university-class andCubeSat-class flights: numbers, capabilities, and mix of participants.
Presentation Slides
Attack of the CubeSats: A Statistical Look
In previous conferences, we have presented a statistical history of university-class small satellites. Those studiesneed to be revised, because university-class spacecraft have reached a significant inflection point: in 2010-2011, wecan identify a strong trend towards independent schools flying “real” CubeSat missions. For that trend, we mustcredit NASA and ESA for their sponsorship of competitively-selected CubeSat flights.For this paper, we will revise previous studies in two ways:1) Include the results of the past two years, which will show a continued upward trend in the number of universityclassmissions, a continued downward trend in the size of the spacecraft, and a not-so-continued dominance of theflagship universities. Have we hit a second turning point in the history of CubeSats, where they switch fromnovelties to actually-useful missions? (The preliminary answer: maybe.)2) Expand the study to consider other small spacecraft mission types: specifically the professionally-built CubeSats.We will perform side-by-side comparison of the two.The results will be used in a brave but ultimately naive attempt to predict the next few years in university-class andCubeSat-class flights: numbers, capabilities, and mix of participants.
