Universe Today
CubeSat
A satellite built to a 10-centimetre standard unit, which made orbit affordable to universities.
A 1U CubeSat is a 10 cm cube massing under about 2 kg, and larger ones are stacked units — 3U, 6U, 12U. The point was never the size but the standard: a common form factor meant common deployers, which meant a CubeSat could ride along on someone else's launch cheaply and safely. Thousands have flown. Two of them, MarCO, relayed the InSight landing from Mars, which settled the argument about whether they are toys. The standard's real inheritance is the deployer. A P-POD is a spring-loaded box bolted to a stage that has already been paid for, and because the CubeSat is sealed inside it until well after separation, the primary payload's insurer stops caring what is in it. That, rather than any advance in electronics, is what made a university satellite programme possible.
Where it has come up lately
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Related terms
Sun-synchronous orbit
A near-polar orbit that crosses the equator at the same local time every day.
Geostationary orbit
The one orbit where a satellite appears to hang motionless over a fixed point.
Kessler syndrome
The runaway scenario where collisions in orbit generate debris that causes more collisions.
Low Earth orbit
Everything from about 160 to 2,000 km up, where almost all spacecraft and all people are.
Questions
What is CubeSat?
A satellite built to a 10-centimetre standard unit, which made orbit affordable to universities.
Why does it matter?
A P-POD is a spring-loaded box bolted to a stage that has already been paid for, and because the CubeSat is sealed inside it until well after separation, the primary payload's insurer stops caring what is in it. That, rather than any advance in electronics, is what made a university satellite programme possible.