Miniature cube satellites allow for contained research projects on a tight budget. More and more science is being done with these tiny cubes, with 24 projects currently in-orbit and another 76 pre-approved on a waiting list awaiting launch.
A pair of CubeSats ejected from the International Space Station in February 2014. Credit: NASA
The satellites can be built for under $100,000 if they’re assembled by student-labour, and while demand doubled launch costs between 2003 and 2013, hitching a ride to orbit is still a relatively reasonable at $80,000 per cube. While the smallest satellites can only do a call-response ping, the standard-sized cubes are capable of projects as complex as identifying terrestrial gamma ray events.
Read more about the rapidly-shrinking technology on Nature News.
