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How to Make a CubeSat

orbitalindex.com

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Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#21

Post by Ephil012 »

One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of university teams to start building their own cubesats.

Many of these open source projects actually use consumer / hobbyist grade components instead of using commercial aerospace-grade components. The commercial hardware for cubesats is made with a specific manufacturing process that makes them resistant to radiation in space. However, this increases manufacturing costs. Also, most of the radiation resistant hardware being sold is sort of slow / outdated. The solution some open source projects came up with was to just take components from Mouser and run their own radiation tests on it then choose the ones that fared good enough to be used in space. That way they can make satellite boards for way cheaper.

Another interesting development is there are some startups now offering sub 50k launches for cubesats, such as launcher space. They essentially buy launches from SpaceX then outfit it with hardware to launch a massive amount of cubesats at once. As a result of the number of cubesats they’re able to fit on one launch, the prices are now relatively cheap compared to the hundreds of thousands if not millions required in the past. However, most of these startups are heavily subsidizing the cost using VC money so these low prices won’t stay forever.

Also, if anyone has any questions about cubesats feel free to AMA. I work at Isomer space which is a not for profit building cubesats. I would love to answer any questions about cubesats or our work.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#23

Post by metadat »

nl wrote: post #22
amerine wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Price.

This doesn't seem right. Carbon fibre is price competitive with aluminium.

Aluminum is comparatively cheap..

Or so I thought, I just tried to Google the comparison per KG and it's completely spammed by alibaba and miscellaneous SEO.

Good luck, have fun with that. Would appreciate any industry in insider POV.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#24

Post by gonzo41 »

samhuk wrote: post #10

I'm unfamiliar with the innards of the cubesat industry, but one question I have had for a while is are there any players out there offering CaaS (Cubesat as a Service)? E.g. A company sends up a bunch of cubesats, each with a variety of instrument suites, and then essentially timeshares them on some web platform.

Is there that much instrumentation looking outwards or inwards that would be useful enough on scale to have this sort of service? If you look at services like QuickBird you can get high res meter resolution satellite imagery pretty cheap. A lot cheaper than renting a satellite yourself.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#26

Post by enviclash »

Ephil012 wrote: post #21

One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of univers…

What are the main commercial or scientific uses of cubesats?

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#27

Post by tagami »

Unless you want a specific orbital inclination, or are doing is specifically as an engineering exercise, building a cube lab to be installed on a platform like the ISS means lower complexity and lower cost. You can focus on your research goals AND you can even get your payload back to Earth.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#28

Post by Ephil012 »

enviclash wrote: post #26
Ephil012 wrote: post #21

One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of univers…

What are the main commercial or scientific uses of cubesats?

For commercial, the big use case is satellite imagery. Satellite imagery is pretty useful for mapping, agriculture, and even planning out large construction projects. CubeSats are especially useful if you need a cluster of satellites for cheap to blanket the Earth for imagery or sensor data. I think that there are also a bunch of defense companies using CubeSats for sensor data. I believe in general the US gov is investing heavily in defense companies using CubeSats. There are also other use cases involving communications. I have heard of companies looking into using them for IoT and phone communication. That might not be fully developed because right now there are some limits on data transmission speed from CubeSats. Another big use case is asset tracking. You can keep track of exactly where cargo ships are at sea. You can also use them to track planes in the air. As a whole, though a lot of these use cases I mentioned are very early stage / theoretical since CubeSats are a relatively new tool for companies to use. In terms of practical use right now, I think it's mostly satellite imagery / sensor data that it's being used for. However, I expect it to expand in the future to the other use cases I mentioned and many more.

In terms of scientific, I think it's best to think of CubeSats as a floating lab. You can basically stick whatever you want on there (size permitting). One thing you can do is stick cameras on there to track climate change through a cluster of tiny cheap CubeSats. Another is to put sensors to measure different particles in space. CubeSats are also useful for testing out new forms of propulsion like ion thrusters. You can also use them to test new materials in space. I have even heard putting bacteria inside CubeSats to see how they react in space. In general, CubeSats are just insanely useful for collecting sensor data for research and putting items in space to see how they react.

The big appeal though is you can do all of this stuff I mentioned for the fraction of the cost of a normal satellite. As a result, CubeSats are great for smaller companies or researchers who don't have unlimited cash to spend on a big satellite.

Hope all this info helps!

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#29

Post by enviclash »

Ephil012 wrote: post #28
enviclash wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the main commercial or scientific uses of cubesats?

For commercial, the big use case is satellite imagery. Satellite imagery is pretty useful for mapping, agriculture, and even planning out large construction projects. CubeSats are especially useful if you need a cluster of satellites for cheap to blanket the Earth for imagery or sensor data. I think that there are also a bunch of defense companies using CubeSats for sensor data. I believe in general the US gov is inv…

This is cool and very informative, thanks! From my angle I can see that applications to track El Niño and its impacts on real time could provide information with very high market value in the immediate timelines.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#30

Post by Ephil012 »

tagami wrote: post #27

Unless you want a specific orbital inclination, or are doing is specifically as an engineering exercise, building a cube lab to be installed on a platform like the ISS means lower complexity and lower cost. You can focus on your research goals AND you can even get your payload back to Earth.

If anyone is curious, I believe the big provider for this is Nanoracks. Never used them ourselves for our CubeSat due to our specific goals. However, they are extremely useful for stuff like sensor data, tech demos, research, and testing.
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