Patrick Stakem

History & Future of Cubesats Patrick Stakem

This books describes the history and future of Cubesats, a paradigm shift in space exploration. As of this writing, some 1,200 units have been launched. There are major Cubesat Programs at NASA, ESA, and the Indian Space Research Organization. ISRO set the record for the most Cubesats launched on a single rocket, 104. The STMSat-1 cubesat was launched from the International Space Station in December of 2015. It had been built by students of the Saint Thomas More grade school in Arlington, Va. The three year project went to the ISS in December of 2015, and was deployed to orbit from there. From University defined, low cost satellites, the Cubesat concept is widely having an impact on the way we do exploring in space. The have been to the Moon and Mars. They are small, but mighty, and produce cost savings not only due to their size, but also their modularity. They are, essentially off-the-shelf platforms that can host a wide variety of instruments, and just wait until you see the collection of cooperating units doing science.