Logan: Ultra-small satellites are the big thing, from super-secret agencies and the US military to academia and private firms, as well as world space agencies and NASA.
In sizing up “smallsats,” there are a range of classifications in the less-than-500-kilogram department, be they minisatellites, microsatellites, nanosatellites, picosatellites, palm-size CubeSats, even the diminutive Femto satellite, weighing in at less than 100 grams.
Cornell University has begun to delve into a postage stamp-size “satellite on a chip ” design, called Sprite, envisioning a swarm of these tiny probes exploring planetary atmospheres for organic compounds.
Call them a powerful force in the universe. Smallsats have already shown their ability to monitor disasters, study Earth’s environment and support agriculture, cartography and earth science missions.
Matt Bille, an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton in Colorado Springs, Colo, said smallsats are part of the solution — when they used to be a distraction.
So, what does this foretell? “The knowledge of how to make and use smallsats has passed the tipping point,” Bille told SPACE.com. “It exists worldwide and has fostered a global generation of satellite builders and engineers. It used to be only a few organizations could build a satellite. Now, a smart teenager with a CubeSat kit and a soldering iron is a space agency. We’ve only begun to grasp the implications of that.”
Bille said; “What this means for the future is that use of smallsats and satellites in general will only increase. The proliferation of smallsat capabilities has unleashed the most powerful force in the universe — human creativity.”
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