CubeSat

Imperial College is developing a rocket thruster called the Iridium Catalysed Electrolysis CubeSat Thruster (ICE-Cube Thruster) that is so small that it can only be fabricated using techniques originally designed for making silicon chips.

A small satellite developed by MIT engineers has set a new record for data transmission between a satellite and Earth. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system used a laser to beam huge amounts of data at up to 100 gigabits per second.

After three years circling the Earth, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission has come to an end following a fiery reentry. The satellite was an important tech demo for solar sailing, which could eventually propel spacecraft to other stars.

Lockheed Martin is looking to give diminutive CubeSats a pretty big job – regularly updating existing satellite constellations in orbit. LINUSS is a new CubeSat family designed to demonstrate technologies to perform such tasks.

As hypersonic missiles rapidly move toward becoming practical weapons, the problem of how to counter them is also on the agenda. The US Department of Defense developing a CubeSats-based system to track these missiles in all phases of their flight.

A first-of-a-kind spacecraft is set to make history later this year, but will do so using materials you could find at your local hardware store. The world's first wooden satellite is set to enter orbit as a box made largely of birch plywood.

Howe Industries has submitted the design for a solar-powered steam rocket engine for propelling CubeSats to the National Science Foundation. With only two moving parts, ThermaSat uses a thermal condenser to flash boil water into superheated steam.

Researchers have demonstrated quantum entanglement on a small satellite orbiting Earth. The team developed a miniaturized device that produces pairs of photons that are inextricably linked, which could help launch a fast and secure quantum internet.

Mission plans for SULIS, a solar project designed to answer fundamental questions about the physics of solar storms, have been revealed. Using a cluster of small, formation-flying satellites known as CubeSats, SULIS will directly measuring the magnetic field of the Sun's corona for the first time.

If you thought SpaceX launching 60 Starlink satellites at once was impressive, Cornell University managed 105 small satellites. The ChipSats, called Sprites, forming a swarm of cracker-sized nanosatellites were deployed from the Kicksat-2 CubeSat on March 18, 2019 at an altitude of 300 km (186 mi).

For over a century people have floated the idea of a space elevator – which is exactly what it sounds like – but the logistics of that just aren’t possible yet. Now Japan has launched a pair of satellites to test out some technologies that might help make a space elevator a reality in future.

Humanity’s first “space nation”, Asgardia, is a step closer to getting off the ground after its first satellite was launched last week. The end goal is for millions of people to live on satellites, but don’t pack your bags just yet: Asgardia-1 is just a CubeSat carrying 500 GB of pictures and text.