Nanosatellites

Foreword: Nanosatellite Space Experiment

Bob Twiggs

Morehead State University, Morehead, USA

The use of small satellites in general initiated the space program in 1957 with the launching of Russian Sputnik 1, and then by the United States with Vanguard 1 satellite, which was the fourth artificial Earth orbital satellite to be successfully launched (following Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, and Explorer 1).

The concept of the CubeSat was developed by Professor Bob Twiggs at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, in collaboration with Professor Jordi Puig-Suari at the Aerospace Department at the California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, CA, in late 1999. The CubeSat concept originated with the spacecraft OPAL (Orbiting Picosat Automated Launcher), a 23 kg microsatellite developed by students at Stanford University and the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, CA, to demonstrate the validity and functionality of picosatellites and the concept of launching picosatellites and other small satellites on-orbit from a larger satellite system. Picosatellites are defined having a weight between 0.1 and 1 kg. OPAL is shown in Figure 1, with four launcher tubes containing picosatellites. One of the picosatellites is shown being inserted into the launcher tube in Figure 2.

The satellites developed by students within university programs in 1980s and 1990s were all nanosatellites (1–10 kg size) and microsatellites (10–50 kg size). The ...