The microlaunch space race has begun

In the vastness of space, unfathomable size is generally the norm. But when Jordi Puig-Suari, an aerospace engineering professor, began looking at the stars, he started thinking small. Together with Bob Twiggs, a professor at Stanford University, they developed the CubeSat, a tissue box-sized satellite that has intensified interest in space and revolutionized satellite communication.

When Puig-Suari worked at California Polytechnic State University in 1999, he was unimpressed with the typical size of satellites — “kind of overkill,” as he puts it. Satellites of the day could often be larger than a grand piano, and weighed thousands of pounds. So, he helped blueprint a spacecraft measuring 10 centimeters on each side and weighing less than 1.33 kilograms (2.93 pounds.) That’s about the size and mass of a human brain. At first, the only goal with this device was to train students how to build satellites, which are historically expensive to assemble, let alone launch.

Unexpectedly, the CubeSat was a runaway success, leading to what some are now calling the “microlaunch space race.” Today, nearly two thousand miniature spacecraft have been hurled into Earth’s orbit, with hundreds more on the way. Dozens of tech startups have gotten into the tiny satellite game, while established zero gravity companies like Rocket Lab, Boeing, SpaceX, and numerous universities and military branches regularly make use of these so-called nanosats.

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“Because of the nature of the system, it is very easy that we can move around,” says Victor Montero, one of the co-founders of B2Space. “Some applications are just literally not able to be performed because there is no big satellite going to an area.”

B2Space is aiming to launch in 2021, and hopes to further lower costs by adding light payloads such as cremated remains for space burials. Companies like Celestis, a subsidiary of Space Services Inc., which sells dubious star naming services, regularly puts human remains in space, and the practice seems to be becoming more popular. The ashes aren’t actually “spread,” so they don’t contribute to space debris and eventually will fall back to earth and burn up in the atmosphere. You could also put a whole body in space this way, Montero says.

[link to www.astronomy.com]

Last Edited by LoneStarRising on 08/09/2018 09:22 PM