PocketQubes: Even Smaller Than a CubeSat
Over one hundred CubeSats have been launched by hundreds of organizations and universities from around the globe. These have proven very useful in technology demonstration, Earth imaging, and other applications. There is, however, one large downside to the CubeSat platform. Even though it is designed to hitch a ride on launches of larger satellites, they’re still very expensive to develop and launch – somewhere between $60,000 and $125,000.
PocketQubes are a new design of satellite that bring the cost of personal satellites down to what Universities and amateur radio enthusiasts can actually afford. Instead of spending $125k on a 10cm cube CubeSat, the PocketQube, a 5cm cube, can be launched to a 700 km orbit for about $20,000.
Already, four PocketQubes are scheduled for launch in November to a 700km solar synchronous orbit,
- Eagle1 (USA)
- Eagle2 (USA)
- WREN (Germany)
- QBScout (USA)
Four PocketQubes
including WREN will be launched aboard a Dnepr 1A multi-satellite
rocket launch on 21st November from the Yasniy-Dombarovskiy launch site
in Russia. The three other PocketQube spacecraft being launched are two
US student satellites, Eagle-1 (Beakersat-1) and QubeScout-S, built
by Morehead State University and University of Maryland respectively,
and the Eagle-2 (50-Dollarsat) built by ham radio enthusiasts. - See
more at:
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/hyperbola/2013/10/cubesats-are-so-last-year-now-smaller-pocketqubes-could-be-next-big-thing/#sthash.FhuIrrg6.dpuf
More see hackaday Kickstarter
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