Pocketqubes and cubesat satellites have been around for quite some time with their applications and usage growing. This is because of their lower costs in launching and development than traditional satellites have opened new markets and users. Here are some of the missions that cubesat and pocketqube satellites can perform.
In orbit demonstrators (IOD)
In orbit demonstrators is exactly what it says on tin. Pocketqube and cubesats can be used as test beds to prove out new technologies or give current untested systems space heritage. For example, consumer electronics could potentially be installed in a pocketqube instead of a flight proven components due to financial limitations or lack of accessibility. Since pocketqubes and cubesats generally cost less than a small sat or larger satellites you can have a bit more freedom in testing new technologies or ways of working.
Cubesats and pocketqubes are great tools to help de risk the development of unproven space technology due to their lower comparative costs as you would not want to risk a larger mission that costs 6 to 7 figures (or more). The risk adverse nature within the space industry can keep progress slow due to the high stakes and costs of failure. This is not to say we can be irresponsible and have a gung-ho approach in launching more satellites and hoping 1 or 2 succeed but with a pocketqube and cubesat you can launch the most promising ideas that have been verified on the ground. The lessons learned from these missions (including the failures) will be valuable in developing larger and more expensive systems.
One of the main markets Wyrm Engineering focuses on is the in-orbit demonstrator missions as we want to help speed up and de-risk space developments.
Education
Pocketqube and cubesat satellites have helped lower the barriers of access to space due to the reduced cost of launches. While cubesats have developed and adopted widely in industry, both satellite form factors will be used in universities for research and education purposes. I think that getting students involved in space will be a good way to encourage more students undertake STEM careers as space still has that awe and wonder. Building satellites is challenging but students get to learn key skills in their technical fields (mechanical, electrical, software etc) but also get to learn soft skills such as cross discipline teamwork, negotiations, budgeting, marketing, and communication. In addition, having more people involved in space at an education level could lead to more breakthroughs as students will have to learn to overcome various challenges while having to handle tight budgets.
Internet of Things (IOT)
The IoT market has been growing due to the increase demand for connectivity and data exchanges between networks. Large satellites have generally been used for IoT but we are seeing cubesats and pocketqube satellites being used in IoT missions. Due to the reduction of launch costs a fleet of nano or pico satellites can provide almost seamless connectivity to IoT networks to ensure that services aren’t interrupted. I also include Blockchain applications as cubesats and pocketqubes can service these applications.
Earth observation (EO)
Earth observation can cover a wide variety of activities from measuring pollution, weather, optical imaging, tracking of shipments, farming and aircraft to analysing deforestation or droughts. Just like cubesats and pocketqubes in IoT missions having a fleet of satellites orbiting the Earth we can have more coverage which would result in a more accurate image of what is happening below.
Future missions
Some of my future mission ideas/applications for both cubesat and pocketqubes are as follows:
Repeater: The idea of cubesats and pocketqubes replacing larger satellites completely is incorrect and misguided as small sats and larger satellites that are the size of a bus can provide higher performances than the nano and pico satellites. Small satellites can be used to aid larger systems by acting as a repeater to enable increased accessibility. For example, you may have a satellite in GEO or in an orbit that limits the amount of ground stations to access it. You might have a satellite over Germany but want to communicate it from Australia, therefore a satellite repeater could be used to provide that service by the ground station linking up with the cubesat which can then talk to the other satellites.
Asteroid mining: Instead of having 1 satellite trying to everything you could have a couple of pocketqubes with dedicated sensors and have a cubesat “mothership” where the sensors of the pocketqubes pick up readings of certain minerals on a particular asteroid. The cubesat collates that data and eliminates the junk or corrupted data and beams it back to Earth.
Smart swarm: Just like the asteroid mining mission idea you can have a swarm of “dumb” satellites that have one specific role and have a larger more expensive satellite collating and analysing the data it receives from the swarm. This allows the satellite to send back only the useful data is sent back. This type of swarm could create new mission types that require different types of information but needs to minimise bandwidth when downlinking data. This type of system could be fully utlised with the development of AI.
Lunar communication: This is similar to the repeater mission, but the main focus would be to have cubesats orbiting the moon to allow a lunar rover or colony to have uninterrupted communication to Earth.
Pharma: Pharmaceuticals is a potential area that cubesats could be utilised where the environmental conditions in space could lead to new life saving drugs and treatments to be developed. They could be used to practice techniques to develop drugs in space which could then be put into larger systems. In future missions we could see larger satellites orbiting in Earth creating brand new cures and treatments that couldn’t be made down here.