CubeSat initiative now open to educational and nonprofit groups
NewsAugust 12, 2016
WASHINGTON. NASA officials announced that accredited educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and NASA centers can now participate in the next round of the agency?s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). Applicants must submit proposals by 4:30 p.m. EST, Nov. 22.
The CSLI enables CubeSat developers to have a cost-effective path to space to conduct research that advances NASA's strategic goals in the areas of science, exploration, technology development, education, and operations. The initiative gives students, teachers, and faculty with the opportunity to have hands-on flight hardware development experience designing, building, and operating these small research satellites, according to a NASA release.
NASA official say they will make the CubeSat selections by Feb. 17, 2017, but caution that selection does not guarantee a launch opportunity. Selected experiments will be considered as auxiliary payloads on agency launches or for deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) beginning in 2017 through 2020. If chosen, U.S. nonpro?t and accredited educational organizations are then entirely responsible for funding the development of the small satellites.
To date, NASA has selected 119 CubeSat missions, 46 of which have been launched into space. The agency has also offered a launch opportunity to 95 percent of those selected through previous announcements, with 29 scheduled for launch within the next 12 months. The selected CubeSats represent participants from 32 states, getting NASA close to its goal announced during the 2015 White House Maker Faire, to launch a small satellite from at least one participant in every state during the next five years.
For this round of the initiative, NASA officials are particularly focused on getting participation from organizations in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 18 states not previously selected. These states are: Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming.
CubeSats fall into a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. Base CubeSat dimensions are approximately 4-by-4-by-4 inches (10-by-10-by-11 centimeters), which equals one Cube, or 1U. CubeSats supported by this launch effort include volumes of 1U, 2U, 3U, and 6U. CubeSats of 1U, 2U, and 3U size typically have a mass of about three pounds (1.33 kilograms) per 1U Cube. A 6U CubeSat generally has a mass of about 26.5 pounds (12 to 14 kilograms). The CubeSat's final mass then depends on the selected deployment method.
Small satellites, such as CubeSats, provide NASA with a low-cost platform for NASA science missions, including planetary exploration, Earth observation, and fundamental Earth and space science as well as enabling development of technologies such as laser communications, satellite-to-satellite communications, and autonomous movement.
NASA officials also are using small satellites to demonstrate and validate the vehicles, systems, and protections humans need to live and work in space and on other worlds.
For more information about NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/home/CubeSats_initiative.
To view images from previous CubeSat launches, follow NASA on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/145538433@N02/.
To do so on Instagram, visit https://www.instagram.com/nasa_cubesat/.
