Microsatellites

NASA has already worked with but now several countries (Canada and Germany, India) are starting to show interest in tiny microsatellites.

After the large sums of money spent on projects such as the giant Hubble telescope space instutions are continuously looking for better ways to spend their money. One recent trend is the development of relatively small or even tiny satellites.

It is no wonder the change of heart and sudden interest in microsatellites given some of the advantages of microsatellites:

• lower cost (fuel, assembly, stability)

• easier to create one-off experimental projects

• allows for a more agile approach to achieving goals since several iterations each improving on a previous can be funded and launched in series

• several can be launched and placed into space for the cost of a larger

• Cost of a mistake can be more easily overlooked or absorbed

Perhaps these microsatellites are fairly obvious now but were not so in the past.