News: Shoe box-size satellites one of the next big things

Shoe box-size satellites one of the next big things
Boston Globe, 28 November 2011
http://bostonglobe.com/business/2011/11/28/shoe-box-size-satellites-one-next-big-things/mIcNPfU6V7aakZL9lYgihK/story.html

One of the next big things in space innovation is a modest cube, about the size of a coffee mug or a shoe box, now being developed to circle Earth and monitor space weather, observe the atmosphere, and test the feasibility of using a sun-powered sail to tow space junk.

Over the past decade, these diminutive cube satellites, or CubeSats,have grown in importance. Some think they are poised to have a potentially profound impact on the big-budget space industry, where missions can routinely cost hundreds of millions, similar to the effect the advent of personal computers had on computing.

News: Garvey Spacecraft Awarded NASA Launch Service Contract

Garvey Spacecraft, 19 October 2011
http://www.garvspace.com/2011/PR_2011_01/GSC%20press%20release%202011-01%20-%20NASA%20LSP%20contract%20award.pdf

Garvey Spacecraft Corporation (GSC) announced today that it has been awarded a contract from the NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) at Kennedy Space Center, FL to provide a high altitude launch service for demonstration NanoSatellites.

News: NASA's Nanosail-D 'Sails' Home -- Mission Complete

NASA's Nanosail-D 'Sails' Home -- Mission Complete
NASA, 29 November 2011
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/11-148.html

After spending more than 240 days "sailing" around the Earth, NASA's NanoSail-D -- a nanosatellite that deployed NASA's first-ever solar sail in low-Earth orbit -- has successfully completed its Earth orbiting mission.

Launched to space Nov. 19, 2010 as a payload on NASA's FASTSAT, a small satellite, NanoSail-D's sail deployed on Jan. 20.

The flight phase of the mission successfully demonstrated a deorbit capability that could potentially be used to bring down decommissioned satellites and space debris by re-entering and totally burning up in the Earth's atmosphere. The team continues to analyze the orbital data to determine how future satellites can use this new technology.

A main objective of the NanoSail-D mission was to demonstrate and test the deorbiting capabilities of a large low mass high surface area sail.

"The NanoSail-D mission produced a wealth of data that will be useful in understanding how these types of passive deorbit devices react to the upper atmosphere," said Joe Casas, FASTSAT project scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Cubesat Workshop Presentations

Cubesat Workshop Presentations
CalPoly San Luis Obispo, Various
http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/~bklofas/Presentations/

Presentations from various years of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's Cubesat Workshops.

News: OpenRocket Version 1.1.9 Released

OpenRocket Version 1.1.9 Released
Open Rocket, 24 November 2011
http://openrocket.sourceforge.net/

For this version Richard Graham has implemented geodetic computation methods, which take into account the curvature of the Earth and the coriolis effect. The computation method is selected by the Geodetic calculations option in the simulation options. It's not (yet) a full spherical computation model, but should be accurate enough for almost all sub-orbital needs.

News: SpaceWorks Nanosat Market Study

SpaceWorks Nanosat Market Study
The Space Business Blog, 22 November 2011
http://spacebusinessblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/spaceworks-nanosat-market-study.html

SpaceWorks Commercial today released their latest nano/microsatellite market study. You can download it here. The study is quite bullish on the growth of Nanosatellites over the next decade with over 20% growth per year through 2014.

News: Cubesats Move Out Of The Classroom

Cubesats Move Out Of The Classroom
Aviation Week, 22 November 2011
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/asd/2011/11/22/08.xml&headline=Cubesats%20Move%20Out%20Of%20The%20Classroom

Cubesats — the small, cheap spacecraft popular with engineering students due to their hands-on appeal as teaching tools — are attracting attention beyond the academy as their capabilities grow and launch opportunities proliferate.