Presentation Synopsis:

‘Picosatellites: CubeSats & PocketQubes. The trend for low cost IoT space missions’

The increasing demand for global connectivity, including remote access areas, is the gateway of new actors in the space business. The so-called NewSpace could be defined as mainly private initiatives, developing smaller spacecraft, based on COTS components, making access to space faster and cheaper.

Twenty years ago, the very first steps of the CubeSat standard were taken. CubeSats were seen as a kind of threat for the “Old Space” business. However, today, most of the LEO initiatives and constellations are based on this Form Factor (from 0.25U to 6U). They vary for example, from the low cost IoT Swarm Constellation (0.25U) to the multipayload platforms like GOMX-4 (6U) without forgetting Planet Flock Constellation (3U CubeSats for Earth Observation). But is this Form Factor the optimal solution for low cost space missions? What about the emergent trend in spacecraft miniaturization, the so-called PocketQubes?

This paper will be mainly focused on picosatellites (classification by the spacecraft mass) and will consider up to date and near future missions from “sub-U” CubeSat down to “xP” PocketQube solutions, analysing their potential advantages and disadvantages, opportunities or limitations. Paraphrasing Professor Puig, “Could PocketQubes be to CubeSats, what CubeSats were to satellites twenty years ago?”