Nanosatellites are a class of satellites that are much smaller than a traditional satellite. Instead of being the size of a school bus they are the size of a breadbox. Nanosatellites are useful because each individual nanosatellite has a much lower development cost, and a shorter development time than a traditional satellite. Nanosatellites can be designed built and tested in months instead of years. This democratizes space by lowing the barriers to entry. Companies that couldn’t afford a full satellite now can afford a nanosatellite and scientific missions that were too narrow to justify a full satellite have a platform to test their theories experimentally. Additionally because of their small size a single rocket can launch tens to hundreds of nanosatellites at once instead of a single large satellite.
One aid to the development of nanosatellites are that they often fall into one of a few main size formats. The most popular is the cubesat format. In this format a single ‘U’ is a 10cm by 10cm by 10cm cube. These U’s can be stacked together to increase the volume of the satellite. The most common configurations are 1U’s, 2U’s, 3U’s, 6U’s and 12U’s.
GLADOS – GLADOS is a 6U satellite being used to demonstrate the ability to use nanosatellites to spot space debris and record light curve information from glinting objects. Glinting objects are those where there is a small phase angle between the light source and observer. Light curves can be used to determine material makeup, rotational rate, and other useful information about the debris. I have served as both a member of GLADOS’ Integration and Testing team as well as the lead of the Science subsystem. It is still in it’s design phase with an expected delivery date to the Air Force in March 2019.
SORA – SORA is a 12U satellite that was being to demonstrate the ability to use a spectrometer to collect light curve information from non glinting objects. It’s development has been stopped indefinitely after not passing a review.
UBNL – The University at Buffalo Nanosatellite Lab (UBNL), is the lab where I have gotten all of my experiences with nanosatellites. It’s the first place I learned about nanosatellites and the experiences I have had from working there are some of the most valuable in my time at the University at Buffalo. If you are a graduate or undergraduate at the University at Buffalo who is also a US citizen or permanent resident (Due to the nature of the work the Air Force requires UBNL to meet ITAR regulations) go to the website and send in an application. You don’t need experience! When I started I knew virtually nothing about satellites other than they were cool. Currently most of the photos on this website involving GLADOS or SORA come from the UBNL website.