Video: Ideas for Interplanetary Cubesats

This video created for the first Interplanetary CubeSat Conference, which took place last May at MIT, is short on detail, but does illustrate some the ideas that may go into future interplanetary missions.

As the CubeSat has become the de facto pico-satellite standard, developers have begun to design and execute more and more sophisticated missions. In fact, Kentucky Space partnered with Morehead State University to launch Unbridled Spirit, the Cosmic X-Ray Background Nanosatellite, which is currently in orbit. Its mission: to constrain models that explain the relative contribution of cosmic X-ray sources to the ancient Cosmic X-ray Background.

An iPhone application has been released so that interested people can track its location in orbit. If you use and iPhone, search for "Unbridled Spirit" on your phone or in iTunes.

Tethering, shown early in the video above, has also been proposed by the Mars Society for a CubeSat mission.

Wayne