Real World: CubeSats – A Satellite Small Enough to Fit in Your Hand
Satellites are expensive to build and expensive to get into space. With all the changes in technology, is there a way to make satellites smaller? Find out just what NASA can pack into a 1U CubeSat, a satellite small enough to fit in your hand.
Discussion and writing prompts
1. CubeSats are much smaller and less expensive than traditional satellites, but their size also creates challenges. What are some advantages and disadvantages of designing a satellite that is small enough to fit in your hand?
2. Engineers must fit everything a CubeSat needs (including power, communication systems, and scientific instruments) into a very small space. How can limitations like size, weight, and cost inspire creativity and innovation? Describe a time when having limited materials or resources helped you think of a creative solution to a problem.
3. If NASA asked you to design a CubeSat, what scientific question would you want it to investigate? Describe your CubeSat's mission, the data it would collect, and how that information could help scientists better understand Earth, the Moon, another planet, or space itself.
Background Information
Grades 4 through 12
- NASA 360 NASA's First Deep Space CubeSats (video, grades 4-12)
Grades 5 through 12
- NASA eClips Real World: CubeSats - Changing the Way We Do Science (video, grades 5-12)
- NASA What Does a CubeSat Do? (video, grades 5-12) ADDED RESOURCE
Grades 6 through 12
- NASA CubeSats Overview (webpage)
- NASA What are SmallSats and CubeSats? (webpage)
- NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative (webpage)
- NASA JPL Crazy Engineering: CubeSats (video)
- NASA JPL CubeSats and SmallSats (webpage)
- EarthSky Wall-E and Eva Are Going to Mars, Too (webpage)
Activities
Grades 3 through 8
- NASA Climate Kids CubeSat Builder: Build a NASA Spacecraft (webpage)
- AXM Paper Space Scale Models (webpage)