CubeSat Mission

Think inside the box ...

Planning a CubeSat misson? Your first decisions might be the most critical.

Compared to traditional multi-million-dollar satellite missions, CubeSat projects have the potential to educate the participants and implement successful and useful missions in science and industry at much lower costs.

CubeSat payloads and experiments are often new and unique, and project timelines are typically 9-24 months from inception to launch. Since launch opportunties are scheduled well in advance, it's critically important that a CubeSat project adhere to its schedules and stay on time and under budget.

CubeSat missions still require considerable planning and many man-hours of work to maximize the chances for success. By employing as much standardization as possible you can concentrate on your project's mission-specific goals. By making use of as many off-the-shelf commercial and freely available tools and components in the construction of the nanosatellite, you'll save time and money.

Through its comprehensive and flexible hardware and software design, Pumpkin's space-proven CubeSat Kit will help achieve success in your CubeSat mission. Now in its fourth generation and with over 150 delivered to customers since 2003, Pumpkin's CubeSat Kit is the defacto standard in the CubeSat universe, with compatible product offerings from Pumpkin and third parties.

The CubeSat nanosatellite standard

The 10x10x10cm, 1kg ("1U") CubeSat standard has evolved to become the basis for one of the most widely accepted families of nanosatellite designs. Originally proposed byProfessor Bob Twiggs at Stanford University, it and its companion P-POD deployer were later developed in conjunction with Professor Jordi Puig-Suari at California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo. Despite its emphasis on simplicity and low costs, the CubeSat standard address all the critical issues required for a successful mission, from the external mechanical dimensions of the nanosatellite, to the CubeSat-specific P-POD launcher, to test and integration procedures, etc.