An article in The Space Review (a blog I subscribed to during my Degree Project) reminded me about the exciting world of nano-, micro-, and even pico-satellites, elements of what the author calls a microspace philosophy.Microspace represents as significant departure from the traditional model of space missions: that is a government-funded or subsidized endeavor that produces very complex, specialized, and costly spacecraft. Mission performance (and therefore vehicle size) must increase in order to mitigate the high cost of the launch to orbit. If a space program is perceived to have a high cost, creating a kind of positive-feedback loop, forcing mission planners to take on additional objectives and parameters in order to increase stakeholder’s “return on investment.” This bloated, “feature-creeped” spacecraft must not fail, and so:

“…approach becomes one of risk aversion instead of managed risk, and conservatism pervades the entire design process. Heritage parts are chosen, margins are over-specified, and complexity increases, leading to customer- and management-driven desires for more documentation and design reviews to verify that the whole thing will actually work.”

Microspace, is an alternative to feature-creep and redundancy.  Its practitioners seek to develop specialized miniature satellites from commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS, not to be confused with Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, another space acronym) parts and systems. These satellites are small (under 1,000 lbs, but can be as small as 1 lb), and while there are significant technological challenges, smaller more facile teams of professional and/or academic engineers can take on a picosatellite project and see it launched within a year.

As these systems become proven and even routine, what will happen as this hardware makes its way into the open-source community. Will future pages of Make magazine feature plans for rep-rap picosatellites that can be launched from your backyard? Will the moon be crawling with Lego NXT lunar rovers? Will Bug Labs produce a modular satellite system so that everyone will have his or her own satellite? Congress will have to pass the Clean Orbit Act, enacting heavy fines on those who thoughtless litter LEO with discarded CubeSats.