14 DAY TRIAL // A new constellation of satellites will soon be launched into space from aboard the International Space Station (ISS), scientists announced recently. The formation will feature 104 so-called femtosatellites, which are in essence spacecraft composed exclusively of bare integrated circuits and about the size of an average postage stamp.
They are part of an experiment called KickSat that was inaugurated in 2011 and involved a crowdfunding Kickstarter campaign. The goal is to test a new approach to space exploration, where very small and inexpensive spacecraft are launched in a swarm and provide data through continuous communications with each other.
The KickSats will be launched into space on March 16, aboard a Dragon space capsule developed by Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX). The spacecraft will use a Falcon 9 delivery system to reach low-Earth orbit and will be captured by the robotic arm on the ISS a couple of days later.
The mission, dubbed SpaceX CRS-3, is the third cargo resupply mission to the station the company will be conducting, under a $1.6 billion (€1.15 billion) Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract the private company signed with NASA a couple of years ago.
All KickSat assets will be deployed from a CubeSat, a spacecraft that has a mass no larger than 1.33 kilograms (3.65 pounds) and a volume smaller than one liter, or 10 cubic centimeters. The CubeSat is already packaged within the unmanned Dragon capsule and will be retrieved by Expedition 39 crew members once it reaches the orbital outpost.
The idea of using bare integrated circuits as spacecraft could open up new avenues in space exploration, since these chips are extremely small, cheap, and easy to produce in large numbers. Some scenarios suggest that thousands of these vehicles could be deployed by a single, normal-sized satellite.
Future femtosatellite constellations could be used to explore alien worlds and their moons, to measure the properties of the ionosphere around Earth, or to monitor space weather and provide early warning in case a dangerous cloud of highly-charged solar particles is heading our way, IEEE Spectrum reports.
In planetary exploration, such assets would have the advantage of not requiring a very complex deployment system. Due to their small size and weight, they could simply be dropped and scattered over Mars and would not sustain too much damage on impact. If deployed on the Saturnine moon Titan, the femtosats could spend weeks hovering in the thick atmosphere before reaching the surface.
“They’re way smaller than anything else that’s flown in space – on purpose at least,” explains Cornell University researcher and mission organizer, Zac Manchester. He adds that the circuit boards measure 3.5 by 3.5 centimeters (1.37 by 1.37 inches) and weigh just 5 grams (0.17 ounces).