ROOM
18
Special Report
Big science from
small spacecraft
When planetary scientists and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) get together to plan the next steps in exploring our solar system, the
result is usually something fairly massive - but exploring space and seeking
to do science on the cutting edge raises the question: is it possible to get the
kind of results we want with smaller spacecraft? Since 2012 a small group
of like-minded enthusiasts (the ‘cubesat kitchen cabinet’) at JPL has helped
to conceive some new, exciting science missions using deep space cubesats
and nanosats to accelerate growth in this field. They hope that once the
barriers to flying small space missions have been broken down, and the cost
of entry reduced, universities and research institutes across the world will be
empowered to join them in this great endeavour to explore our solar system.
Anthony Freeman
NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory,
California Institute of
Technology, USA
James Vaughan
