Background

The CubeSat Project is a international collaboration of over 40 universities, high schools, and private firms developing picosatellites containing scientific, private, and government payloads. A CubeSat is a 10 cm cube with a mass of up to 1 kg. Developers benefit from the sharing of information within the community. Resources are available by communicating directly with other developers and attending CubeSat workshops.

The essence of Cal Poly's contribution to the CubeSat community is twofold. First, we provide a standard, reliable, and flight proven deployment system. The Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer, or P-POD, is a tubular, spring loaded mechanism taking up very little space. It can be integrated into any launch vehicle and protects primary payloads from the CubeSats and vise-vera. By repeatedly flight proving the P-POD design, we hope to instill confidence in launch providers, primary payloads, and organizations interested in flying experiments on CubeSats. We envision a day when P-PODs can be manifested into a mission with minimal per launch integration time and engineering costs.

By participating in a launch coordinated by Cal Poly, developers can focus on design and development rather than on obtaining export licenses and approvals. We are working with the state department and other launch authorities to produce a streamlined process for launching CubeSats. Cal Poly will obtain all the required documentation, conform to all ITAR regulations, and organize final delivery of the integrated P-PODs to the launch site.

To participate in a CubeSat Program, all that is necessary is to design and build a satellite conforming to the CubeSat Standard. Created by California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University, the CubeSat Standard is designed to provide developers with necessary guidelines to interface with the P-POD. The standard describes the outer dimensions, recommendeds materials, highlights restrictions, and describes schedules pertaining to integration and launch.

With multiple launches now under the CubeSat community's belt, and others quickly approaching, we hope to expand the program and provide viable launch solutions to the interested parties. Currently, CubeSats are being launched on decomissioned Russian rockets. Through companies like Eurokot and Kosmotras, launch costs currently translate to about $40,000 per single cube for the developer.

In addition to overseas launches, our hope is to develop the capability of launching CubeSats within the United States. We are working with all major launch providers to assess possibilities for the future.