4 ms·

What are the main commercial or scientific uses of cubesats?

Ephil012 4y ago
For commercial, the big use case is satellite imagery. Satellite imagery is pretty useful for mapping, agriculture, and even planning out large construction projects. CubeSats are especially useful if you need a cluster of satellites for cheap to blanket the Earth for imagery or sensor data. I think that there are also a bunch of defense companies using CubeSats for sensor data. I believe in general the US gov is investing heavily in defense companies using CubeSats. There are also other use cases involving communications. I have heard of companies looking into using them for IoT and phone communication. That might not be fully developed because right now there are some limits on data transmission speed from CubeSats. Another big use case is asset tracking. You can keep track of exactly where cargo ships are at sea. You can also use them to track planes in the air. As a whole, though a lot of these use cases I mentioned are very early stage / theoretical since CubeSats are a relatively new tool for companies to use. In terms of practical use right now, I think it's mostly satellite imagery / sensor data that it's being used for. However, I expect it to expand in the future to the other use cases I mentioned and many more. In terms of scientific, I think it's best to think of CubeSats as a floating lab. You can basically stick whatever you want on there (size permitting). One thing you can do is stick cameras on there to track climate change through a cluster of tiny cheap CubeSats. Another is to put sensors to measure different particles in space. CubeSats are also useful for testing out new forms of propulsion like ion thrusters. You can also use them to test new materials in space. I have even heard putting bacteria inside CubeSats to see how they react in space. In general, CubeSats are just insanely useful for collecting sensor data for research and putting items in space to see how they react. The big appeal though is you can do all of this stuff I mentioned for the fraction of the cost of a normal satellite. As a result, CubeSats are great for smaller companies or researchers who don't have unlimited cash to spend on a big satellite. Hope all this info helps!
- enviclash 4y ago
  This is cool and very informative, thanks! From my angle I can see that applications to track El Niño and its impacts on real time could provide information with very high market value in the immediate timelines.
  - Ephil012 4y ago
    Yeah, it would be useful for that. In general, anything involving tracking changes on the Earth is fair game for CubeSats. I haven't heard of any organizations / companies using CubeSats for El Niño, but I think that could be a use case in the future. I think there is also a pretty good use case for gov agencies tracking hurricanes that might form due to the influence of El Niño.

For commercial, the big use case is satellite imagery. Satellite imagery is pretty useful for mapping, agriculture, and even planning out large construction projects. CubeSats are especially useful if you need a cluster of satellites for cheap to blanket the Earth for imagery or sensor data. I think that there are also a bunch of defense companies using CubeSats for sensor data. I believe in general the US gov is investing heavily in defense companies using CubeSats. There are also other use cases involving communications. I have heard of companies looking into using them for IoT and phone communication. That might not be fully developed because right now there are some limits on data transmission speed from CubeSats. Another big use case is asset tracking. You can keep track of exactly where cargo ships are at sea. You can also use them to track planes in the air. As a whole, though a lot of these use cases I mentioned are very early stage / theoretical since CubeSats are a relatively new tool for companies to use. In terms of practical use right now, I think it's mostly satellite imagery / sensor data that it's being used for. However, I expect it to expand in the future to the other use cases I mentioned and many more. In terms of scientific, I think it's best to think of CubeSats as a floating lab. You can basically stick whatever you want on there (size permitting). One thing you can do is stick cameras on there to track climate change through a cluster of tiny cheap CubeSats. Another is to put sensors to measure different particles in space. CubeSats are also useful for testing out new forms of propulsion like ion thrusters. You can also use them to test new materials in space. I have even heard putting bacteria inside CubeSats to see how they react in space. In general, CubeSats are just insanely useful for collecting sensor data for research and putting items in space to see how they react. The big appeal though is you can do all of this stuff I mentioned for the fraction of the cost of a normal satellite. As a result, CubeSats are great for smaller companies or researchers who don't have unlimited cash to spend on a big satellite. Hope all this info helps!

enviclash 4y ago
This is cool and very informative, thanks! From my angle I can see that applications to track El Niño and its impacts on real time could provide information with very high market value in the immediate timelines.
- Ephil012 4y ago
  Yeah, it would be useful for that. In general, anything involving tracking changes on the Earth is fair game for CubeSats. I haven't heard of any organizations / companies using CubeSats for El Niño, but I think that could be a use case in the future. I think there is also a pretty good use case for gov agencies tracking hurricanes that might form due to the influence of El Niño.