The NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative has selected more than two dozen satellites, including JPL’s Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE), for launch in 2014-2016.
INSPIRE consists of two 3U (10cm x 10cm x 30cm) CubeSats, which will demonstrate communication, navigation and payload-hosting in interplanetary space. The goal of INSPIRE is to open deep-space heliophysics and planetary science to the CubeSat community.
In addition to INSPIRE, the CubeSat Launch Initiative selected two other JPL missions for launch:
- The CubeSat VHF transmitter to study Ionospheric dispersion of Radio Pulses (CHIRP) is a 6U(10cm x 20cm x 30cm) CubeSat that will measure Very High Frequency radio pulses propagated through the ionosphere. This data will be used in the development of SWORD, a future explorer-class charged-particle astronomical observatory.
- The Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA) is a 3U CubeSat to demonstrate of a low-cost Ka-band high-gain antenna that can increase downlink data rates from 9.6 kilobits per second to more than 100 megabits per second.
Also selected were CubeSat satellites from:
- The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA.
- The Discovery Museum and Planetarium, Bridgeport, CT.
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ.
- Morehead State University, Morehead, KY an the University of California at Berkeley.
- Montana State University, Bozeman and the University of New Hampshire, Durham (2 CubeSats).
- Merritt Island High School, FL and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
- NASA Ames Research Center.
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (three CubeSats).
- NASA Kennedy Space Center, FL.
- Pennsylvania State University, Aerospace Corporation, and the Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, CA.
- Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO.
- Tyvak Nano-Satellites Systems, Irvine, CA and California Polytechnic State University.
- The State University of New York at Buffalo.
- The University of Colorado at Boulder.
- The University of Florida, Gainesville, and Stanford University.
- The University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
- The University of Texas at Austin.
- Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN and the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, Silver Spring, MD.
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