Cube Satellites: View Space Station as Launch Pad

CubeSats are small and compact sensor-laden satellites that can help monitor phenomena of interest, such as Earth's upper atmosphere.

CREDIT: University of Kentucky

The International Space Station would be an ideal launch platform for dispatching tiny spacecraft to perform a variety of Earth-oriented scientific research tasks, some experts speculate.

The idea of using the $100 billion ISS as a platform to pop out sensor-laden probes has captured the attention of small-satellite makers, who are contemplating deploying palm-sized satellites called CubeSats from the orbiting laboratory to study phenomena of interest.

Clyde Space - Cubesat

Scottish scientists are also at the Technology Strategy Board Collaboration Nation event, concluding the Space Feasibility study activities, Clyde Space presented three of our innovative technology concepts for use on CubeSats. 

The concepts were a high resolution imager for a 3U CubeSat for global digital mapping, a Bush Fire early warning system using a constellation of 3U CubeSats with infrared imaging capability and a Dragsail for automatically deorbiting CubeSats at the end of mission life. 

A summary of the studies can be found in this PDF (extract from the Technology Strategy Board report): Clyde Space TSB Study Summaries.