How to Make a CubeSat
One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of university teams to start building their own cubesats.<p>Many of these open source projects actually use consumer &#x2F; hobbyist grade components instead of using commercial aerospace-grade components. The commercial hardware for cubesats is made with a specific manufacturing process that makes them resistant to radiation in space. However, this increases manufacturing costs. Also, most of the radiation resistant hardware being sold is sort of slow &#x2F; outdated. The solution some open source projects came up with was to just take components from Mouser and run their own radiation tests on it then choose the ones that fared good enough to be used in space. That way they can make satellite boards for way cheaper.<p>Another interesting development is there are some startups now offering sub 50k launches for cubesats, such as launcher space. They essentially buy launches from SpaceX then outfit it with hardware to launch a massive amount of cubesats at once. As a result of the number of cubesats they’re able to fit on one launch, the prices are now relatively cheap compared to the hundreds of thousands if not millions required in the past. However, most of these startups are heavily subsidizing the cost using VC money so these low prices won’t stay forever.<p>Also, if anyone has any questions about cubesats feel free to AMA. I work at Isomer space which is a not for profit building cubesats. I would love to answer any questions about cubesats or our work.