NSF (the (US) National Science Foundation) has recently entered “Space Research”, initially funding high quality “CubeSat” efforts. With its long history of supporting truly innovative research work by small teams, NSF support is a very encouraging development.

Less positive for American technology, but good for Space, India has announced at least 6 more orbital launches for CubeSats and MicroSats up to 100 kg. Several of these flights are for “Sun Synchronous” orbits, which are very desirable for Earth Linked satellites: those involving Earth Sensing or communications. The Universities of India, so successful with turning out programmers to capture a good share of the software development market, will have somewhat of an inside track, working with the nearby launch center on the South India coast.

No comparable launch opportunities have been announced by American or European Launch providers.

As I have mentioned earlier, these launches are capable of starting a “Google Lunar X PRIZE” competitor on its way. One hundred kg in LEO can translate to 10 kg of landed mass on the Moon, and this is sufficient for the Google Prize. Propulsion system hazards will always be an issue, but these systems are not out of the question for the India launches.

CubeSats have been specifically identified for full operational demonstrations of two of the technologies in the recent Micro-Space NASA SBIR proposals. There is no question that with the modest funding outlined in these proposals, innovative Rendezvous and Docking technologies will be successfully demonstrated.