Don't ask me why but I started 3D printing Cube Satellite Keychains. For what purpose you might ask? Honestly, I don't know why I started doing it, maybe its the lack of gimmick products that exist in small satellites due to the average intelligence of the someone who even knows what a cube sat is. I actually talked to the head purchaser of NASA's Kennedy Space Center gift shop to see if they would be interested in placing it in their stores. Having done professional consumer products in the past I knew that in a gift shop with "average" people in it, if a 12 year old can't understand and like your product within 3 seconds then most "average" people will have no clue what your product is or if they should like it or not. To test this "12 year old" theory I stopped every little kid I could find while on the way to the purchasing department within the Kennedy Space Center and asked them what they thought of my keychain. The responses were deflating as I heard "milk carton, crate, box for flowers, hipster square and cat toy". This is not what you want to hear when your about to walk into a meeting to pitch your product. In fact, even the head purchaser of the Kennedy Space Center gift shop had never heard of cube satellite despite the fact my tags I placed on the keychains actually had a picture of a cube satellite in space and explained their purpose. He seemed lukewarm to the idea of placing it in the store due to the unrecognizable features of the satellite chassis, but thanked me and said he would "shop it around" the department to see if it had any merit as another gimmick to include in the shop.
I walked out thinking I needed to revisit why I came up with these dumb keychains in the first place. Did I do it for fun? For profit? Maybe I did it because I thought some kid like me would want to have an actual satellite replica on his keychain or bedside stand at the age of 6. I don't know for sure what I was thinking 3 weeks prior, but what I did figure out is that cube satellites despite being "all the rage" in space circles they are still relatively unknown to the rest of the human population. I wondered what kind of publicity these things would be getting in 10 years, or if they would kind of just fade away as a side note in history as some sort of short lived Space Fad.
I think it will come down to how or when these little "milk cartons" as some little girl told me, will end up on the front page of USA Today or mainstream talk media. But for some talking head to explain these things in a 30 soundbite to some unwilling unknowing sucker watching the 5 o'clock news, I have to admit it might be a challenge. How long would it take you to explain these little flying bandits to your mother or daughter?
Case and point, I know this industry of Small Satellites is cool, but when is it going to be cool to everyone else. I keep hoping some girl I flirt with will know what these things are and be impressed by what I'm telling her, but that kind of talk seems to just ensure my bachelor status.
(Below are my failed attempts at making Small Satellites a gift shop consumer product)
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