I had the pleasure of interviewing Team Mile's Wesley Faler of NASA's CubeQuest Initiative. This initiative is designed specifically for teams of scientists and small satellite engineers to to compete for a 5.5 million dollar prize towards building a small satellite project that can travel and collect data past the moon. It's an excellent initiative and Team Miles recently won the first round against the three other teams in Tampa, FL. Now they will move on to compete at MIT for the second round of the tournament. This interview provided me with insight into benefits and the science of small satellites from an expert in the field. The coolest part of this interview was by far learning about the various terminologies used for different types of machinery and tools involved in the building of small satellites. Some of the coolest types of functions have such simple names and some of the coolest names are actually just ridiculously simple tools. It was a fun interview and Wes is a man who is passionate about small satellites and also has great ideas towards the future when it comes to the evolution and expansion of this industry.
I think his interview provides more information regarding small satellites and is also a call for more exploratory research into how workers, organizations, and even the government and businesses can respond to this growing industry. It's really fun and interesting to see just where the small satellite industry can go.
How does one finance a small satellite startup?
1. There are a couple ways to finance a satellite startup. Sell space gizmos for money and services for working with home accessories.
What made you decide to get involved in small satellites?
2. Budget. Space dreamer all my life. 13 years ago I had started to dig into the small satellite industry ago. Five years ago I saw that my product could be ready. The affordability of small satellites also greatly impacted how I could experiment and carry out my dream.
What makes small satellites cost less than regular satellites?
3. They fuel it and the payload is less. Fuel isn’t the cost. The cost is to make sure that the engineer doesn’t endanger the main cargo. Small satellite doesn’t have the ballistic mass to absorb dense material. You can’t use properties that can make things work.
Was this your first small satellite conference?
4. It was his second small satellite conference. He went to every conference and read every paper. What makes the rocket science rocket science is that everything effects everything.
What is the mission Plan?
5. Cube Quest. Aug. 1st, the video awards for who won the competition. Satellite being broadcasted on missiontv. He had the chance to forge relationships with thermal relationship companies. Seal the deal on some strategic partnerships which is also important. 40-50 commercial parts on the CubeQuest satellite. Then the prototyping for the cubequest satellite. GT-2, Nasa’ tournament number two for Cubequest. Prototyping and science by December for the holidays. A month to write it and then a month for the review it. Pattern Centric apart. Technology maturation plan, have it all ready before it flys. Already to fly or has already flown. We applied that over all the casts to be done. 3,00o items in the final project. By providing a pattern, one can have a transportation pattern into getting the volunteers on cubequest.
You had mentioned different vernacular for small satellite talk. What do different terms stand for?
6. Thermal Knife
Little thread of wire that gets hot and melts the fishing lines.
Reaction wheel
Lunar with a weight on it. Electric motor spinning a weight.
Magnetorque
Flat loop of wire. In the earth’s magnetic field. Car to a flat sheet of coils and it interacts with the earth’s magnetic field.
What is NASA’s small satellite program?
7. NASA has a launch program specifically targeted to educational groups. I’m very pleased that the next generation can have their worldview shaped and get the hands to work on them. On the other hand, what happens to older workers. There needs to be a middle ground to help the students and help the middle ground or the small businesses that want to start an idea.
Right now it’s sharing an intellectual property with a university. It needs to fill the gap behind what goes to kids and small businesses as well. NASA has an excellent program, but the bar is higher for small business ideas and the benefits are less compared to what is given to kids.
What is a big challenge among technical workers in the field?
8. A lot of technical workers do their type of work, but they don’t learn new things and they remain stagnant. Nobody likes to stagnate. They are lifetime enthusiasts and are consistently learning. You could talk about what makes a great launch. Even if they don’t know they like to learn how to do it anyways
What is the most critical aspect of building small satellites?
9. The most critical aspect is to have a systems oriented viewpoint. Our school systems tend to teach people to be heavily specialized in some narrow ditch to add to a paycheck. The systems engineer are the inches between columns and they translate that from one specialization to another. NASA quizzes CubeQuest almost all the time. This is very critical to moving around in the industry. Pick a specialty like RF or Solar Panels.
There is also translating specific specialties. Institutions invent the specialties and they are trying to invent the same equations but they don’t communicate. Liberal Arts helps develop more than just equations.
What type of conventions have you been to?
10. A funny story. I had been working on my thruster, and I went to a maker fair. It’s a science fair for adults. Some people bring biohacking and balloons. I went to the Detroit one and talked to thousands about it over the course of a weekend. She was impressed by the rubix cube and asked what if it was a real satellite. I had to explain to them that it was a real satellite.
Are there other types of small satellites?
11. $50Sat. This is a Cubesat but a quarter of a cubesat. 5X5X5 is a pocket cube. A way to bring the launch cost down even further. Normal launch is 125,000 but pocketsat brings it down to 30,000. $50 is what cost to build the satellite itself. It’s tiny and flying for 300 kilometers. It’s radio is off the shelf from a smartphone. It took simpler parts and made something quickly and effectively.
What sizes are there for small satellites?
12. Business card size satellites. Septo sats. This whole spectrum of sizes. Nasa still thinks of them as the size of a sofa, but it’s mind blowing to have them at the size of a coffee cup. CubeQuest is trying to prove that this can be done.
What is the CubeQuest mission?
13. CubeQuest is to send something to the move or into deep space or go for the gold and prove you did it well. So many different objectives like buying a car. Hard to to grocery shopping with a Ferrari. How do you prove that you did it well?
What else is NASA offering for this program?
14. NASA is offering similar classes for courses for CubeQuest. NASA provides guidelines of the courses that they want. They have the guidelines that they wanted. Win or lose going through that process is enough to build a spacecraft. CubeQuest gives it a goal and you reach it by filling it in.
For more information on small satellites and the work of Team Miles. You can visit their website here.
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