State of the Art Small Spacecraft Technology

When the first edition of NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology State-of-the-art report was
published in 2013, 247 CubeSats and 105 other non-CubeSat small spacecraft under 50
kilograms (kg) had been launched, and these represented less than 2% of launched mass into
orbit. By 2019, small spacecraft with mass less than 180 kg made up almost 7% of all mass
launched into orbit. Additionally, 63% of spacecraft under 600 kg had mass less than 180 kg and of those 47% were CubeSats (1). Since 2013, flight heritage for small spacecraft, primarily
CubeSats, has nearly doubled and with dedicated smallsat launch capabilities readily available and expanding, opportunities to demonstrate new technologies and systems are expected to increase.
The 2020 edition of this report captures and distills the wealth of new information available on small spacecraft systems from NASA and other publicly available sources. Overall, this report is a survey of small spacecraft technologies sourced from open literature; it does not endeavor to be an original source, and only considers literature in the public domain to identify and classify devices. Commonly used sources for data include manufacturer datasheets, press releases, conference papers, journal papers, public filings with government agencies, news articles, presentations, and Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute Federated Search. Data not appropriate for public dissemination, such as proprietary, export controlled, or otherwise restricted data, are not considered. As a result, this report includes many dedicated hours of desk research performed by subject matter experts reviewing resources noted above.