Original subtitles

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- [Narrator] CubeSats, they've been around for a while now.

The domain of universities and institutions

wanting to teach and gain experience in space.

They're low cost, light and very adaptable.

Not only that, but they're also easy to send into orbit.

Now, business is eyeing off these micro satellites

with big plans for the future.

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(electronic whooshing)

The traditional satellite is

an industrial and technological marvel,

designed and built from the ground up

for a specific purpose with a long life expectancy,

some communications and global positioning satellites

are built on an off the shelf platform design,

to help alleviate costs.

Launching them into orbit however, is no easy feat.

Weighing as much as 50 tons,

they have to be placed in a geosynchronous,

or high polar orbit,

which requires expensive launch facilities.

The cube satellite, or micro satellite,

devised as a training and development tool

for university students,

has now taken on a life of it's own

as a low cost alternative to the conventional satellite,

in particular roles and for new purposes

not previously considered.

- A CubeSat is a nano satellite,

basically in a box size.

Standard dimensions of a CubeSat would be

a 10 by 10 by 10 centimeters,

and you can have multiples of that unit.

So, you could have a three unit CubeSat for instance,

10 by 10 by 30 centimeters,

and all of the satellite equipment

has to fit inside that box.

The origin of CubeSats goes back over 10 years.

In the U.S., university professors were looking for ways

to allow their students to, essentially,

build and fly satellite hardware

during their degree courses.

And so that was envisioned as a very low-cost way

for universities to get their students

well-educated in the engineering skill.

- [Narrator] University student teams from around Europe,

have been busy in the last months making

the final preparations for ESEO,

the European Student Earth Orbiter.

ESEO is preparing the space workforce of tomorrow.

The student teams designed, constructed,

and tested the essential parts for the mission.

- During its whole project life cycle,

ESEO engaged several hundred students,

and already before launch we can say that

it's achieved all its main educational objectives.

- [Narrator] Launched aboard a SpaceX,

small, satellite-dedicated, Falcon 9,

ESEO was released into a polar orbit.

Aboard the satellite there is a radio

amateur communication system,

by the University of Surrey,

and AMSAT-UK in the United Kingdom.

This enables ESEO to transmit real-time data

to schools and universities for

science and engineeri\\ng lessons.

- I participated in the LMP project.

It is a bit personal project for me

because there is a component which

I had in the design,

and I wrote my thesis from this component.

- I've been involved in the development

and testing phases of the power distribution unit

of the ESEO satellite.

It's an amazing feeling that your device will go up

into space, and it's ready,

it's working well, and I'm so happy.

- ESEO is a complex system,

and in the and I think it was challenging activity

for all the the payload teams.

We had a chance to stay with them,

we had a chance to teach them a few things that typically,

are not so common in Academia.

- ESEO okay. But it's the competence to actually

build any scientific instruments here in the observatory.

It gave us both the confidence

and also connection with these,

and we learned a lot from the projects

in order to develop our further missions.

- There's been some evidence

that lightning produces gamma rays,

and this is really the first satellite

that's gonna go out and investigate if,

and how, and where, and everything associated

with gamma rays coming from lightning.

There's been evidence, and others have seen this,

but again, there's never been a satellite dedicated,

looking at, looking down at Earth,

for these terrestrial gamma ray bursts.

- We wanna make artificial signals similar to lightning,

and see what the board does,

make sure it's filtering those signals the way we want.

- We're gonna put into the HDL code

and then get it through this.

- One of tenets of the CubeSat program

is to involve undergraduate students at all levels.

From design, to building, to some of the theory,

data acquisition, every aspect of this.

We're really training here,

the next generation of space scientists,

of satellite engineers.

As soon as the launch goes up

and they know they're a part of that satellite,

data's coming in.

I mean, that'll be with them throughout their life.

- [Narrator] Where else could CubeSats be applied?

A major space mission to Mars, InSight,

was a perfect opportunity to test out some new technology.

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- Lift off of the United Launch Alliance, Atlas 5 rocket.

- The Atlas 5 RD-180 main engine ignites,

and generates more than 860,000 pounds of thrust.

- [Narrator] Flying with the InSight spacecraft

to Mars were two CubeSats.

Called Mars Cube One, or MARCO,

they were a technology demonstrator,

and the first use of miniature,

modular, CubeSat spacecraft design in deep space.

The pair of briefcase-sized spacecraft, MARCO A and B,

were launched on the same rocket as InSight,

and traveled independently of the main craft.

They carried a number of communication

and navigation flight experiments.

Although NASA emphasized the experimental nature

of the CubeSats before the InSight landing,

the MARCO spacecraft performed as intended,

receiving the UHF telemetry from InSight during its entry,

descent and landing phase,

and rebroadcasting it at X band frequencies,

received by NASAs deep space network.

This vindicated CubeSats as another tool

in the exploration of deep space.

To top it off, MARCO B managed to take a photo of Mars

and transmit it back to Earth as it passed by the planet.

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The rush to exploit CubeSats is on.

Scientists and engineers have begun designing,

building, and launching various designs

for specific missions and for testing

new technologies in space.

Rocket launching companies have been quick to respond,

developing and flying dedicated launches

for the emerging small satellites market.

SpaceX and ESAs Vega launchers are among these companies,

while the Electron from Rocket Labs,

has already begun flying commercial CubeSat launches,

and is planning a monthly service.

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- Two, one.

Lift off of the Falcon 9.

(cheering)

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- My involvement goes back 10 years

from when I was working in the Education Office at ESA.

So indeed, I was responsible for managing university

CubeSat projects that we would then later fly

on the maiden flight of the Vega launch.

We had seven CubeSats that flew on the Vega maiden flight,

and actually many students were involved in those projects,

and they went on to graduate,

and many of them

formed their own spin-off companies which now forms

the basis of the CubeSat industry today.

(upbeat music)

What we're seeing is the same technologies that

are being exploited terrestrially for aerial drones,

are also being exploited by CubeSats,

so I like to think that same technology will enable CubeSats

to become the autonomous drones of the space domain.

With the capability of CubeSats to become

autonomous space drones,

they will have the performance to be able

to perform autonomous navigation,

close proximity operations around other targets, objects.

And also to be able to fly in swarm formations.

So, these are very advanced architectures.

We might also see them being able to perform

autonomous rendezvous and docking together,

forming building blocks to build up larger structures

in space in the future.

When we do the CubeSat projects,

of course the standard engineering approach

combined with the access to ESA

facilities and technical knowhow,

gives an added value to ESA member states,

to ensure that we maximize the probability

of mission success within the tight

financial constraints of each project.

So far we've flown one technology CubeSat in orbit, GOMX-3.

That mission has been very successful.

It's recently re-entered the atmosphere,

so the mission has been completed successfully.

Now we are preparing to fly another CubeSat called Carmen.

It's designed to demonstrate re-entry technologies,

very exciting and challenging project,

and beyond that, we have another

four technology CubeSats in development.

And we're already talking to our member states

about starting many new projects

for these technology demonstrations.

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- [Narrator] The use of micro satellites for commercial

and industrial purposes is a growing field of interest,

as is the concept of the internet of things.

One company has combined the two into what may

become the next great technological revolution.

Alongside household names like Microsoft, Google and SpaceX,

you may soon be adding Fleet to the list.

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- So, internet of things is a concept

that probably started five to ten years ago.

I know people were starting talking about this.

You've 25 billion devices coming online in the net,

it's the fourth Industrial Revolution,

everything will be connected%.

It's gonna change our lives.

I kind of separate the concept in two.

There's more serious, so when our life

will change into buildings,

you know your feet being connected to your fridge,

and your car driving itself,

and the smart fridges, the smart traffic lights

and so forth.

And also smart industries, so what happens in remote areas,

in a big farm or a big oil and gas company,

or big mining, that's heavy industrial revolution.

So the internet of things is the idea that we are

kind of changing the way that we operate.

We have spent forty years connecting people,

and bringing computers inside factories,

and certainly everyone has got a computer

they cannot live without.

If there's a day you cannot use your computer,

you go, oh what am I supposed to do?

So in the next forty years,

things will change the industry,

in the same way the computer did.

So, imagining a big farm,

suddenly everything will be connected,

from the soil, literally soil content,

to animal tracking, weather stations,

thousands of sensors that will allow the farmer

to literally understand so much of the way they operate

that we'll solve the biggest problem on Earth, y'know,

water leakages and drought and so forth.

But that goes into transport and logistics.

Not measuring pallets and fruits

traveling all over the world.

I think we waste 60 percent of our food in the supply chain.

But a big change is happening and this is all

about little sensors being connected.

The problem is that this big industry that I'm mentioning,

they have not 3G. I mean 3G, $G, 5G, covers the population,

but 95 percent of the world's unconnected

and this is where our farms are,

where our mining and oil and gas companies,

the shipping containers are.

So it's a kind of a problem that

the recent infrastructure cannot solve,

and where we go space, we solve it from space.

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- [Narrator] The potential for a constellation,

or swarms of CubeSats to become powerful research

and communication tools is now starting to be explored.

The ability to track almost anything across

the planet is now a reality.

The possibilities seem almost endless.

(upbeat music)

- Internet of things is interesting because

with one satellite in LEO, or Low Earth Orbit,

you cover almost every side of the planet.

And customers use you once a day. It's not much.

It's not really good for high-speed internet,

or talking Skype or checking YouTube,

but it's great for valve,

or soil moisture sensor, or a cow.

You don't wanna know where a cow is

every single minute of your day, probably you do,

but once a day's perfect for LEO.

But when you reach a hundred,

although I say hundred it probably will be even less,

the latency is so good that you can actually

tackle some high-pressure emergency applications,

like safety and security which, you wanna send the data,

and grab this straightaway,

and send it to the customer straightaway.

But a good thing of the internet of things,

you launch one satellite and then you're in operation.

You can send everything, now.

We launched four satellites last year.

It was a great journey for Fleet.

For a startup we launched them in 24 days.

To which Rocket Lab was first Rocket Lab launch

of nano satellites, was commercial.

So it was literally like what is gonna happen here?

And then of course SpaceX appears so big.

The first satellite we built was almost one year,

the second one, two months, one we launched with Rocket Lab.

By the time we started building the satellites,

to the time we booked the flights

and the time we were in space was four weeks.

It's a big revolution also on the launcher side,

they can put us in space quite fast.

- [Narrator] This startup company seems to have hit

the nail on the head.

Low cost terrestrial sensors can be hooked up

to almost anything and this data's uploaded to the CubeSats,

for transmission to the clients via the Net.

- With the people that are booking the sensors,

they come from the biggest oil and gas company in the world,

who own the farms in South America.

This is a big customer.

So we are entering a phase in which, as most startups,

are starting so little it's a massive customer impact that

satellite companies that operates for billions of dollars

in many, many years, they don't have,

so they start see these satellites and understand

it's not a game anymore.

This is gonna be bigger than those companies,

very, very fast.

So, it's quite exciting.

- [Narrator] This system could increase efficiencies,

and save waste across the globe.

- Earth needs help.

Earth needs monitoring.

Earth needs efficiency.

Earth needs water to be saved and food to be not wasted,

and people to be safe.

Millions of sensors will not change the world forever.

It's gonna be billions.

When we started Fleet, we started with a dream of connecting

the entire world with a million devices.

We call it One F. It's our first constellation.

For us, Two F is gonna be the moon

and Three F is gonna be Mars.

- [Narrator] The potential for space

exploration is exciting.

Quick and efficient data networks dispatched to the moon,

Mars and beyond, or even swarms of CubeSats

surrounding an asteroid or a spacecraft during rendezvous,

sending back data and video.

The scope is limitless.

- Imagine you can have a constellation to track

every robot and things, just to make sure where they are.

This is just the beginning, and the reality is

that when we're big entrepreneurs, we go to Mars.

That would put so many things on to the chart,

it's a complete exercise.

And CubeSat, CubeSat it's a way to go there fast.

When you need to move a big satellite to Mars,

it takes long time, and you launch some of these,

eventually we'll get there.

But, eventually we'll go there

and we'll have to do the same.

We'll have to have a big responsibility when we start

conquering the other planets so,

my dream will happen I think.

Yeah, it's gonna be Fleet responsibility as well, I guess.

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