Author: Mustafa Aksoy, Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University at Albany, State University of New York

Most CubeSats weigh less than a bowling ball, and some are small enough to hold in your hand. But the impact these instruments are having on space exploration is gigantic. CubeSats – miniature, agile and cheap satellites – are revolutionizing how scientists study the cosmos. A standard-size CubeSat is tiny, about 4 pounds (roughly 2 kilograms). Some are larger, maybe four times the standard size, but others are no more than a pound. As a professor of electrical and computer engineering who works with new space technologies, I can tell you that CubeSats are a simpler and far less costly…