About PocketQube Satellites
A PocketQube is the smallest standardized satellite form factor in use today: a spacecraft built around a 5 cm cube. A single unit, called 1P, measures 50 × 50 × 50 mm and has a mass of no more than 250 grams, small enough to sit in the palm of your hand, yet complete with power, a radio, a computer, and a payload.
PocketQubes exist to make space accessible. A conventional satellite costs millions; even a CubeSat program typically runs into six figures once you include launch. A PocketQube brings the cost of putting real hardware into orbit down to a level that universities, amateur groups, and determined individuals can reach.
Standard sizes
Like CubeSats, PocketQubes stack. The base unit extends into longer form factors while keeping the same 5 cm cross-section:
| Size | Dimensions | Max mass |
|---|---|---|
| 1P | 50 × 50 × 50 mm | 250 g |
| 1.5P | 50 × 50 × 75 mm | 375 g |
| 2P | 50 × 50 × 100 mm | 500 g |
| 3P | 50 × 50 × 150 mm | 750 g |
Instead of the CubeSat's four corner rails, a PocketQube rides on a sliding baseplate: the satellite slots into a spring-loaded deployer along a rail and is ejected once the launch vehicle reaches orbit.
Origins
The PocketQube was proposed in 2009 by Professor Bob Twiggs, co-creator of the CubeSat standard, working with Morehead State University and Kentucky Space. The motivation was the same one that produced the CubeSat a decade earlier: launch costs scale with mass, so if you want more people doing space science, make the spacecraft smaller.
The first PocketQubes reached orbit on 21 November 2013, riding a Dnepr rocket out of Russia. That batch included $50SAT (a hobbyist collaboration that operated for over 18 months), WREN (a German PocketQube with a camera and tiny pulsed-plasma thrusters), BeakerSat-1 (Morehead State), and QubeScout-S1 (University of Maryland, Baltimore County). A formal PocketQube Standard followed in 2018, aligning the mechanical spec across builders and deployer manufacturers.
PocketQube vs CubeSat
A 1U CubeSat is a 10 cm cube massing on the order of 1–2 kg. A 1P PocketQube is one eighth of that volume at under 250 g. The trade is straightforward: a PocketQube is substantially cheaper to build and to launch, but has less surface area for solar cells, less volume for batteries and payload, and a tighter link budget for its radio. PocketQube missions therefore favor compact payloads such as sensors, cameras, communications experiments, and technology demonstrations over instruments that need power or aperture.
What PocketQubes are used for
Flown PocketQube missions have included amateur radio transponders, LoRa-based IoT communications (FOSSA Systems' FossaSat-1), Earth imaging (Alba Orbital's Unicorn-2 platform), university science and engineering education (Hungary's SMOG-P, which flew a spectrum-monitoring payload), and propulsion and hardware demonstrations. Many PocketQubes transmit on amateur UHF bands, and open ground-station networks like SatNOGS let anyone receive their telemetry.
Who builds them
Two companies anchor the ecosystem: Alba Orbital in Glasgow, which builds PocketQube platforms and deployers and brokers rideshare launches, and FOSSA Systems in Madrid, which grew out of FossaSat into IoT constellations. Around them is a community of university teams, amateur radio groups such as AMSAT-EA, and independent builders. This site documents one of those builds.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a PocketQube cost?
Far less than any other path to orbit. Simple PocketQubes have been built from a few hundred dollars in off-the-shelf parts, and complete missions (hardware, testing, and a launch slot) have historically come in around the low tens of thousands of dollars, roughly an order of magnitude below a typical CubeSat program.
How long does a PocketQube last in orbit?
Most fly in low Earth orbit, where atmospheric drag brings them down within a few years, a built-in end-of-life plan that keeps them from becoming long-lived debris. Operational lifetimes from months to a couple of years are typical.
Can an individual really build one?
Yes. That's the point of the format, and the premise of this journal. Entry 001 is where my build begins.
Further reading
PocketQube on Wikipedia · Alba Orbital · FOSSA Systems · SatNOGS ground-station network