Going Small: The Advantage of Nanosatellites

The exploration of space has long been dominated by large flagship missions, costing hundreds of millions of dollars and timescales spanning entire careers. The rise of nanosatellites, specifically beginning with the invention of the Cubesat in 1999, has created a new entrepreneurial growth within the space industry. Advances in power efficiency and miniaturization of electronics has allowed nanosatellites to become more complex in their function.

Examples of the advantages of nanosatellites and their utility will be presented along with the complexities and challenges of integrating such highly dependent systems. This presentation will discuss how Cubesats have evolved from their humble University origins to the industry they are today.
Hannah Goldberg (BSE MSE EE "03 "04) is a senior systems engineer at GomSpace, a commercial provider of Cubesat components, platforms, and solutions located in Aalborg, Denmark. At GomSpace, Hannah is currently the technical lead in the development of a constellation of communications satellites.

Prior to GomSpace, Hannah was one of the first few technical employees at Planetary Resources, where she worked on projects to advance the technologies leading to asteroid prospecting and mining. She was the lead systems engineer for Planetary Resources' first few Cubesat missions.

Hannah also previously worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Guidance, Navigation and Control hardware group. There she worked on various microspacecraft research and development projects. She was avionics lead for the Mars Science Laboratory radar field test team, testing aspects of the landing system on platforms such as helicopters and an F-18. At JPL, Hannah also worked on the instrument calibration team for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions (both OCO and OCO-2).

Hannah received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2003 and 2004. During her time at Michigan she was involved with the Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory and the Icarus satellite project.