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February 18th, 2025
NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI) has released the 2024 State-of-the-Art Small Spacecraft Technology report.
This informative and detailed 2024 edition reflects updates in several areas, including formation flying and rendezvous and proximity operations, additive manufacturing, free space optical communications and hosted orbital services.
Invaluable insights
The document provides invaluable insights in numerous areas, including power, in-space propulsion, guidance, navigation, and control, as well as thermal control, smallsat avionics and deorbit systems.
The S3VI is located at the NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The S3VI is sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).
Image credit: S3VI
Improved capabilities
“Technology maturation and miniaturization continues to expand small spacecraft capabilities with the rise in complex SmallSat mission designs. These improved capabilities have broadened the common SmallSat platform resulting in larger CubeSats and smaller SmallSats,” the report notes.
The NASA Small Spacecraft Technology State-of-the-art report is updated annually to capture new information on publicly available small spacecraft systems from NASA and other sources.
Image credit: S3VI
Mass categories
SmallSats are generally grouped according to their mass, and this report adopts the following five small spacecraft mass categories:
- minisatellites are spacecraft with a total mass of 100 – 180 kg;
- microsatellites have a total spacecraft mass of 10-100 kg;
- nanosatellites have a total mass of 1 – 10 kg;
- picosatellites have a mass of 1 – 0.01 kg; and
- femtosatellites have a total spacecraft mass 0.01 – 0.09 kg.
Bridging technology gaps
“While updates in all chapters reflect this growth in the small spacecraft market,” the report points out, “a focused effort was made to update areas with recent technology developments that may ultimately bridge existing technology gaps.”
To access a copy of this report, go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/soa-2024.pdf?emrc=0945a0
Also, be sure to check out the resource-rich Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute website at:
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