CubeSat Applications in Space Science and Explorations

Regarding the importance of the design and development of small satellites as a newfoundspace project in the near future in this country, as a first step, it is essential to study similar models and their performances. This paper aims to investigate the status of Cubesats with different subsystems and their capabilities based on advanced high performance space exploration and scientific missions. Technical appropriateness, organizations, manufacturing custodians, types of missions, weight, configuration, orbit, launchers, life-time, subsystems such as payloads, structure, thermal control, propulsion, command and data handling unit, telemetry, tracking, and control, serve as indicators for this analysis. Among over a thousand launched and proposed missions reviewed from various sources including journal publications, conference proceedings, mission webpages, and other available satellite databases, a number of relatively high performance missions were selected and categorized into six groups including astrophysics, earth science and spaceborne applications, deep space exploration, space in situ laboratory, technology demonstration, and space weather.