A Cheap Satellite with Large Fuel Tank Could Scout For Interplanetary Missions [Video]

A spacecraft that can provide the propulsion necessary to reach other planets while also being reproducible, relatively light, and inexpensive would be a great boon to larger missions in the inner solar system. Micocosm, Inc., based in Hawthorne, California, proposed just such a system via a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. Its Hummingbird spacecraft would have provided a platform to visit nearby planets and asteroids and a payload to do some basic scouting of them.

Large space missions are expensive, so using a much less expensive spacecraft to collect preliminary data on the mission target could potentially help save money on the larger mission’s final design. That is the role that Hummingbird would play. It is designed essentially as a propulsion system, with slots for radiation-hardened CubeSat components as well as a larger exchangeable payload, such as a telescope.

The key component of the Hummingbird is its propulsion …