The cubed route

The future of the satellite launch is cubed: meet the Jack-in-the-box that can carry your experiment into orbit on a realistic budget. Satellite technology has, of course, progressed hugely over the last 50 years - as has its expense. It can take years to design and build a satellite these days, and can cost up to $1bn for a complex set-up - with around half of the funding going on the disposable rocket used to put the probe into orbit. The three-satellite Metop (Meteorological Operational satellite programme) project run by the European Space Agency (ESA) for weather monitoring is estimated to be costing a total of €3.2bn, including the expense of maintaining contact with Earth stations. A four-month delay to the launch added more than €10m to the bill. Such high costs have limited access to space to those with very deep pockets; now that situation is changing, due partly to the advent of the `Cubesat'.