You might not know it, but you’re really just one Kickstarter away from launching your own satellite. CubeSats and other small, cheap spacecraft platforms have reduced the cost of getting to orbit by a huge margin, allowing for a more democratized age of space exploration.
As exciting as this populist spaceflight movement is, there is still one major technological hurdle it has to clear before it will meet its full potential: Propulsion.
Take CubeSats—cubic nanosatellites that typically weigh around three pounds. These modules are extremely popular with both professionals and hobbyists, and hundreds of them have been launched since 2003.
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