NASA has established a new virtual institute at Ames Research Center in California that aims to promote the development of small spacecraft systems and facilitate communication on such systems among government agencies, industry and academia.The Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute will work to identify collaborative opportunities on small space vehicle platforms and determine policy issues and technical scope through partnership with subject matter experts, NASA said Friday.
The space agency said S3VI will host an online resource for small spacecraft lessons, systems test data repository and the space technology mission directorate’s Small Spacecraft Technology State of the Art report.
The virtual institute will also coordinate the human exploration and operations mission directorate’s CubeSat Launch Initiative and STMD’s Cube Quest Challenge in order to help students and industry launch miniature satellites as supplemental payloads on future space launches.
NASA’s STMD and the science mission directorate will jointly sponsor the S3VI portal that is scheduled to go live in early 2017.
