CubeSats as Secondary Payloads on NASA Sounding Rockets

NASA's Sounding Rocket program offers unparalleled low-cost, fast-turnaround access to space for scientific and educational payloads. CubeSats are changing the landscape of access to space with programs currently underway at space agencies around the world and in the US and many Universities, NASA, NSF, and the Department of Defense. All of these are leveraging the benefits that the CubeSat standard offers. In this work we will tie these two capabilities together and develop mission concepts and alternatives for launching CubeSats from NASA Sounding Rockets. The proposing team has already established a working relationship with the NASA Sounding Rocket Project Office and the PI is serving as a Co-Investigator on the first space mission to ever attempt to launch CubeSats in space from a sub-orbital vehicle. This mission named Sub-Orbital CubeSat Experimental Mission (SOCEM) which will fly on the :-.IASAWallops Hall 12.067 Terrier-Improved Malemute mission scheduled to launch in late 2009. The proposed project will help complete that mission and provide support for a study of alternative launch options for CubeSats from the current set of NASA sounding rockets. The proposed project will provide support for students to travel to '\iASA Wallops and work more closely with NASA engineers to effectively and efficiently solve several challenges NASA faces in launching CubeSats from sounding rockets.