Oeiras Pole Communication, Events and Partnerships Office (NCEP)

Next Thursday, July 3, at 3:30 p.m., in room 1.38, at the Técnico – Oeiras Campus, Dr. Miguel Nunes (University of Hawaii) will present the experience of the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory in developing CubeSats for scientific missions.

“Exploring 42 with CubeSats: Transforming Student Projects to Deep Space Missions”

Abstract:

CubeSats have transformed the space landscape — not only as powerful tools for scientific exploration, but also as platforms that engage and inspire students to contribute directly to space missions. Conceived initially as 10 x 10 x 10 cm educational satellites, CubeSats can now be combined into larger configurations (3U, 6U, 12U, 27U) and are delivering valuable scientific results across Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and even deep space. Since their first launch in 2003, CubeSats have evolved from simple technology demonstrations to critical components of missions by NASA, ESA, JAXA, and many other space organizations. In 2018, the MarCO CubeSats journeyed to Mars, marking a significant milestone for deep-space CubeSat capabilities. As of June 2025, more than 2,700 CubeSats have been launched, including 18 interplanetary missions — and over 1,900 more nanosats are expected in the next five years. Their scientific impact continues to grow: CubeSat-driven publications are beginning to outpace those from larger missions. CubeSats are no longer just toys; they deliver real scientific and commercial value. Yet challenges remain. Over 50% of CubeSat missions fail to launch successfully or return usable data, and only about 25% achieve data quality comparable to flagship missions. How can we close this gap? In this talk, I will explore practical methods, technologies, and processes that are helping transform student-led CubeSat projects into highly successful, mission-grade scientific platforms — ultimately enabling small spacecraft to contribute to answering some of the universe’s big questions.

Bio

Dr. Miguel Nunes is an Assistant Researcher at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology and Deputy Director of the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL). He received his degree in Aerospace Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal and his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2016. Miguel’s research focuses on the development of advanced small satellite and CubeSat missions, with applications in science instrumentation, distributed space systems, and autonomous operations. His Ph.D. work advanced distributed mission architectures, multi-agent robotic systems, and Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) algorithms for space missions. He has served as technical lead for several international satellite missions, including the ESA ESEO satellite, HiakaSat (US Air Force), Neutron-1 (HSFL), and the NASA HyTI missions, where he is both Systems Engineer and Deputy Principal Investigator. He is also a co-inventor of the open-source COSMOS software framework for CubeSat mission operations (https://github.com/hsfl/cosmos). Today, Miguel’s work bridges cutting-edge research and education, helping transform student-led CubeSat projects into space science missions — from Low Earth Orbit to Deep Space.