The Logic of Microspace (Space Technology Library (9))

Welcome to The Logic of Microspace I'd like to say welcome to a brand new book, but in the interest of keeping my closet skeleton-free, I'll admit it's not entirely new. But neither are small satellites. While microspace practitioners might build a satellite in a year or even six months, it still takes a year or more of brainstorming to really get the bugs out of the mission concept, bureaucracies need years to get them under contract, and the launching pro­ cess is a bit more than a matter of stepping up to the turnstile with the appropriate number of quarters to drop into the slot. Or maybe that's a pretty good model, since it would take a few years (four is my estimate) to drop ten million quarters into a slot. Books are not that different - writing them takes forever minus epsilon, and the pro­ duction process is long. Plus, in another assault on "new," The Logic of Microspace includes, as one of its three major sections, an updated version of the wildly popular (ok, the popular) Micro Space Craft.

Rick Fleeter is founder and President of the small spacecraft company, AeroAstro. He has built more than 20 successful small satellites.