NASA’s Cube Quest Challenge Stimulates Innovation in Space Thruster Technology
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2024
NASA encourages public participation in space technology development through its Cube Quest Challenge, launched in 2015 with a $5 million prize pool. This initiative aims to foster the creation of small satellites, or CubeSats, equipped for deep space missions by university and private groups.
The competition unfolds in two phases: design and construction of CubeSats capable of orbit operations and deep space missions. Team Miles, based in Tampa, Florida, achieved notable success by launching their CubeSat on the Artemis I flight test around the Moon in 2022. The team, led by Wesley Faler, includes professionals from various fields such as software engineering, IT, and aerospace engineering, all recruited from the Tampa Hackerspace.
Wesley Faler shares his experience, “I was prototyping a plasma thruster design in my second bedroom workshop. NASA’s challenge was specifically looking for wild ideas from citizen scientists – not your traditional degree or institution scientists – and that appealed to me.”
Team Miles developed the Miles CubeSat, which features an innovative water-fueled plasma thruster, and a flight computer capable of deep-space communication. Although Team Miles did not clinch the final prize, having suffered a communications failure, the ground test phase saw them winning $100,000 from NASA.
“The challenge generated publicity and public awareness for a wild idea. The fact that NASA looked at the idea and helped us advance it gave us a platform to talk to people. That is huge for these challenges – the opportunity to be heard,” says Faler.
Post-challenge, Wesley Faler co-founded Miles Space, Inc., leveraging the technological groundwork laid during the competition. By January 2024, RocketStar, Inc. had acquired Miles Space, with Faler as chief technology officer, where he continued to enhance the original thruster design into a nuclear fusion propulsion system.
“Whether you place in the challenge or not, you haven’t lost time by participating. Being part of that process forces you to grow,” says Faler.
Related Links
Cube Quest competition
Microsat News and Nanosat News at SpaceMart.com
