The first Tubesat was designed in the 2000's by Roderick Milliron, Californian company Interorbital Systems's lead Engineer. It is a pico-satellite with a total mass of 750g. Its cylindrical shape allows up to a 500g payload, nested in the E-A space (Experiment - Application space), located in the upper part of the spacecraft.
Its relatively small size and good accessibility make it fit for varied missions, ranging from private broadcasting to public observation missions.
It is, along with the Cubesat, one of the most affordable alternatives to traditional monolithic satellites and has so far been used for scientific but also artistic purposes. The Tubesat, as part of a constellation, promises an ever-more connected future as well as countless discoveries.
Image: Tubesats being deployed from the Internation Space Station in 2017.
SpaceFarers' TS1 model was crafted based on Interorbital Systems' original TubeSat, using materials of high precision and quality. Since our aim is to make space more accessible and within reach of individuals, we designed it to be easily assembled while remaining faithful to the Tubesat's real size, and even weight.