SpaceX just kill Commercial Cubesats?

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SpaceX just kill Commercial Cubesats?
Building Satellites is all about the mass.
Just different from what you think.
The cure all – throw additional mass at your problems!
CubeSats have it all wrong
So why is everybody trying to build lightweight?
So, where the catch?
SpaceX launch pricing is death for commercial CubeSats

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Announcing a monthly rideshare program with a 1 million USD price tag for a 200kg payload is a boon for the small satellite industry but potentially a death blow for commercial cubesats (12U and larger).
Building Satellites is all about the mass.
Just different from what you think.
If you ask any space engineer in any project about what could make their life easier, they will likely tell you more time and more mass.
Imagine your life where you could build your satellite with 10mm solid aluminium walls.
As soon as you can put 50% or more mass fraction in your structure everything suddenly is easy.
You can’t build a satellite with 10mm massive walls.
Think again.
CubeSats largely go the other way around.
Things that otherwise would be easy are difficult.
Structural design – difficult, thermal design – a nightmare, radiation protection – umm, nice hat that you are wearing.
However, as long as you pay your engineer by the hour and not by how large your satellite is this is not a cost efficient way to solve problems.
Because launching them is a major cost factor.
Now you’ll get a 200kg slot in a ride share program that launches every month for just 1 million USD.
My guess is the size will be similar to a Spaceflight 100kg launch slot (500x500x1000mm) but with a 200kg mass allocation.
SpaceX launch pricing is death for commercial CubeSats
The side effect is that CubeSats and other light weighted satellites lose their advantage in launch cost.
Sure, there will likely be aggregators who will use the bigger 200kg launch slots to put multiple 12U satellites in.
I would be very surprised if a 12U cubesat would go much below the 1-million-dollar range that it currently has.
Even if the price to launch a 12U cubesat goes to half a million.
Go and ask your engineers – better ask your project managers – what will happen to their problems if – launch cost aside – they have to achieve the same performance within 200kg instead of 20kg

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