NASA's next big thing is very small (pictures)

Nanosatellites offer a low-risk, low-cost platform for validating aerospace innovations.We often think of NASA in grandiose terms -- tackling the biggest problems with the biggest thinking, applying the grandest ideas that mankind can conceive. But now, NASA is thinking small in a big way, applying a DIY ethos to spaceflight, and using commercially available tools and technologies to get the job done.



Instead of gigantic systems costing millions of dollars, and thousands of man hours to produce and launch, the next greatest idea is to focus on the small things -- using off-the-shelf products and small-scale design to take an approach to space systems research that is quicker, cheaper, and more efficient. Aboard the International Space Station, the SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites) are already doing just that. [Read more]