6. Glossary

Payload capacity

In the astronautics field, this is the maximum mass of payload a launcher can put into a given orbit.

Unipotent cells

These can only produce one kind of cell.

Payload

The part of a spacecraft designed to fulfil the mission’s objectives. The payload of a rocket or launcher is the artificial satellite or space probe it has to put into orbit.

CubeSat

This version of a satellite is low-cost, simplified to the extreme, and diminutive in size: 10 × 10 × 10 cm, i.e. 1 unit (1 U), weighing 1 to 10 kg. These satellites can be built by fitting multiple CubeSat units together. Invented at Stanford University in 1999 under the direction of Robert J. Twiggs, and first launched in 2003,...