The spacecraft, a 6-Unit CubeSat — measuring 10 cm × 20 cm × 30 cm — was designed and is being developed by a non-profit group of fifteen citizen scientists and engineers (Fluid and Reason, LLC) based at
Tampa, Florida.[4][5][6] Since the Team Miles won the first place at CubeQuest Challenge for the selection process,[7] Fluid and Reason, LLC stroke partnerships and became
Miles Space, a commercial endeavor to further develop the technology and intellectual property that has come out of the design process.[4]
Propulsion
Wesley Faler, who leads Fluid and Reason, LLC., is the inventor of the
ion thruster to be used, which he calls ConstantQ Model H.[8][4] It is a form of
electric propulsion for spacecraft. The engine is a hybrid plasma and laser thruster that uses ionized
iodine as propellant.[9][6] The Model H system includes 4 thruster heads which are canted, allowing for both primary propulsion and
attitude control (orientation) without the use of moving parts.[8][10] The goal within the CubeQest Challenge is to travel 4 million kilometers, but the team will attempt to go as far as 96 million kilometers before the end of the mission.[4]
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
Cubesats are smaller. Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).