[a_d]

wow! Thank you so much for a detailed response! I learned a lot from your comment.

If I may ask another question: do you think the CubeSat ‘form factor’ (10x10x10 cm-cube) can have enough propulsion (combined with some gravtiy-assist) to be able to get into an orbit around another planet or another moon in our solar system? Meaning, can a CubeSat be sent to .. say Titan, as a probe (say a ‘mini-Cassini’).

(Just curious to understand whether cheap ‘CubeSats’ can be used as tiny probes for the entire solar system)

Thank you!

[Ephil012]

Oh yeah, forgot but to clarify you might be able to get something better than a smartphone camera with the right sensors and clever space saving in a 1U cubesat. It's just most of the 1Us I have seen don't use anything beyond smartphone level cameras due to their internals (e.g. reaction wheels, computer system, etc) taking up too much space and the fact they don't need something more advanced. Though if you were very clever about laying out the space and removing as many components as possible you could fit a small zoom lens in there and get something better quality. I suspect though there are people who have done this. I just don't think it would be anything super different from existing images taken from the ISS or other things in orbit. If you went for something bigger then maybe you could get something more substantial and get cool images of planets in our solar system close up. A 24 U might be able to pack quite a camera system, but as far as I know the general max size is 12U and anything past that is rare/theoretical. I know though at even a 2U you can get some pretty high quality images of Earth, but I don't know if that would really translate to anything super amazing of space given the distance most planets/stars are. I think those images would still look like they were taken with a high quality smartphone or maybe a dslr camera just due to the fact they are far out (even though technically 2Us pack way better camera systems than most smart phones).

As a whole though these camera system are mostly used for Earth as it's an easier target. Space images are more like astrophotography grade and not Hubble grade.

If you want an example of a good cubesat camera here are some. https://dragonflyaerospace.com/products/ I should note though that these would not generally fit inside a 1U given their smallest one takes up 1U worth of space.

[Ephil012]

There are CubeSats with various propulsion systems like ion thrusters and pulsed plasma thrusters in development. It's relatively new though iirc. These thrusters can last for an insanely long time. So maybe in theory it could reach a planet one day, but it would take ages. So in practice probably not practical and it just makes more sense to launch one from a rocket that is going to that planet.