HiakaSat (Hyperspectral Imaging, Aeronautical Kinematic Analysis Satellite), also known as HawaiiSat 1, is a microsat mission developed by students of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu (Ma-noa).

The mission has the following goals:

- Demonstrate a cost-effective on-orbit platform for performing technology demonstrations
- Perform remote sensing with the newly designed space ultra-compact hyper-spectral imager (SUCHI)
- Perform imaging with two HSFL color cameras which are co-aligned with SUCHI
- Provide workforce development opportunities for students and recent graduates
- Further develop infrastructure for sustainable satellite development, integration and test, and operations

Originally the HawaiiSat 1 mission was to be built on a larger bus and was to feature the THI (Thermal Hyperspectral Imager) payload. It was to weigh 80 kg. Later during development, the available mass was cut to 40 kg, later raised again to 55 kg. Therefore the HawaiiSat 1 structure was cut in half and the THI payload was replaced by the lightweight SUCHI. This redesigned satellite was renamed HiakaSat.

Supernova-Beta, also known as TechSat 1, is a picosatellite built as a prototype of the Pumpkin Inc. Supernova 6U CubeSat bus.

The Supernova-Beta mission is a test flight of multiple subsystems on the SUPERNOVA 6U bus developed by Pumpkin, Inc., including structure, EPS, GPS, ADACS, CDH, and imagers.

The Spacecraft contained three communications systems.

STACEM (Student Academic Environmental Monitoring) is a 3U CubeSat built, tested, and operated by the Space Dynamics Laboratory / Utah State University Research Foundation.

The mission is to conduct a space-borne optical experiment to collect imagery, both visible/near-infrared and hyperspectral, of earth scenes for environmental analysis and monitoring.

PrintSat was a picosatellite built by Students at Montana State University (MSU) with nano-carbon-impregnated plastic using a 3D printer.

Additive manufacturing (also called 3-D printing) has evolved in the past few years to be a very inexpensive and fast way to make mechanical parts. With PrintSat, the entire structure of the small satellite was printed utilizing industrial 3D Printing using Windform XT 2.0 material.

When in orbit PrintSat was to measure and report on the characteristics of the Windform XT 2.0 printed material and plating during its mission life in order to verify the utility of additive manufacturing for spacecraft structures and mechanisms.

Argus is a collaborative project between SSRL and the Institute for Defense and Space Electronics (ISDE) at Vanderbilt University. Argus’ mission is to improve the ability to model the effects of space radiation on modern electronics. It will be done by comparing the rates of on-orbit radiation events against the predictive models developed by ISDE. Argus is a 2U CubeSat (10 × 10 × 20 cm) with a mass of 2.5 kg designed to operate in Low Earth Orbit.

The motivation for Argus is straightforward: the models used today to determine how electronic devices will operate when exposed to space radiation were created in the 1970s and ‘80s, and are tailored to the kinds of electronics available in the 1970s and ‘80s using the computational resources in the 1970s and ‘80s. Modern electronics are smaller, faster, and more complex than their predecessors. The existing models to define their reliability in space simply do not apply.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University and ISDE have developed new predictive models, but it is important to calibrate them. Unfortunately, it is not sufficient to simply calibrate the models only using radiation test chambers on the ground. Modern electronics have many operating modes and are susceptible to a wide range of particles and energies; testing even one simple device across all parameters would require years of beam time! Beam time is a necessary element of calibration, but it is not sufficient. With the advent of the CubeSat standard and the universal adoption of the P-POD carrier among U.S. and international launch vehicles, spaceflight has become a cost-effective complement to ground testing.

Argus consists of the SCARAB bus and the Independence payload developed by Vanderbilt University. After separation from the launch vehicle, Argus will passively detumble, unstow its beacon antenna, and wait in safe mode until contacted by the ground.

The EDSN (Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks) mission will deploy a swarm of eight CubeSats into a loose formation orbiting approximately 400 kilometers above Earth. EDSN will demonstrate the potential value of multiple small satellites as tools for a wide array of scientific, commercial, and academic space research. Other goals of the project include reducing the cost and time required to design and build future small spacecraft as well as testing new software applications.

The EDSN satellite swarm is composed of eight identical 1.5U CubeSats (10 cm × 10 cm × 17 cm), with a mass of 1.7 kg each. The EDSN spacecraft uses low-cost COTS components and inherited many design elements from the PhoneSat 2.0 design. A Samsung Nexus S smartphone is used as the primary processor. Eight flight satellites, four flight spares, and four engineering development units were built. Each satellite carries an identical sensor to measure space radiation in Earth orbit. The continuous sensor data from each of the satellites in their separate locations can be collected and combined to provide a much more complete picture of the space environment than possible with a single satellite.

The science payload is an Energetic Particle Integrating Space Environment Monitor (EPISEM) that counts charged particle events in low-earth orbit (LEO). This instrument, developed at Montana State University, is a Geiger-Müller tube that detects penetrating beta/gamma radiation from energetic particles above a certain energy threshold.

The EDSN mission will demonstrate new communications capabilities, including satellites sending data, as needed, amongst themselves. This allows for flexible and simplified spacecraft operations with a more rapid return of scientific data.