Nov. 16, 2010 —     The international space news authority “Space News” has named the top 10 space professionals in the world. On the list, President Barack Obama and Paypal/SpaceX founder Elon Musk along with Morehead State University’s Space Science professor Bob Twiggs.

    “It is unbelievable,” said Twiggs. “To be ranked among those professionals, who are on the list, it is very humbling.”

    President Obama’s national space policy is transforming NASA by revamping the manned spaceflight program and moving a significant portion of the U.S. space services component to private industry. SpaceX, called the “poster child for the Obama plan,” has won the largest private contract from NASA to develop its commercial orbital transport system—the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule that will ultimately ferry astronauts to the International Space Station and beyond.

    “Professor Twigg's recognition as one of the top 10 space professionals by Space News is a remarkable achievement. When Bob invented the CubeSat in 2001, I do not believe anyone imagined that it would revolutionize the small satellite industry-- but it certainly has. Advances in microminiaturization and MEMS devices have driven the evolution of satellite systems to smaller but very capable form factors and the CubeSat has dominated,” said Dr. Ben Malphrus, chair of the Department of Earth and Space Science and director of the Space Science Center.

    “CubeSats have not only changed the way NASA and commercial space conducts certain types of research but have also provided countless opportunities for college student to gain invaluable experience in space systems development. We are incredibly fortunate to have him leading our space systems group at Morehead State.”

    Twiggs, according to Space News, has witnessed a big development on the realm of small satellites.

    “After years of gestation, CubeSats—standardized space platforms measuring 10 centimeters on a side and weighing all of 1 kilogram—are being embraced like never before.”

    CubeLabs have now been developed by NASA, U.S. Army, National Reconnaissance Office (famous for building billion-dollar satellites), and governments and universities worldwide.

    The CubeSat was invented by Twiggs in 2001 (then at the Stanford University Space Systems Laboratory) and his colleague Jordi Puig-Suari at the California Polytechnic University. Since then, more than 100 CubeSat developers have emerged.

    Twiggs helped found the Kentucky Space Program in 2004 and became a professor at MSU in 2009. He has helped lead the Space Science program in its goal of becoming a nationally recognized center for education and research in space systems development and operation.

    The Kentucky Space program, of which MSU is a lead institution (along with the University of Kentucky), has developed its own CubeSat, KySat-1 which will fly as a secondary payload on NASA’s Glory mission on Feb. 23.

    Twiggs has brought a number of space-related projects to Morehead State, including a collaboration with the Aerospace Engineering School at the University of Rome, leading to the development of a joint satellite called UNISat. UNISat is a 10 kg (22 lb.) satellite built by the University of Rome. UNISat, which will launch on Dec. 16 from the Kosmatras Launch site in Yasny, Russia, will contain 4 PocketQubs (femtosats invented by Twiggs), which will be ejected from the "mothership" at apogee.

    Morehead State undergraduate students have built one of the PocketQubs, with the others built by private individuals in the U.S. and Europe. MSU Space Science students also designed and built the orbital deployer, which will release the PocketQubs from UNISat. These femtosats will be the smallest satellites ever launched. Each will have Earth and Space monitoring sensors and test micro/nano technology for space applications.