Miniature spacecraft

A miniature spacecraft apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of:
• a rigid structural and symmetrical body portion including plural walls arranged to form an open central cylindrical wall enclosure, and appended to the central cylindrical wall enclosure, and extending radially outwardly therefrom a plurality of spaced apart planetary cylindrical wall enclosures;
• the planetary cylindrical wall enclosures arranged for defining generally rectangular volumes therebetween, the rectangular volumes being positioned for access from at least four opposing sides of the apparatus;
• and arranged in sequential abutting organization to form a multi-level structure;
• a top and a bottom plates engaged with terminal ones of the body portion and the planetary wall enclosures in positions for enclosing the central cylindrical wall enclosures and the planetary cylindrical wall enclosures, the plates providing partial enclosure also to the rectangular volumes;
• a plurality of cylindrical storage pods positioned within the central cylindrical wall enclosures, each of the storage pods providing a means for lateral structural reinforcement such that forces applied to the storage pods are transferred through the lateral reinforcement means to the cylindrical wall enclosures;
• a closed cylindrical storage vessel enclosed within the storage pods by the top and bottom plates, the storage vessel providing fluid valving means extending outwardly from a pass-through means in at least one of the plates.

A method of equipping a spacecraft with operational components, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) providing a spacecraft having a centrally located equipment bay surrounded by a plurality of radially oriented equipment bays;
• b) accommodating a modular avionics package in at least one of the equipment bays;
• c) accommodating a modular electrical power package in at least one of the equipment bays;
• d) accommodating a modular propulsion package in at least one of the equipment bays;
• e) accommodating a modular communications package in at least one of the equipment bays;
• f) accommodating a modular sensory and monitoring package in at least one of the equipment bays;
• g) accommodating a modular deployable vehicle package in at least one of the equipment bays;
• h) accommodating a modular attitude control package in at least one of the equipment bays;
• and
• i) fastening the top and bottom plates to the body portion by a plurality of removable fasteners so as to enable replacement of the plates with alternative spacecraft equipment.