MicroSat News: New experiments with SPHERES

The SPHERES microsatellites, three of them, have been tested inside the ISS. Now NASA and DARPA have launched a new program, International Space Station Spheres Integrated Research Experiments (InSPIRE) which seeks new uses for SPHERES to test advanced technology and increase participation by students and other groups in ISS experiments. The program manager at DARPA, Paul Eremenko (who I worked with on a paper on the agency's F6 interlinked-satellites program) emphasizes the importance of putting space technology to work in educational outreach.