Small Satellites and Silly Nomenclature
Sadly, the nomenclature for small satellites misappropriates the "three orders of magnitude" metric prefixes, like so:
microsatellite |
1 |
10 to 100 kg |
Astrid 1 |
nanosatellite |
0 |
1 to 10 kg |
1U to 6U cubesats |
picosatellite |
-1 |
0.1 to 1 kg |
0.75 kg Tubesat |
femtosatellite |
-2 |
10 to 100 grams |
5g Kicksat sprite called a femtosatellite??? |
extending this nomenclature:
giga-yotta-yottasatellite |
22 |
10 to 100 exatonnes |
73 exatonne Moon of Earth |
mega-yotta-yottasatellite |
21 |
1 to 10 exatonnes |
|
kilo-yotta-yottasatellite |
20 |
0.1 to 1 exatonnes |
|
yotta-yottasatellite |
19 |
10 to 100 exatonnes |
|
zetta-yottasatellite |
18 |
1 to 10 petatonnes |
|
exa-yottasatellite |
17 |
0.1 to 1 petatonnes |
|
peta-yottasatellite |
16 |
10 to 100 teratonnes |
|
tera-yottasatellite |
15 |
1 to 10 teratonnes |
|
giga-yottasatellite |
14 |
0.1 to 1 teratonnes |
|
mega-yottasatellite |
13 |
10 to 100 gigatonnes |
|
kilo-yottasatellite |
12 |
1 to 10 gigatonnes |
|
yottasatellite |
11 |
0.1 to 1 gigatonnes |
|
zettasatellite |
10 |
10 to 100 megatonnes |
|
exasatellite |
9 |
1 to 10 megatonnes |
|
petasatellite |
8 |
0.1 to 1 megatonnes |
|
terasatellite |
7 |
10 to 100 kilotonnes |
|
gigasatellite |
6 |
1 to 10 kilotonnes |
2030 tonne Space Shuttle launch stack |
megasatellite |
5 |
0.1 to 1 kilotonnes |
420 tonne International Space Station |
kilosatellite |
4 |
10 to 100 tonnes |
94 tonne Space Shuttle orbiter with full payload |
unisatellite |
3 |
1 to 10 tonnes |
5.9 tonne Boeing 702HP comsat |
millisatellite |
2 |
0.1 to 1 tonne |
508 kg Sputnik 2 |
microsatellite |
1 |
10 to 100 kilograms |
84 kg Sputnik 1 |
nanosatellite |
0 |
1 to 10 kilograms |
1U to 6U cubesats |
picosatellite |
-1 |
0.1 to 1 kilograms |
750 gram Tubesat |
femtosatellite |
-2 |
10 to 100 grams |
|
attosatellite |
-3 |
1 to 10 grams |
5g server sky thinsat, Kicksat sprite |
zeptosatellite |
-4 |
0.1 to 1 gram |
|
yoctosatellite |
-5 |
10 to 100 milligrams |
|
milli-yoctosatellite |
-6 |
1 to 10 milligrams |
3 milligram thinned integrated circuit die |