Weak Signal's description 
Cubesats-- 1 liter-sized satellites weighing no more than a kilogram-- have been around for about a decade, and are now starting to be the subject of serious scientific and defense research. New programs sponsored by NASA and the ESA, the creation of cubesat-centered space programs by small nations or states (e.g., Estonia and Kentucky), and growing commercial interest in cubesats, suggest that they could be to space science what the PC was to science in the 1980s and 1990s: a low-cost, disposable technology that supports rapid innovation; enables new players to conduct space research; supports radical experimentation with satellite and mission design; and eventually makes space accessible to amateur scientists.