Designing for Failure: What PocketQubes Teach About Resilience
By Seda Hewitt
Failure. It's not the first word you'd expect to hear in a conversation about space. But if you've ever worked on a PocketQube satellite—or really any small spacecraft—you learn quickly that failure isn’t the exception. It’s the starting point.
At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., our work with small satellites like HADES‑ICM has taught us a lot about performance, engineering trade-offs, and launch logistics. But more than that, it’s taught us something deeper about resilience—both in the systems we send to orbit and the people who build them.
Because here’s the truth: when you build something that’s meant to survive space... you don’t design it to be perfect. You design it to fail gracefully.
The Nature of the Beast
PocketQubes are tiny. 5x5x5 cm, give or take. That’s less room than most people’s morning coffee cup. And yet, inside that cube, we try to pack processors, sensors, antennas, batteries, radios... sometimes even cameras.
And then we launch it on a rocket.
It’s stressful—physically and emotionally. These satellites are jolted, frozen, heated, spun, and then left to fend for themselves in orbit. There’s no reboot button. No mechanic. No second chance.
So how do you prepare for that? You assume something will go wrong.
Not If. But When.
This shift in mindset—expecting failure rather than fearing it—changes everything.
It affects how we:
Design systems: Modular components can be isolated if one fails. Redundancy is added where it counts. We might even omit a feature entirely if it introduces unnecessary risk.
Write software: Code is kept lightweight, robust, and able to recover from errors without human intervention.
Run tests: We simulate not just ideal behavior but failure conditions—partial power, dropped packets, bad temperature readings.
During the HADES‑ICM project, we had to scrap an early power distribution design because it couldn't handle brownout scenarios gracefully. It didn’t just fail—it failed loudly, taking other subsystems with it. That experience forced us to re-engineer with a new principle: contain the chaos.
Embracing Limited Lifespan
Most PocketQubes don’t stay active for years. Some last months. Some weeks. Occasionally, only days.
And while it’s tempting to mourn the short lifespan, there’s something beautiful about it too. These aren’t spacecraft designed to endure forever. They’re meant to be temporary. Agile. Disposable, even.
But if we know they might fail... then we also know we can afford to try bold things. New antennas. Novel protocols. Experimental data routes.
Failure becomes part of the success.
Stories from the Sky
We once received a signal report from a radio enthusiast halfway across the globe. A single data packet from HADES‑ICM had been received—clean, crisp, perfect. The next day, we got nothing.
What happened? We still don’t fully know. A power cycle glitch? Cosmic radiation? Thermal creep? Maybe all three.
But the mission wasn’t a failure. That single packet proved the system worked. Even if only briefly. It taught us something. And in the world of PocketQubes, one clean signal is worth its weight in gold.
Why Resilience Matters Beyond Satellites
Here’s where things get a little more philosophical.
Working on small satellites teaches a kind of humility. You plan for success, yes. But you also make peace with loss. And that mindset—the acceptance of imperfection, the embrace of iteration—is something I think all technology teams can learn from.
We don’t have to make indestructible systems. We have to make recoverable ones.
The same applies to teams. Deadlines slip. Components break. Code fails in space but works fine on Earth. You keep going anyway.
And perhaps this is why I’m particularly proud that Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., based in the United States, is nominated for the 2025 Go Global Awards—to be held this November in London, hosted by the International Trade Council.
That event isn’t just about shining successes. It’s about resilience. About stories of persistence and the courage to try again. It brings together companies large and small from around the world—not just to celebrate, but to share lessons, form partnerships, and create new opportunities.
In many ways, it reflects the spirit of micromissions and PocketQubes—small, scrappy, optimistic. Resilient.
Final Thought
Designing for failure isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s a form of strength.
It says: we know the risks. We’re not afraid of them. We’ll build anyway.
PocketQubes remind us that you don’t need to be flawless to be valuable. A short mission can still carry long-lasting insight. A single beacon can prove a theory. And even when things break, there’s meaning in the process.
Space is hard. Failure is common. But resilience? That’s the real mission.
