The name Picosat was coined by Peter P. Vekinis and was used to describe a constellation of amateur radio satellites, called the Picosat System, first analog, then digital, that would offer instant emergency communications, worldwide, using cheap amateur radio transceivers.

The Tethered Picosats were functional for a short time after ejection, communicating with each other by microwatt radio transmitters.

[2] The current Picosat 9 is a British-built (US DOD-funded) microsatellite (67 kg) to test electronic components/systems in space conditions.

Oboard this model carries four test payloads: Polymer Battery Experiment (PBEX), Ionospheric Occultation Experiment (IOX), Coherent Electromagnetic Radio Tomography (CERTO) and On Orbit Mission Control (OOMC) an ultra-quiet platform (OPPEX).

The body mounted solar panels produce an average on orbit power of 22 W. The Ultra-Quiet Platform (UQP), developed by the US Air Force Research Lab, aims to provide a 10:1 reduction in vibration isolation over a 100 Hz bandwidth between the spacecraft bus and a science payload.