RECENT ADVANCES IN SMALL SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY NOW ALLOW US TO CONSIDER THEIR USE FOR ASTROPHYSICS AND OTHER REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS. ONE WAVELENGTH REGIME WHERE THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT IS CRITICAL IS THE TERAHERTZ PORTION OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM. WATER VAPOR AND MOLECULAR OXYGEN RENDER THE EARTHS ATMOSPHERE OPAQUE IN LARGE PORTIONS OF THE TERAHERTZ BAND BUT THOSE VERY MOLECULAR SPECIES ARE OF INTENSE INTEREST TO ASTROPHYSICISTS. NASAS SWAS AND ESAS HERSCHEL MISSIONS WERE BOTH BUILT WITH THE OBSERVATION OF WATER AND OXYGEN AS PRIMARY SCIENCE DRIVERS. EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEMS RELY ON THZ OBSERVATIONS TO CHARACTERIZE THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARTHS ATMOSPHERE (I.E. EOS AURA MLS). SIMILARLY SUCH SYSTEMS CAN BE USED TO CHARACTERIZE THE ATMOSPHERES OF OTHER PLANETARY BODIES (I.E. ROSETTA MIRO). SEVERAL TECHNOLOGICAL HURDLES EXIST TO PERMIT USEFUL TERAHERTZ APPLICATIONS ON A CUBESAT. OUR TEAM IS ALREADY WORKING ON DEPLOYABLE ANTENNA TECHNOLOGIES AND LOW POWER MASS AND VOLUME DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING HARDWARE. IN THIS WORK WE PROPOSE TO FURTHER ADVANCE JPLS STATE OF THE ART SCHOTTKY DIODE RECEIVER TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOP THZ HETERODYNE RECEIVER SYSTEMS SUITABLE FOR DEPLOYMENT ON CUBESATS. JPL HAS ALREADY DEVELOPED AMBIENT TEMPERATURE SCHOTTKY RECEIVERS WITH STATE OF THE ART NOISE TEMPERATURE AND IF BANDWIDTH. WE PROPOSE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ASUS STRENGTH IN DIRECT METAL MICROMACHINING TO REPACKAGE THESE MODULAR RECEIVERS INTO HIGHLY INTEGRATED SYSTEMS THAT MINIMIZE THE MASS AND VOLUME OF THE RECEIVER TO A LEVEL SUITABLE FOR USE ON A CUBESAT WHILE PRESERVING PERFORMANCE. FURTHERMORE THE PERFORMANCE OF SCHOTTKY RECEIVERS SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVES WHEN THE RECEIVER IS COOLED. TECHNOLOGIES ARE NOW BEING DEVELOPED FOR PASSIVE CRYOGENIC COOLING ON CUBESATS (E.G. SIERRA LOBO INC.S CRYOCUBE TECHNOLOGY) THAT COULD BE USED TO COOL THZ RECEIVER SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE. WE WILL WORK WITH SIERRA LOBO TO MODEL THE EXPECTED TEMPERATURE OF THE RECEIVER SYSTEMS WE DEVELOP WHEN COMBINED WITH THEIR CRYOCUBE TECHNOLOGY. WE WILL THEN CHARACTERIZE THE RECEIVERS AT THAT TEMPERATURE IN A LABORATORY CRYOSTAT TO QUANTIFY THE PERFORMANCE GAIN DELIVERED BY PASSIVE COOLING. THE RESULTING RECEIVER SYSTEMS COULD BE USED ON CUBESAT PLATFORMS FOR EARTH OBSERVING PLANETARY SCIENCE OR ASTROPHYSICS AT EITHER AMBIENT TEMPERATURE OR PASSIVELY COOLED FOR IMPROVED NOISE PERFORMANCE. WHEN COMBINED WITH OTHER TECHNOLOGIES UNDER DEVELOPMENT (DEPLOYABLE ANTENNAS LOW POWER DSP ELECTRONICS) THESE RECEIVERS WILL PERMIT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THZ CUBESATS FOR A VARIETY OF SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS.