Use of Cube Satellites

Recent mention of the successful use of Cube Satellites made me think of yet broader applications, and others are thinking this way.  Back to the swarms of small and relatively cheap robots  to perform tasks as a group.   Could such small devices be very cheaply launched in groups?  See:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat   And the recent use of Cube Sats for the recent  Mars Lander.

Tiny satellites could be “guide stars” for huge next-generation telescopes
Researchers design CubeSats with lasers to provide steady reference light for telescopes investigating distant planets.    By Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office 

There are more than 3,900 confirmed planets beyond our solar system. Most of them have been detected because of their “transits” — instances when a planet crosses its star, momentarily blocking its light. These dips in starlight can tell astronomers a bit about a planet’s size and its distance from its star.

But knowing more about the planet, including whether it harbors oxygen, water, and other signs of life, requires far more powerful tools. Ideally, these would be much bigger telescopes in space, with light-gathering mirrors as wide as those of the largest ground observatories. NASA engineers are now developing designs for such next-generation space telescopes, including “segmented” telescopes with multiple small mirrors that could be assembled or unfurled to form one very large telescope once launched into space. ... "