![]() There is a dark side to democratization too. And companies like Planet Labs, Skybox Imaging (bought out by Google), OneWeb, Space X, UrtheCast, and BlackSky are welcoming us to see our world as never before. ![]() Startups like Dauria Aerospace and Sputnix are hailed as the first private Russian companies to launch smallsats in the so-called new space economy. These ventures have already seen multi-million and multi-billion dollar investments, signaling strong private sector interest across the world in, for example, earth observations and imaging. One by SpaceWorks, which monitors global satellite activities, says that 107 commercial nano/microsatellite (1-50 kg) were launched in 2014, and thousands of smallsats (101-500 kg) are projected for launch in the next 15 years. And with reason based on rosy market projections. The smallsat rush is about new and old companies on a quest for commercialization. At the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa, and in collaboration with the national space agency, postgraduate students helped launch the country’s first CubeSat through a program in the cross-border French South African Institute of Technology.īut the worldwide game is no longer merely about the training of the next generation of students or the demonstration of technologies. In Brazil, the Federal University of Santa Maria worked in partnership with the National Institute of Space Research to launch the country’s first nanosatellite. In Russia, for example, smallsats under the Space Scientific and Education Project of Lomonosov Moscow State University are being manufactured by Polyot, which identifies itself as a major aerospace enterprise. The educational mission resonates in other regions. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has backed a non-profit organization, the Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites as well as the CAS Joint Key Laboratory of Microsatellites. India too is attempting to draw on the university-centered model. In Singapore, t he Satellite Research Center at Nanyang Technological University has moved to deepen its expertise in small satellites by establishing a research lab in partnership with Thales Solutions Asia and Europe’s largest satellite maker, Thales Alenia Space. In Japan, the Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory at the University of Tokyo is taking the country’s smallsats into newer terrains. The same processes are at play in Asia, home to ambitious new players in space. At the University of Washington the CubeSat Team in the Advanced Propulsion Lab is working on cutting-edge communication and propulsion, and at Cornell University the Space Systems Design Studio is experimenting with the possibilities of Sprites. ![]() The University of Surrey showcased the development of cheaper and smaller satellites more rapidly with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Academics at Stanford and California Polytechnic State University helped develop the original concepts for CubeSat, for example. Universities have played a pivotal role in this process. It is the range of developers that takes us beyond just governments and the West. Depending on how you classify things the earliest satellites like Sputnik I (83.6 kg), Explorer I (13.9 kg), and Vanguard I (1.47 kg) fall under the rubric. CubeSats, a class of standardized nanosatellites (based on units of a 10 cm cube) draw attention for their nifty characteristics, and are useful comparators for thinking about bigger and smaller sizes. Generally included among their varieties are microsatellites (10-100 kg), nanosatellite (1-10 kg), and picosatellites (0.1-1 kg). By definition their size and weight matters, which provides links to their past and clues to their future. ![]() But they are disrupting markets and governments alike, and have emerged as one of the principal driving forces for democratizing the landscape of outer space activities. Whether smallsats are likely to deliver on their heady commercial promise remains to be seen. Drawn by lucrative business prospects, companies and capital around the world are fuelling a sort of smallsat rush.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |