Session
Technical Session IV: Demand Side Visionaries
Abstract
While there has been growing interest in small satellites for several years, this has yet to translate into a large increase in the number of satellites built and launched by government, commercial, and academic users. There are, however, encouraging trends in several areas in the civil and commercial sectors. This paper qualitatively updates a previous market study of the demand for low-cost small satellites by identifying emerging opportunities, particularly renewed interest in technology development and commercial scientific research. This interest, though, is balanced by emerging competitive threats to smallsats in the form of hosted payloads on larger spacecraft as well as commercial suborbital vehicles under active development. Growth in low-cost smallsats also requires overcoming several existing and emerging barriers, most notably the challenge of finding affordable and timely access to orbit as well as a lack of awareness of smallsats by potential customers and new concerns about orbital debris.
Presentation Slides
Emerging Opportunities for Low-Cost Small Satellites in Civil and Commercial Space
While there has been growing interest in small satellites for several years, this has yet to translate into a large increase in the number of satellites built and launched by government, commercial, and academic users. There are, however, encouraging trends in several areas in the civil and commercial sectors. This paper qualitatively updates a previous market study of the demand for low-cost small satellites by identifying emerging opportunities, particularly renewed interest in technology development and commercial scientific research. This interest, though, is balanced by emerging competitive threats to smallsats in the form of hosted payloads on larger spacecraft as well as commercial suborbital vehicles under active development. Growth in low-cost smallsats also requires overcoming several existing and emerging barriers, most notably the challenge of finding affordable and timely access to orbit as well as a lack of awareness of smallsats by potential customers and new concerns about orbital debris.
