Session
Technical Session III: Year in Review
Abstract
Thirty years of the SmallSat Conference have produced a wealth of papers spanning technical, business, and market topics relevant to small satellites. Thanks to the online availability of every paper going back to the first SmallSat Conference in 1987, it is possible to analyze the proceedings of the conference to ascertain industry trends, development patterns, and technical discoveries. How has the focus of technology and mission paper topics changed over three decades? How has the participation of organizations, and the ratio of education, commercial, military, civil, and domestic/international involvement evolved? In this paper we provide the results of our analysis, ranging from the expected (Sir Martin Sweeting holds the record for most papers authored) to the surprising (Utah State University is the only organization to have published a paper in all 29 previous conferences). Through the data we can discern the era of “Faster, Cheaper, Better”, the introduction of “Operationally Responsive Space”, the advent of CubeSats, and the ongoing search for the holy grail of modularity. We see great successes like Orbital's Pegasus and Surrey's DMC, and the heartbreaking demise of industry pioneers like AeroAstro.
Reviewing this storied history, it is clear that some topics continue to be of interest three decades later even as technology has evolved and the world has changed. Through this historical analysis, we hope the reader will be able to draw from the lessons learned, avoid the failures of the past, and enable new and exciting successes in the next thirty years of small satellite development.
Small Sat at 30: Trends, Patterns, and Discoveries
Thirty years of the SmallSat Conference have produced a wealth of papers spanning technical, business, and market topics relevant to small satellites. Thanks to the online availability of every paper going back to the first SmallSat Conference in 1987, it is possible to analyze the proceedings of the conference to ascertain industry trends, development patterns, and technical discoveries. How has the focus of technology and mission paper topics changed over three decades? How has the participation of organizations, and the ratio of education, commercial, military, civil, and domestic/international involvement evolved? In this paper we provide the results of our analysis, ranging from the expected (Sir Martin Sweeting holds the record for most papers authored) to the surprising (Utah State University is the only organization to have published a paper in all 29 previous conferences). Through the data we can discern the era of “Faster, Cheaper, Better”, the introduction of “Operationally Responsive Space”, the advent of CubeSats, and the ongoing search for the holy grail of modularity. We see great successes like Orbital's Pegasus and Surrey's DMC, and the heartbreaking demise of industry pioneers like AeroAstro.
Reviewing this storied history, it is clear that some topics continue to be of interest three decades later even as technology has evolved and the world has changed. Through this historical analysis, we hope the reader will be able to draw from the lessons learned, avoid the failures of the past, and enable new and exciting successes in the next thirty years of small satellite development.
