Revolution in Demand and Supply during Last 10 Years in Small Earth Observation Satellites

Revolution in Demand and Supply during Last 10 Years in Small Earth Observation Satellites

While Earth observation applications were dominated by conventional large satellites in the past, rapid advancement in COTS technologies enables relatively smaller satellites to meet certain needs, limited but sufficient to some extent, with reasonably low investment. Ten years ago, the most of small satellites were developed to acquire necessary technologies, or to utilize them as space test beds to verify new technologies or components. However, recently launched small satellites start to draw attention from commercial companies who are considering the small satellites as adequate tools for their businesses. It is already demonstrated that a small satellite which weighs 200 ~ 300 kg is able to produce quality images with the spatial resolution of approximately 2 meters and soon expected to achieve 1 meter. Considering the unique advantage of satellite constellations in terms of revisit, it is anticipated that small satellite constellations would complement conventional ones in the next few years.