Session
Technical Session IV: On the Horizon
Abstract
There are many smallsat missions now in progress or in development, and these are pushing smallsats into new realms of technology, compactness, and mission utility. Proposals for the near term will shrink smallsats further, couple them in new ways using constellations or fractionated architectures, and edge into new mission areas. What, though, is on the horizon looking out 10-25 years or more? While there have been some overly optimistic predictions about smallsats, the advances demonstrated or in development in computing, nanomaterials, microelectromechanical systems, and other areas indicate the future will include some smallsat applications only now being imagined, and others that have not yet been imagined. As once smallsat developers worked with no idea that carbon nanotubes and powerful computers on chips would be available to them, designers of tomorrow will have both evolutionary and revolutionary technologies at their disposal. Ideas that were deemed to push technology too far or cost too much may well be in the mainstream in 2020 or beyond. Some future smallsats will have dimensions measured in millimeters. Some will cooperate in swarms in ways not possible today. Some will be deployed around other celestial bodies or in deep space. Some will perform missions that today require huge spacecraft or cannot be done at all. This paper surveys the leading programs and thinkers in the smallsat realm about what may appear beyond commonly used planning horizons. We have seen 25 years of progress presented at Small Satellite Conferences so far. What might be presented 25 years from now?
Presentation Slides
Distant Horizons: Smallsat Evolution in the Mid-to-Far Term
There are many smallsat missions now in progress or in development, and these are pushing smallsats into new realms of technology, compactness, and mission utility. Proposals for the near term will shrink smallsats further, couple them in new ways using constellations or fractionated architectures, and edge into new mission areas. What, though, is on the horizon looking out 10-25 years or more? While there have been some overly optimistic predictions about smallsats, the advances demonstrated or in development in computing, nanomaterials, microelectromechanical systems, and other areas indicate the future will include some smallsat applications only now being imagined, and others that have not yet been imagined. As once smallsat developers worked with no idea that carbon nanotubes and powerful computers on chips would be available to them, designers of tomorrow will have both evolutionary and revolutionary technologies at their disposal. Ideas that were deemed to push technology too far or cost too much may well be in the mainstream in 2020 or beyond. Some future smallsats will have dimensions measured in millimeters. Some will cooperate in swarms in ways not possible today. Some will be deployed around other celestial bodies or in deep space. Some will perform missions that today require huge spacecraft or cannot be done at all. This paper surveys the leading programs and thinkers in the smallsat realm about what may appear beyond commonly used planning horizons. We have seen 25 years of progress presented at Small Satellite Conferences so far. What might be presented 25 years from now?
