Session
Session III: The Big Picture
Abstract
For the past 10 years ISIS - Innovative Solutions has been part of the CubeSat revolution after being started as a Delft University spin-off in January 2006. In the past decade, CubeSat have become an important element in the space domain as it offers a fast and affordable way for a wide array of stakeholders to be active in space and allow for a fast innovation cycle.
Since the early days in 1999, when California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) and Stanford University developed a very small spacecraft concept to help universities worldwide to enable students and researchers perform space science and exploration, the CubeSat movement has come a long way.
Even though the original concept was never intended to pioneer a new space niche market and carve out a position within the traditional space business, CubeSats have turned out to be a disruptive force in the midst of a space sector that is slowly coming to terms that the market should accelerate its transition towards a more commercially driven market.
A key element to a disruptive innovation is that it targets a new customer base, with different customer requirements and decision drivers than the main market. CubeSats did exactly that over the past years as students, universities, small companies and even individuals (e.g. through crowdfunding) became satellite customers and broadened the overall space technology base. It also opened up many opportunities for new actors to make their way to their space sector to extent the supply chain in the sector, often adopting new technologies from outside the space business.
Can a concept remain disruptive for 10-15 years? For over a decade CubeSats hold promise of a different way of doing space missions and although CubeSats have enabled a new and fast growing nichemarket for themselves, an important questions remains on whether the concept has left its mark on the space sector as a whole.
This paper will look back into the past decade of CubeSat activities and initiatives and elaborate on some of the key innovations that CubeSats brought to the space sector. It will amongst others analyse advances made in access to space, series production, managing high risk projects and the adoption of non-space technology for space missions. It will investigate market dynamics and growth, public policy changes and private initiatives all related to the effect CubeSats have had on the space business in the passed years. In addition, the paper will address the spill-over effect to other areas of spaceflight and provide a forward look for the decade to come.
Are We There Yet? Looking Back at a Decade Of Disruption of the Space Market Using Cubesats
For the past 10 years ISIS - Innovative Solutions has been part of the CubeSat revolution after being started as a Delft University spin-off in January 2006. In the past decade, CubeSat have become an important element in the space domain as it offers a fast and affordable way for a wide array of stakeholders to be active in space and allow for a fast innovation cycle.
Since the early days in 1999, when California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) and Stanford University developed a very small spacecraft concept to help universities worldwide to enable students and researchers perform space science and exploration, the CubeSat movement has come a long way.
Even though the original concept was never intended to pioneer a new space niche market and carve out a position within the traditional space business, CubeSats have turned out to be a disruptive force in the midst of a space sector that is slowly coming to terms that the market should accelerate its transition towards a more commercially driven market.
A key element to a disruptive innovation is that it targets a new customer base, with different customer requirements and decision drivers than the main market. CubeSats did exactly that over the past years as students, universities, small companies and even individuals (e.g. through crowdfunding) became satellite customers and broadened the overall space technology base. It also opened up many opportunities for new actors to make their way to their space sector to extent the supply chain in the sector, often adopting new technologies from outside the space business.
Can a concept remain disruptive for 10-15 years? For over a decade CubeSats hold promise of a different way of doing space missions and although CubeSats have enabled a new and fast growing nichemarket for themselves, an important questions remains on whether the concept has left its mark on the space sector as a whole.
This paper will look back into the past decade of CubeSat activities and initiatives and elaborate on some of the key innovations that CubeSats brought to the space sector. It will amongst others analyse advances made in access to space, series production, managing high risk projects and the adoption of non-space technology for space missions. It will investigate market dynamics and growth, public policy changes and private initiatives all related to the effect CubeSats have had on the space business in the passed years. In addition, the paper will address the spill-over effect to other areas of spaceflight and provide a forward look for the decade to come.
