Panel Discussion - Future of Small/Nano/Micro Satellite and Its Business -

Transcription

1 Panel Discussion - Future of Small/Nano/Micro Satellite and Its Business - Mr. Howard Runge Mr. Sungdong Park Mr. Atsuhiko Hatano Mr. Hiroshi Kanai Coordinator: Shinichi Nakasuka

2 Size and Name of SmallSats SmallSat (< 900kg) MiniSat ( 500kg) MicroSat ( 50kg) NanoSat ( 5kg) PicoSat (< 1kg) USEF OSC SaTReCi Univ.Tokyo Definition of Martin Sweeting (SSTL) < 450 kg & < $15 20 M

3 Objectives of Micro/Nano Satellite Activities at University of Tokyo Hand-made small-sats: Quick and low cost test bench for advanced technologies or missions Providing large number of Trial-and-Errors for technology seeds generation/exploration Education and training of human resource Constraints open new ways of development Students Less than 1 2 years development cycle Stringent budget COTS utilization Weight/volume/power limit novel configuration May open new ways of space utilization

4 University of Tokyo s CubeSat Project XI 10 cm cubic, 1 kg satellite

5 Follow-on NanoSat Projects 2004 XI-V Same type as XI-IV) Cube-II PRISM) Remote sensing mission PETSAT Project 2005 SOHLA SOHLA-2

6 Findings COTS works well Could find several business seeds Frequency is the major obstacle Far cheaper cost/faster development can attract new users, who otherwise will not be attracted Should invent new satellite concept, which is not mere size reduction of conventional satellites

7 SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology) UO-Sat series: 18 satellites 50kg (1981-) SNAP-1: 6.5 kg Nano-satellite bus demonstration DMS (Disaster monitoring constellation, 2003-) Algeria, Turkey, Nigeria, UK (680km alt, kg) China will join in 2004 with China-DMC+4 (4 m resolu.) Revisit interval: Once in 24 hours RapidEye: 5 mid-resolution remote-sensing sats Galileo Plan to go into Geo Stationary fields Gemini Platform development ($6.4M from government) 400kg to be launched in 2006 for Nigeria ($32M, TBD) 800 kg Platform development has started TopSat: 2.5m resolution for UK (civil & defense) Disaster monitoring sat (for Poland): $19M

8 Other Small Satellite Companies >170 Small Satellites less than 300kg launched Spacedev: CHIPSat: 75kg, $15M, Science (Cal. Berkeley) MicroSat Technologies for MDA: $43M (5 years) micro satellite distributed sensing experiment planned Spectrum Astro: Mightysat (2000): 88kg, Earth observation experiment DS-1: 484kg, $170M

9 Objections from Large Satellites Developers Large satellite is superior in efficiency (such as in $/channel). High resolution remote sensing can be provided only by large satellites. Small satellites are cheap and so should be sold in large quantity in order to get enough profits. SSTL Sales in 2002: $28.2M But there are not such killer applications in space utilization field yet.

10 Theme 1: Small satellite business s future is bright? Each size of small satellite has bright future as business? If yes, in what ground? Can compete with large satellites or should create new application fields? How to create new fields of space utilization?

11 Promising Application Areas for Small Satellites Remote sensing, disaster monitoring, meteorological (short revisit cycle by constellation) Space environment monitoring Space science Demonstration/experiment of new technology Time is money missions One mission for one satellite Enhancement by Formation flying Telecommunication/Broadcasting? High resolution remote sensing?

12 Theme 2: Development of small satellite technologies Who is the players of novel technology development? Whose money? Who make trial-and-error? How to utilize COTS? Cost vs Reliability tradeoff, or stand together? Current status and idealistic solution

13 Theme 3: Roles of Government What you want the government to do for you? What the governmental policy should be in order to facilitate the small satellite business. Current status and idealistic solution

14 Theme 4: Obstacles and challenges Mitigate debris problem: Micro-worm Frequency acquisition S-band too congested Larger frequency is tough for small-sats? Risk management High reliability possible? Low cost launch opportunity Other problems

15 Launch Opportunity DNEPR: $10,000/kg, minimum 20 kg ROCKOT: $10,000/kg, minimum 50 kg COSMOS: Space X: % reduction from EELV $12M, FalconVtoLEO (4.5 ton to LEO) $20M, FalconVtoGTO (4.5 ton to GTO) (India)? H-IIA, M-V (Japan)? United States, China?