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The quest to fund small satellites

Nature Astronomy volume 4, pages 1015–1016 (2020)Cite this article

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The Space Academic Network made a case for a small-satellite programme for the United Kingdom to provide access to space, and a route for advancing science and technology; however, funding has not been forthcoming. The search for a killer argument for this widely supported programme continues.

Small satellites are not new — the first satellites were small and very limited in their capabilities. Since then the satellite industry has built behemoths weighing several tonnes and launched these into geostationary orbits to provide telecommunication services. Large satellites are not limited to commercial or military applications: Envisat was one of the largest Earth-observation satellites, with a suite of instruments bringing the total payload to 8,211 kg at launch; for astronomy and astrophysics, Gaia weighed 2,029 kg at launch and with its deployable sunshield had a diameter of 10.2 m; and Herschel and Planck weighed 3,400 kg and 1,950 kg, respectively. These are just a few examples of large spacecraft across a range of applications.

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Fig. 1: The breakdown of mission ideas for the CubeSat and small-satellite programme.

References

  1. Sweeting, M. N. Proc. IEEE 106, 343–361 (2018).

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  1. The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, UK

    James Endicott

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  1. James Endicott
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Correspondence to James Endicott.

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Endicott, J. The quest to fund small satellites. Nat Astron 4, 1015–1016 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1155-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1155-7

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