September 2017
Call for Australia to head back into space
... facilities. Australia’s role Australia not only has the geography, stability and knowledge to manufacture and launch small satellites from its own soil but has existing commercial and research enterprises actively involved in key areas...
August 2018
Earth observation game-changer
... clouds. A compressed ICEYE-X1 SAR image of George Town, Malaysia. The reason the idea of placing SAR technology on a small satellite has been previously unimaginable is related to the complexity of such systems as a whole. It has not been for a lack...
October 2020
Open Source Space
...the-shelf (COTS) components. The prospect of affordability and access to the slow but gradual development of these small satellite missions allowed international teams with limited budgets to consider owning and controlling their own spacecraft. This...
September 2023
A multifaceted approach to space sustainability
... issues have already occurred. The first was the unauthorised launch of multiple unlicensed and untrackable small satellites by Swarm Technologies Inc in January 2018 in defiance of a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission, for which the...
March 2015
Sizing down and reaching higher with CubeSats
..., allowed us to jump at least two years in their development. But the future suggests even more opportunity for small satellite launches. Companies ranging from Virgin Galactic to XCOR to new entrants such as Rocket Lab in New Zealand are...
March 2015
Sky links: from multi-satellite systems to nano-launchers
.... Standardised technology is key A high level of standardisation and unification in complex technical systems (which include small satellites) helps move to serial production. Serial production lowers the overall cost of production and on-board...
