Smallsats Will Create The New Space Age

Built quickly from cheap, off-the-shelf components and small enough to hitch an affordable ride to orbit on the back of bigger missions, these devices and the young, agile New Space companies behind them, taught the old-school space industry a few lessons.

New Space is coming of age and the companies behind the small satellite revolution must live up to expectations less favourable than their trademark experimental ethos. The lowest cost and shortest time to orbit may no longer be the technologys biggest drawcard as users want maximum return on investment and require granted reliability.

The firms behind the disruptive tech, however, have grown up together with their market share and are tapping into emerging innovation looking to unleash many new applications in the coming years.

The evolution of SmallSat satellites started small. The first US satellite, Explorer 1was launched in 1958 and weighed only 13 kg. The technology that gave the world a whole new perspective on our planet expanded quickly, enabled by the increasing lifting powers of rockets. Soon complex satellites the size of a school bus took over, observing the planet from above, broadcasting TV signals across continents and sensing the environment around them.

It was only in the mid-1980s that researchers renewed their interest in smaller satellites with masses of tens to a couple of hundred kilograms. The true SmallSat revolution, however, began in 1999 with the development of CubeSats.