Innovative Design, Manufacturing and Testing of Small Satellites

This book details key trends involving the recent formation of scores of companies that build and launch small satellites or provide key components for small satellite constellations. The applications and usage are quite diverse and include student experiments, serious scientific experimentation, and totally new types of commercial constellations, particularly in telecommunications and remote sensing.

The explosive growth in the design, manufacturing, and launch of small satellites is one of the most dynamic aspects in the area of space exploration and exploitation today. New commercial space companies such as Planet Labs, Sky Box, OneWeb, and LeoSat are now building and launching thousands of small satellites and cubesats into orbit. Small companies and big aerospace companies alike are getting into this exciting and interesting new business.

This is a practical guide that provides advice to students, researchers, LEO satellite companies, and regulators wrestling with some of the new challenges that small satellites present as more and more companies and countries around the world enter the new small satellite arena.

Explains how the small satellite has dramatically changed in the past decade Provides current and potential practitioners with unique, useful advice on how to design, test, and build small satellites Supports equally attempts by university classrooms and space engineers to build a small satellite for research purposes Includes key information on the new small satellite constellations in terms of their technical characteristics, launch arrangements, and competitive pluses and minuses

Autorentext

Scott Madry is the founder and president of Informatics International, Inc., an international remote sensing and GIS consulting company located in Chapel Hill, NC. He also holds appointments as a research associate professor of archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and professor of satellite applications at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. He has been involved with the International Space University since 1988 and has taught in 19 summer programs around the world. He is a specialist in remote sensing and GIS for regional environmental and cultural applications, including disaster planning and response.

Inhalt

Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Chapter 1: Introduction to the World of Small Satellites.- Chapter 2: Engineering, Design, and Launch Arrangements of Smallsats.- Chapter 3: Smallsats for Remote Sensing -- The Swarm is Here!.- Chapter 4: Innovative New Uses of Smallsats for Networking and Telecom.- Chapter 5: Small Satellites and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.- Chapter 6: Future Prospects and Policy Concerns.- Chapter 7: Potential Innovations in Space Regulatory Systems and Standards.- Chapter 8: Conclusions and Top Ten Things to Know About Small Satellites.- Appendix 1: Glossary of Terms and Acronyms.- Appendix 2: The Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.- Appendix 3: Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.- Appendix 4:Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects.- Appendix 5: IADC Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines.- Index.