NANOSAT’S SUCCESS: INNOVATIVE LESSONS FOR THE ENTIRE SPACE COMMUNITY

Monday 12 October 16:30 – 17:15
Small dulzin hall

Over the past 15 years, nano-satellites have gone from a University curiosity, to highly capable systems with revolutionary potential. Standardization of launch interfaces and growing launch capacity has spurred development of affordable components and sub-systems leveraging rapid advances in the commercial electronics industry. Due to high volume, high yield production, these commercial parts have a proven record in low earth orbit of functioning reliably with smart system-level design principals. For years, the nano-satellite community has borrowed and tailored processes from the traditional aerospace industry. However, recent demonstrations of nano-satellite missions, and the approaches used to develop those spacecraft, have shown dramatic reductions in costs and schedules. This achievement is the result of comprehensive questioning of the traditional approaches relating to parts selection, sub-system and system designs, management approach, risk posture and risk reduction, mission assurance, environmental testing, and satellite operations. The affordability of nano-satellites is allowing for organizations to experiment with different approaches to these challenges in a way this historically risk averse industry never could. The industry as a whole stands to benefit from this experimentation, where large programs may adopt technology and processes originally vetted and proven out by the nano-satellite community.

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