Nanosatellites

Introduction by the Editors

Since the 1990s, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have played a fundamental role in the restructuring of organizations, which have been able to horizontalize their structures and, through low-cost ICTs, to distribute and commoditize production. This impact came to be felt more strongly in the late 1990s and early 2000s in many areas of the economy. A strong tendency to “distribute” and “horizontalize” the production became commonplace.

Moreover, a need to have flexible systems to adapt to constant innovations not only in ICTs but also in electronics and materials has led production systems to move increasingly toward solutions that could be quickly prototyped, tested, implemented, and modified. ICTs have made it possible to bring production to a level of flexibility and innovation never seen before.

The space sector has not been left out of these trends, and small satellites have begun to show themselves, with all their known limitations, as technologically and economically viable platforms to test and even implement innovations. Moreover, players who until then were kept apart or operating marginally in space missions, such as universities, small businesses and research centers in countries with less space tradition, could now design and build spacecrafts almost from the bottom up.

Although small satellites have existed since the early days of spaceflight, such as Sputnik 1 itself, whose dimensions were 58.5 cm in diameter and 83.6 kg ...