Small satellites and capacity-building in basic space technology

We at SatSure participated in the UN/Brazil Symposium on Basic Space Technology where participants engaged in productive discussions about small satellites and capacity-building in basic space technology and concluded with observations and recommendations to be included in the report to Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). 

Some observations from our side that can help teams in the developing world.

1. A successful capacity building can only happen when potentially (multiple) users are tied into the satellite. Most capacity building in developing countries is happening with the intent that the knowledge of satellite building is going to trickle down and ignores the fact that the output needs to be tailored to users who can then create more demand for such assets to be able to continue building satellites. The space community seems to work in isolation of last mile problems in such countries and needs to really make an effort of connecting with the users in different verticals for societal benefit and providing a return on investment. 

2. Do not decide the size of the satellite and then look for applications but do it the other way around?! Most people want to do cubesats since they are cheap compared to other larger satellites and simply want to limit their applications to what can possibly be done on cubesats. There is too much focus on top-down approach rather than bottom-up approach of looking at user requirements and tailoring a mission based on tying the usability and scalability. 

3. Flying a satellite is only half the story! Satellites are just tools that enable the creation of services on top. Qualitative and quantitative assessment and the economic return due to the adoption of satellite-based services is something no one has been able to present so far in the framework of capacity building in developing countries. The ability to showcase economic return is possibly the only way that there can be continued political will to sustain long term investments and continued development of space technology in developing countries. A good example of this is India where (non-military but societal) applications oriented approach has been able to gain investments for over 50 years now.

There is still much work to be done for the space community to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the UN. We hope to work together with teams looking to tailoring solutions to their local problems.