Application of a bibliometric tool for studying space technology trends

Abstract

The statistical analysis of academic literature, also known as “bibliometrics”, is being increasingly applied to analyse research trends, to identify emerging areas of science and to find out where and how often specific articles are cited. The aim of this study was to identify technological innovation trend patterns in the aerospace sector applying bibliometric analysis over the period 2008 – 2015. In this study the keywords space technology, satellite, space launch vehicle, spacecraft, rocket and space station were used to scrutinize the database Web of Science (ISI). The obtained records were analysed using the Patent Insight Pro software (2015). It was observed that the researches related to aerospace technological development has been focused in satellites, giving also some directions for satellite launch vehicles. Bibliometric analysis revealed concern on new lowcost technologies development, and the applied logistic fit suggests that over the next five years the continuity on new space technologies development will be mostly related to small satellites, with also contributions associated with high-resolution imagery in order to improve Earth observation in low orbit.