Doing science with nano-satellites

Abstract

Nano-satellites represent a new generation of satellite platforms that is opening its own market niche expanding extremely quickly. These satellites are small and light, thanks to their cubic shape they are also modular and have raised the interest of space operators thanks to their jack-in-the-box concept. Particularly interesting is the Earth Observation and remote sensing segment, that has large potential applications for safety issues, or even more practical applications for agriculture. The possibility of using a constellation or a network of nano-satellites as a new generation of telecommunication (e.g. for mobile applications) or navigation systems seems also very appealing for the next future. Besides the advantages of using nano-satellites, this type of space missions still presents a number of technical issues; one of these is the on-board telecommunication system that, working at low frequencies, provides a very limited data rate preventing the transmission of large amounts of data. Only by improving this system, nano-satellites can become real science space missions.