Satellite Kits=Cheaper Satellites?

Posted on by John Holst

This TMCNet post points to SEA (Systems Engineering and Assessment, Ltd), a United Kingdom company that’s trying to make micro-satellites smaller and cheaper.  They’re latest project is an OmniSat kit.

The kit is supposed to be modular but flexible.  What SEA is providing, is a common micro-satellite bus (you can read more about what a bus does, here).  The micro-satellite bus kit SEA is developing can be tweaked to accommodate different payloads.  These satellites will be small, according the post:  10-50 kilograms (22-110 lbs).  SEA also believe that from satellite conception to launch, they will be able to reduce the time to 12 months when using this kit.  The typical time for a normal satellite takes years.  For some dysfunctional satellite programs, decades.

SEA’s project is funded by the European Space Agency.

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Published by John Holst

Ill-Defined Space is written by me, John Holst. ​If you’ve ever asked the following question, “What is this commercial space industry thing?” then welcome to my world. I will never have the answer to that question, but I do offer insights based on my industry experience and observations. I’ve tried defining, decrypting, deciphering, analyzing, and then translating the endless stream of the world’s space industry activities, policies, and press releases. I’ve experienced varying degrees of success in my attempts to do so. The upshot is that if you want thoughtful, occasionally useful, observations about the world’s space industry, then you may want to read my analyses. Boring, but potentially credibility-building information follows: I have a Master’s in Commercial Enterprise in Space through the Florida Institute of Technology. I was an undergrad at the University of Washington in Seattle, graduating from there with a degree in Journalism. My analysis of the space industry has been a definitive source for national lawmakers and departments, news outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, and the San Francisco Chronicle, publications like National Geographic, and National Public Radio. It’s been published in The Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity from 2014-2023 (here’s a link to a 1Q19 promo copy). You can also see my work in Quilty Analytic’s series of LEO Broadband Reports. ​ I’ve worked in the United States Air Force, Missile Defense Agency, Cobham, Space Dynamics Laboratory, the Space Foundation, and Quilty Analytics. I focused on space operations in the first few and conducted space industry research and analysis with the last two.