Status and Trends of Smallsats and Their Launch Vehicles — An Up-to-date Review

doi: 10.5028/jatm.v9i3.853 Status and Trends of Smallsats and their Launch Vehicles — An up-to-date Review Timo Wekerle1, José Bezerra Pessoa Filho2, Luís Eduardo Vergueiro Loures da Costa1, Luís Gonzaga Trabasso1 Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of the scenario of small satellites and its correspondent launch vehicles. The miniaturization of electronics, together with reliability and performance increase as well as reduction of cost, have allowed the use of commercials-off-the-shelf in the space industry, fostering the Smallsat use. An analysis of the launched Smallsats during the last 20 years is accomplished and the main factors for the Smallsat (r)evolution, outlined. Based on historic data, future scenarios for different mass categories of Smallsats are presented. An analysis of current and future launch vehicles reveals that we are currently in a phase of transition, where old launch vehicles get retired and new ones enter the market. However, the satellite launch vehicle business has been established to carry payloads of thousands of kilos into low Earth orbit and has not adjusted itself to the market of Smallsats. As a result, there is only 1 launch vehicle for dedicated Smallsat launches commercially available, but it carries a high price tag. Several small lowcost launch vehicles under development are identified and the challenges to overcome, discussed. Since these small launch vehicles have similar complexity as huge launch vehicles, high development costs are intrinsic, leading to a high specific price (USD/kg payload). Keywords: Small satellites, Launch vehicles, Access to space. Introduction During the past 30 years, electronic devices have experienced enormous advancements in terms of performance, reliability and lower prices. In the mid-80s, a USD 36 million supercomputer was capable of executing 1.9 billion operations per second and its selling was restricted. Today, an off-the-shelf tablet computer can execute 1.6 billion operations per second and it can be bought via Internet for USD 300. Unlike the 1985’s supercomputer, which weighted 2,500 kg and consumed 150 kW, a tablet computer weights around 0.5 kg and requires 0.01 kW (Osseyran and Giles 2015). Such an evolution is evident in day-to-day life. But how the space sector has benefited from such an evolutionary process in terms of satellites and launch vehicles? The use of COTS to build Smallsats started in the mid-70s at the University of Surrey, which launched its first satellite (UoSat-1) in 1981. The interest of Smallsats increased in the following decade when academic organizations started to design and build their own satellites. As the microelectronics evolved, the interest grew and reached a milestone with the creation of the Cubesat standard in 2001. Nowadays, it is possible to purchase the whole Smallsats, hardware and software, on the internet. The present research reveals that about 1/3 of the 2,500 satellites launched in the past 20 years had a wet mass (including fuel) below 500 kg, subsequently called Smallsats. The amount of Smallsats launched in the last 5 years is nearly equivalent to the accumulated amount of the 15 years before. Therefore, what has begun as a research and development project has evolved and found commercial applications in areas like communications and remote sensing. It is not clear how far 1.Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial – Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica – Divisão de Engenharia Aeronáutica e Mecânica – São José dos Campos/SP – Brazil. 2.Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial – Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço – Divisão de Sistemas Espaciais – São José dos Campos/ SP – Brazil. Author for correspondence: Timo Wekerle | Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial – Instituto Tecnolo´gico de Aerona´utica – Divisão de Engenharia Aeronáutica e Mecânica | Praça Marechal Eduardo Gomes, 50 – Vila das Acácias | CEP: 12.228-900 – São José dos Campos/SP – Brazil | Email: Received: Dec., 02, 2016 | Accepted: Feb., 14, 2017 J. Aerosp. Technol. Manag., São José dos Campos, Vol.7, No 3, pp.269-286, Jul.-Sep., 2017 270 Wekerle T, Pessoa Filho JB, Costa LEVL, Trabasso LG this miniaturization process will lead to, but in many cases Smallsats can already accomplish what only big satellites could do in the past. Satellites are being deployed into orbit by satellite launch vehicles (LVs) and so far, this is being realized by huge launch vehicles capable of carrying thousands of kilogram payloads. Usually, since LVs have not experienced a significant reduction in size, Smallsats fly as secondary payload, so called piggy back. The use of converted Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) enabled cheap access to space through the rideshare concept. Another possibility is the launch from the International Space Station (ISS). Nowadays, there is only 1 commercial Micro-LV available for dedicated launch of Mini- and Micro-satellites, permitting the definition of orbit and launch date. However, it carries a high price tag. To address the promising market of Smallsats, there are several Small- and Micro-LV developments on the way. It is worth mentioning that Micro-LVs are not new. In the very beginning, orbital spaceflight began with Micro-LVs. The American Vanguard put a 11-kg satellite into orbit in 1959. The Japanese Micro-LV Lambda 4S, in 1970, was capable of putting a 24-kg Smallsat into orbit. In the meantime, the satellites got bigger caused by more and more sophisticated payloads and, consequently, the LVs increased their payload capacity. However, due to technological advancements, satellites nowadays become smaller, but this trend is not being followed by reduction of payload capacity and size of the LVs. By an extensive literature review and the use of a database of Smallsats from 1995 to 2014, the aim of this study was to provide the current status and trends of Smallsats and small LVs, including their features, challenges and prospects. Definitions A classification for Smallsats and LVs established by the authors is defined in Table 1. Besides the Smallsat classification, Cubesats are defined in the CubeSat Design Specification (Cal Poly 2015) as Units (U) with a wet mass of m < 1.33 kg and dimensions of 10 × 10 × 10 cm. Commonly-used Cubesats have form factors of 1-3U and 6U. The emerging Pocketcube standard defines a satellite with a wet mass of m ≤ 0.125 kg and dimensions of 5 × 5 × 5 cm (Deepak and Twiggs 2012). Table 1. Classification for Smallsats and Launch vehicles. Smallsats Wet Mass Pico-Satellite ≤ 1 kg Nano-Satellite 1 – 10 kg Micro-Satellite 11 – 100 kg Mini-Satellite 101 – 500 kg Launch Vehicles Payload Capacity Micro-LV ≤ 500 kg Small-LV 501 – 2,000 kg Medium-LV 2,001 – 20,000 kg Heavy-LV > 20,000 kg Related RESEARCH In 1996, Stoewer (1996) advocated the use of Smallsats and claimed that the times of technology push were over and user pull was the paradigm. Twenty years lat (...truncated)