Investors Bullish On Pending LEO Economy [small satellite revolution]

[DocM]

Small and nanosatellites (as small as a loaf of sandwich bread) are becoming so capable that even the US military and intelligence agencies are starting to leverage them.

They are relatively inexpensive, can be launched on the cheap as secondary payloads a dozen or more at a time, have miniaturized imagers and sensors, and even ion propulsion so they can station keep and change orbits. They're also easily replaced and can de-orbit themselves when they've outlived their usefulness.

http://www.aviationweek.com/space/investors-bullish-pending-leo-economy

Investors Bullish On Pending LEO Economy

Big money now gravitating toward smallsats

Smallsat Synergy

Long-held hopes for a new economic sector in low Earth orbit (LEO) are beginning to bear fruit, well before the first paying space tourists get a glimpse of the black sky above the atmosphere. New technologies and applications are attracting serious private investment into the spacecraft and launch-services sectors, driving what is beginning to look like a sea change in the way space is exploited.

George Whitesides, former NASA chief of staff who helped formulate the Obama administration

[Torolol]

how big a satellite must be, to be considered a Microsatellite and not Nanosatellite anymore?

[DocM]

Classifications,

Small Satellite: 100-500 kg (220-1,100 lb)

Micro Satellite: 10-100 kg (22-220 lb)

Nano Satellite: 1-10 kg (2.2-22.0 lb)

Pico Satellite: 100g-1 kg (3.53 oz-2.20 lb)

Femto Satellite: 10-100 g (0.35-3.53 oz) aka CrackerSat, HackerSat or the brand name KickSat, which are about the size of a saltine cracker and deployed hundreds at a time from a dispenser. Short lived, they re-enter within weeks.

KickSat dispenser