First presentation: Scott MacGillivray, manager of the nano-sat program at Boeing. Cubesats bring whole new value proposition to the business of space, providing a standardized, inexpensive platform that shifts market economics. Cubesats offer provide a technology testbeds - in dollars per kilogram, they open up more testable propositions.
Other missions, Earth inspection missions, situational awareness, large arrays and formations, specialized space science. Cost for failure is lowered. Money can be put into more sats, not redundancy for single, larger sat.
MacGillivray describes trade offs between processing power, attitude control, common bandwidth, electoral power and mission life using a spider diagram.
Customers are beginning to take a second look at the platform. In response to question about five year projection of launch costs and availability, he describes some ride-share opportunities, but points out that a cultural shift is also underway in the traditional launch market.
Wayne
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