A new space age: what are nanosatellites and their role in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?
While national space agencies worldwide have been collaborating with the private sector for innovative and cost-effective space exploration, space start-ups are coming up with new technological solutions for problems both on Earth and in the outer space.
The volume of global space industry comprised $285.7 billion in 2010 and $383.5 billion in 2017, and it is forecast to grow to $700 billion by 2030, according to the report by Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies (SJAC).
What are nanosatellites and their uses?
On October 31 2019, advertising start-up Space Basil announced its collaboration with Prof Shinichi Nakasuka of the Intelligent Space Systems Lab in the University of Tokyo. The company relies on Prof Nakasuka’s expertise on nanosatellites known as CubeSats
to transmit advertising and entertainment content from the outer space to Earth.
The world’s first active communications satellite “Telstar 1” was launched in 1962, and the advances in technology in the 1960s and 1970s made it possible to use satellites for telephone communication and transmission of TV programs.
Compared to conventional space technology, which was large and sophisticated, the nanosatellite revolution marks a new space age of less expensive satellites created with miniature electronic parts at less cost.
While nanosatellites weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds), CubeSats have a cube-shaped structure, measuring 10x10x10 centimetres (4x4x4 inches), with a mass of somewhere between 1 and 1.33 kg (2.93 pounds).
On December 3 2019, the organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, together with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), announced the completion of “G-Satellite”, a small satellite which will carry to space popular Japanese animation characters Gundam and Zaku. Small cameras installed inside the miniature satellite cubicle will record and transmit the characters’ images to be shown on electronic displays during the Games.