Small satellites have been asked to deliver big science on budgets normally allocated to meeting biscuits and a lanyard for somebody who says “strategic”. The universe is vast. The procurement envelope is not.
Small satellite missions can support research, technology testing and training. They must also fit proper instruments into a package roughly the size of a printer box that has already defeated three members of staff.
Miniature expectations
Dr Tuppence Quasar, director of Economical Infinity, said the programme showed ambition. “Space is unimaginably large,” she said. “Our budget is thrillingly easy to imagine. It has a hard lid and a Post it note saying no.”
Engineers have removed unnecessary luxuries. The satellite will have no atrium, no gift shop and only one inspirational wall graphic. It will still travel farther than the executive away day, although it may return fewer photographs of a buffet.
Large missions ask immense instruments profound questions over many years. A small satellite gets a battery, a radio and the professional expectation that it will explain the birth of galaxies before the warranty expires.
The SmallSat programme also promises to spread expertise beyond major centres. Knowledge can now reach universities, researchers and whichever postgraduate remembered the Allen key after everyone else attended the innovation lunch.
Officials insist the satellites are agile. Each craft has already passed three design reviews, two risk workshops and a lean assessment that added 400 grams of paper to prove there is hardly any paper.
The next launch will demonstrate that Britain can still look to the stars without spending the price of a modest county council rebrand. Mission control has prepared a contingency plan involving a kettle, a spreadsheet and one person saying “we can make that work”.
