Small Satellites Global Meeting in Littleton, Colorado on March 22-23, 2007

The second meeting of the CANEUS Small Satellite Working Group will build upon the foundation established, by focusing specifically on international collaborations within the small satellite industry. The first CANEUS Small Satellite Working Group meeting helped establish the structure, mandate, objective, and action items for the Working Group. This second meeting will serve to identify and formalize the diverse needs of its members.

Key speakers include, Col Tom “Dingo” Doyne, Rapid Reaction Technology Office, DDR&E, to present on Coalition Operationally Responsive Space (C-ORS) and Fred Slane presenting an Overview of the AFRL Plug-and-Plan (PnP) Satellite Standards

The CANEUS Small Satellite Working Group is a global non-profit membership organization, that aims to mitigate risk collectively for all participants by investigating the various operating modes and business models for small satellite operations, including space technology validation, satellite constellations, and launch on demand.

Background:

The current state of the international small satellite industry is very fragmented; numerous governments and private agencies run sub-critical, small satellite programs with very little communication between these groups. Furthermore, many component and sub-system developers are not familiar with small satellite end-user needs and customer requirements. There is also concern that there exists a lack of transparency between developers and end-users. Participants at the CANEUS 2006 Conference in Toulouse agreed that in order to open up the market for small satellites and facilitate dialogue between the many stakeholders in the industry, it is necessary to create an international consortium for the coordination and standardization of the small satellite industry.

The CANEUS Small Sat Working Group aims to take an approach similar to that designed for the semiconductor industry, namely the SEMI industry group. The CANEUS Small Sat Working Group will focus on providing opportunities for industry representatives to participate in cutting-edge technical discussions, while also establishing the future direction of the small satellite industry. By actively participating in establishing standards, stakeholders can influence important industry trends. Companies engaged in current industry dialogue can decrease manufacturing costs, increase reliability and productivity, and enjoy increased access to customers, end-users, and the global market. The CANEUS Small Sat Working Group will emphasize the identification of end-users of small satellite missions and their specific needs. We will then collaborate to establish how the small satellite industry can respond to these mission or product requirements. This will have the effect of opening up the small satellite market and providing business and investment opportunities by facilitating dialogue and the establishment of cooperative relationships.

Contact:

CANEUS Small Sat Working Group Co-Chairs:

Milind Pimprikar, CANEUS Chairman (Tel: 514-499-3959), mp@caneus.org,

Andrew Quintero, The Aerospace Corporation (Tel: 310 336-2843) andrew.quintero@aero.org