14-16 October 2019
Athens Conservatoire
Europe/Athens timezone

Disrupting the space industry with Open Source Satellites: What are the challenges, and how do we address them?

14 Oct 2019, 13:00
1h
Athens Conservatoire

Athens Conservatoire

Vasileos Georgiou B 17-19, Athina 106 75, Greece
Round Table Communities, Business, and Legal Aspects Group meetings - Roundtables

Speakers

Anita Bernie (KISPE Space Systems Limited)Dr John Paffett (KISPE Space Systems Limited)

Description

Whilst there are examples in many software and some hardware business of the commercial success and sustainability of the open source approach, the philosophy is still very much in its infancy in the space domain.

The few examples of open source missions have been limited to very small satellites (PocketQubes and Cubesats), with a primary focus on technology demonstration within the academic community. There are also some open source capabilities emerging in discrete areas of the end-to-end value chain, but there is some way to go before all of the industrial capabilities and systems engineering and integration competences are available to enable the reliable delivery of microsatellite-class, commercial operational open source systems.

This round table discussion will follow the following format:

  • Summary of the current status of open source capabilities that are
    either already being used for space applications, or have the potential to be developed
  • Invite participants to articulate and discuss the challenges associated with the creation and cultivation of the necessary ecosystem for the Open Source Satellite industry and community to thrive
  • Selection of the “Top-3” or “Top-5” issues (depending on timings) that need to be addressed
  • Discussion of potential approaches, solutions and enablers that will allow the
    challenges to be addressed
  • Agreement of some tangible, concrete next steps that can be taken/led by the OSCW community and industry supporters
  • Conclusions and wrap-up

If the venue facilities are suitable, we will investigate the use of an open source brainstorming tool to capture and share the contributions and results of the round table discussion.

Primary authors

Anita Bernie (KISPE Space Systems Limited) Dr John Paffett (KISPE Space Systems Limited)

Presentation Materials