A review of the current state of Pico and Nanosatellites: some applications in Latin America and other regions of the world

Abstract

Small satellites have been a fundamental factor in the constant growth of space technologies from 60 years ago. Since the space war began during the Cold War, thousands of satellites have been put into low orbit to carry out radio frequency applications, analysis and sending satellite images of the earth, joint research tasks for space exploration on artificial satellites, as well as missions in other astronomical bodies. By 2019, more than 50 countries around the world have put into orbit at least 1 small satellite, which accounts for the persistent work to increase the applications of these devices and the need make known the potential of these elements for research and for technological applications. Due to this, the present article was based on the documentary search to carry out a review of the current state of small satellites, and especially of nano and pico satellites. The research defined 3 phases for the writing of this document: choice of databases and search engines according to the research area, use of selection algorithms using logical discrimination chains and, finally, extensive analysis of the chosen documents for the writing of the article. All the information was presented through statistical graphs with detailed information from years of publication, language, region, terms, and areas the greatest research of small satellites. It was found that CubeSat and CanSat are the types of nano and pico satellite with the greatest predilection for research by universities and technological institutions, given its low cost and in most cases its easy implementation.