Cost consideration for future communications satellite

Abstract

This paper discusses the cost-competitiveness of the future communications satellite. First, the cost-competitiveness of the communications satellite is investigated in the case of satellites developed so far. It is known that the LEO mobile communications satellite is not cost-competitive due to the surprised penetration speed of the terrestrial cellular phones. This suggests that the satellite service should be started at the optimal time. On the other hand, the broadcasting satellite service is very cost-competitive to the terrestrial broadcasting service. Second, the cost-competitiveness of the future communication satellite is examined in terms of the cost and length of development time. The future satellite is considered based on a model of the future communications satellite for next 30 years which has been proposed. The satellite cost of the 60–120 Gbps range of capacity, which is called as a second generation communications satellite, is estimated. It is shown that the second generation communications satellite will be cost-competitive in comparison with the terrestrial system. As far as the length of development time is concerned, it is described that the small satellite is useful to develop the key technology.