Era of Small Satellites: Pico, Nano and Micro-satellites (PNM Sat)—an Over View of Frugal Way to Access Low Earth Orbit

Abstract

Every nation, be it a small or big, aspires to launch their own satellite to space and wishes to provide an opportunity to their scientists/students, in order to encourage them to continue space research. For the majority of the nations and academic institutions/universities, it is still a distant dream! including former Yugoslavian countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia). Committee for Space Programme Development (CSPD), Serbia, has been striving hard to provide an opportunity for building and launching satellites for former Yugoslavian countries. In continuation of their sustained efforts since last 2–3 years, CSPD has succeeded in establishing a working relationship with India and paved the way for Indo-Serbian Collaborative Research leading to the realization of the launching of satellites of small nations. This paper highlights the opportunities opened up globally during Space 2.0 era and need for the Pico, Nano and Micro-Satellites (PNM Sat) as a frugal way to access space and sustain space research by academic institutions and small nations to realize their dream in a more frugal way!