Small Satellites and Earth Observation Systems for Small Countries and Regions

Abstract

Earth Observation (EO) data are useful tools for managing and improving various aspects of regional and national resources. During the summer 2006, 33 students from the International Space University (ISU) worked on a project aiming at making EO accessible to small countries and regions. Although EO programs are costly to initiate, they are often feasible and beneficial for small countries and regions. However an information gap exists between EO providers and decision makers. This is the reason why a prototype software “selection” tool was developed to assist regional and national leaders in determining which EO capabilities are useful to them and how to initiate a program. As small satellites are amongst the cheapest systems to develop and launch, this will often be the preferred option of small countries and regions, and the selection tool is thus likely to bring benefits to the small satellite industry. The region of Catalonia, one of the three test cases studied in the project, is used as example to illustrate this statement.