SmallSat mission risks and mitigation

Your organisation is seeking to launch a satellite mission and you may wonder what could go wrong? Along with the technical and financial hurdles, there are some risks, which you have to take into account when planning your mission…and guess what, Astreos can help! :)

💥 Launcher Failure: The launch vehicle may experience a failure that results in the loss of the satellite.

💥🔴 Collision Risk: The satellite may collide with other objects in orbit, such as space debris or other satellites, which could result in a complete loss of the satellite. And, worse create new debris increasing the risks of other collisions.

🌍 Atmospheric re-entry risk: The satellite may not be able to safely re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and could potentially cause harm to people or property on the ground. However, this risk is much less likely with SmallSats as it's more about bigger satellites and rocket parts.

🔐 Cybersecurity risk: satellites are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, which could result in the loss of control or sensitive data.

‍

These perils have consequences on the space insurance market as the lack of reliability of some launchers along with components failures aboard SmallSats increase the insurance premiums. Only a few companies are currently offering insurance for such missions driving the costs even higher. Hopefully, there are actions to take to mitigate these risks:

🔍 Conduct thorough testing and quality checks before launch to ensure the reliability of the launcher along with the SmallSat and its components.

🔁 Implement redundancy in critical systems to increase the chances of a successful mission.

🛡️ Utilize advanced collision avoidance systems to reduce the risk of collisions in orbit. These services can be provided by companies such as Share My Space or kayhan Space

🌍 Ensure the satellite is designed to safely re-enter the Earth'satmosphere or to remain in orbit for an extended period of time until it can besafely de-orbited.

👨💻 Implement strong cybersecurity protocols to prevent unauthorized access to the satellite and its data. This can be considered with a company like Cysec

‍

Step by step, the space community gathers lessons learned on previous missions and an ecosystem of new companies offer innovative solutions to mitigate all the risks.

So, are you still upfor that SmallSat mission? Reach out to the Astreos team to discuss how wecould help!

‍

---

📷 ShareMySpace

‍