Innovation and change? The evolution of Europe's small satellite manufacturers

Since the 1980s a trend has emerged to contain the cost of space missions, which has favored trials in the construction and launch of small satellites. This effort has considerably reduced the cost of the satellites because the construction process uses both traditional components and important technological innovations. There have also been market openings for small satellites, both within the telecommunication sector and for scientific missions and those related to Earth observation. This paper contains the results of a survey of the largest manufacturers of small satellites in Europe and investigates how far (if at all) they have changed the structure of the European space industry. It finds that, through the acquisition of small satellite manufacturers, traditional large companies operating in the field of space in Europe have secured for themselves important technological innovations and market opportunities, while maintaining their oligopolistic position.     

Discovering the basic strategic orientation of big space agencies

The aim of this paper is to identify the basic strategic orientations of some of the world's main space agencies. This study focuses on the Brazilian, French, European, Japanese, Indian and Russian agencies. Basic strategic orientations indicate the real space exploration objectives of large countries. This is useful because there are some ambiguous areas in the formal strategic documents published by these agencies. The results highlight the common objectives of the agencies studied, which is to have an important role in international political leadership even considering the specific objectives related to the economic and social contexts of the individual countries.     

Effects of solar modulation on the cosmic ray positron fraction

We implemented a 2D Monte Carlo model to simulate the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays. The model is based on the Parker’s transport equation which contains diffusion, convection, particle drift and energy loss. Following the evolution in time of the solar activity, we are able to modulate a local interstellar spectrum (LIS), that we assumed isotropic beyond the termination shock, down to the Earth position inside the heliosphere. In this work we focused our attention to the cosmic ray positron fraction at energy below ∼10 GeV, showing how the particle drift processes could explain different results for AMS-01 and PAMELA. We compare our modulated spectra with observations at Earth, and then make a prediction of the cosmic ray positron fraction for the AMS-02 experiment.     

Space technology transfer policies: Learning from scientific satellite case studies

The paper reports research into the transfer of technology typically used in the construction of scientific satellites. Four case studies are analyzed to clarify some basic mechanisms of the transfer of space technology to the industrial system. The paper finds that the technologies analyzed in the construction of satellites for the most part stem from the integration of technical processes already known in various industrial sectors; the use of these processes in space involves their substantial strengthening and upgrading in terms of performance; and this upgrading permits them to return to industrial sectors that use the technological advances acquired for coping with complex problems in the space sector. This research has helped validate some of the determinants of technology transfer already noted in the literature, while increasing the number and content of these. Useful indications emerge for policy makers and agents involved in technology transfer programs.     

Guided propagation of HF radio waves in the ionosphere

A review is given of the work done in the field of ionospheric guided propagation of HF radio signals from artificial satellites. The possible theoretical approaches to the problem are summarized with more details on the analysis in terms of ray-tracing based on a geometric-optics treatment.A survey is done of the experimental observations performed through satellite transmissions, with particular emphasis on the results obtained through three ad hoc developed experiments: Orbis, S. Marco and OV 4.