Satellite Systems

Early satellites were relatively small machines that performed rudimentary tasks or demonstrated a capability. During the early days of space exploration, designing and building a satellite was an expensive and long-term undertaking. Launching the satellite into space was another expensive step along the way to deploying a satellite. As engineers gained expertise in building and launching satellites, these machines grew in size and sophistication. Engineers designed hulking satellites weighing thousands of kilograms to carry several instruments, many of which remain in space today.

The paradigm of building one large object has shifted toward building many small objects to accomplish the same mission. These small satellites support the same mission in concert, forming networks called constellations. The concept of operating constellations of satellites is not particularly new – ambitious business plans from the 1980s aimed to leverage dozens of satellites to offer global telecommunications services. Constellations of satellites are often designed to provide a baseline of regional coverage, with the potential to enlarge the service range later. For instance, Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System uses a constellation of four satellites working in concert to provide navigation services in Asia-Pacific. The principle of using many satellites in concert has become more popular over time.

The plummeting cost of satellite manufacturing and launch has facilitated more exotic designs that include thousands of satellites, called megaconstellations. Operating hundreds or thousands of coordinated satellites in a megaconstellation offers distinct benefits. Megaconstellations can consist of thousands of satellites in LEO. Satellites in LEO have small fields of regard, meaning they can only service a sliver of the Earth’s surface at any given time. Adding another satellite, or several satellites, increases the service area by expanding the field of regard. Megaconstellations take this principle to the extreme, knitting thousands of individual satellites’ fields of regard together to create a blanket of coverage. Coordinating and precisely positioning satellites ensures the network can send signals to any point on the Earth at any time.

Operating in LEO offers other benefits. Megaconstellations orbiting at relatively low altitudes can send and receive signals from the ground more quickly than those further away from the Earth’s surface. Because the signal does not have to travel as far, LEO megaconstellations reduce the time a signal is “in transit” between ground stations and satellite terminals, called “latency.” This facilitates faster communications with less lag. Megaconstellations with low latency can help organizations become more efficient and productive as they transition to 5G technologies.

The further the distance between a satellite and the Earth, the more onboard power the satellite needs to send a signal from space to Earth. Minimizing the distance between satellites and ground stations also minimizes the amount of onboard power needed to produce the signal. This in turn helps reduce the satellite’s size, and often the price of manufacturing. Thus, although megaconstellations require hundreds if not thousands of satellites to provide global coverage, these satellites are generally cheaper per unit. This helps satellite owners stockpile replacement satellites in case any of the assets fail to reach orbit or break once they are in space.

The general trends of satellites becoming cheaper and decreasing launch costs have enabled more than just megaconstellations. Reducing the costs of fabricating and placing a satellite in orbit has opened the playing field to new actors, especially those who may have been excluded from participating in satellite-systems developments based on price alone. Space is no longer restricted to high income countries; now low and middle income countries (LMICs) can own the entire satellite-development lifecycle, including mission design, satellite fabrication, testing and validation, and operations. Relatively lower costs also allow prospective satellite operators to undertake missions that may not have been financially attractive to large or foreign corporations that did not have shared societal motivations.

In addition to the thousands of operational satellites in orbit, there are millions of pieces of space trash. Orbital debris is essentially anything in orbit that does not work – this includes everything from non-functional satellites to fragments of exploding bolts that are used to separate spacecraft from rocket boosters. Clouds of debris are generated when two space objects collide, independent of whether the collision was accidental or intentional. Even very small pieces of debris are dangerous – debris as small as a centimeter can be lethal in collisions with operational satellites. Some regions of space are more threatened than others, due to the density of the debris or the potential for debris-creating events.

There is an emerging movement to both reduce the amount of debris created by space activities and to remove the existing derelict objects. This emphasis on space sustainability bodes well for the future. Nevertheless, the current state of the orbital environment presents elevated debris risks. The increase in the amount of debris – originating from the nations most established in space – has imposed risks on new entrants.

Many citizens in digital deserts are now able to bypass traditional connectivity methods and leapfrog to benefitting from satellite-enabled connectivity. Improved internet connectivity provides a new avenue for citizens to benefit from civil services and engage in political discourse. Internet access can be expanded without needing expensive and intensive local infrastructure projects.

Satellite data and services have agricultural uses beyond crop monitoring and resource optimization. Smallshare farmers, especially in LMICs without established banking infrastructure, are often excluded from traditional financial markets that only provide credit and not savings, loans, or other services. Women are also disproportionately affected by financial exclusion. Innovative lenders like the Harvesting Farmers Network use satellite technologies and remote sensing to address these gaps and help underserved agricultural producers. Earth-observation data can be used to assess agricultural productivity, helping lenders move beyond requiring a paper trail or other documentation and reducing barriers to financial market access.

Access to banking through satellite-enabled connectivity addresses populations beyond smallshare agricultural producers. Satellite connectivity helps geographically isolated populations utilize financial services. Satellites are helping un- or underserved populations across sub-Saharan Africa access banking, while Mexico has partnered with commercial satellite internet providers to achieve similar digital financial inclusion goals.

Satellites may be expensive systems, but access to satellite services and data need not be a prohibitively large financial outlay. Satellite operators sometimes make data collected by their systems free to the public. This practice is common across government and industry. For example, the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration provides a variety of free datasets to support an open and collaborative scientific culture around the world. Satellite industry actors take a slightly different approach to open data. Some commercial entities like Maxar have a long history of providing free and open data in times of crisis or after disasters to assist humanitarian responses.

Open sharing of satellite data across borders helps researchers tackle public health issues. Yet, there are still opportunities to better use satellite data. There is room to improve both the collection of remote sensing data and how we use that satellite-derived data. It is important for end-users to understand the effects of data preprocessing, as preprocessing can both help and hinder analyses. Different techniques can affect the utility of satellite data, sometimes streamlining the analytical process and eliminating the need for in-house expertise. On the other hand, receiving preprocessed data could limit the sophistication of the final analysis. When available, raw data might be the best option if an organization has the technical capacity and time to process the data. Thus, it is important to use imagery and remote sensing data that fit both an organization’s purpose and technical expertise.

More and more countries are participating in developing satellite technology or utilizing the data from satellites, including those in the Global South. Many of these governments are collaborating or partnering with established industrial actors or other more advanced spacefaring nations. As more LMICs develop their local capacities, they also expand the potential for deeper South-South cooperation. Furthermore, the Global South can push back against colonial narratives by investing in satellite and space systems. States with colonial histories can push past expectations that they should base their economies on natural-resource extraction or other rudimentary products by delivering highly technical assets like satellites on a global scale.

Arranging satellite connectivity is not as simple as turning a device on – broadcasters must receive specific authorizations and licenses from a country’s government to beam connectivity into their territory. Well-meaning but onerous government bureaucratic processes may delay when a population could start to benefit from satellite connectivity. In other cases, political interests might prevent satellite operators from serving a population in an attempt to control citizens’ access to information or opposition campaigns.

Satellite signals are vulnerable to interference, even if a satellite operator has full license to operate in a country. Signals are susceptible to both political and physical interference. Governments could choose to revoke licenses, effectively ending a satellite operator’s ability to legally provide connectivity services within a country’s borders with little to no warning. The bureaucratic hoops a service provider must jump through to receive a license are often more onerous than the process for a government to revoke a satellite connectivity provider’s right to broadcast a signal. There are few best practices or exemplary guidelines on what constitutes a reason to revoke a license, so each state is a unique case. It is not clear that many states have made thoughtful progress on understanding why and under what circumstances a satellite provider would lose a license to operate.

Just as a government could revoke a license, so too could a commercial company stop providing satellite services. Civil society must therefore be wary of becoming overly reliant on a single provider, lest this provider decide to cut service. A provider may cease serving a country for many reasons, including financial difficulties or political motivations. For example, Starlink connectivity was impeded, if not turned off entirely, in Ukraine during the war with Russia.

Actors in civil society who wish to work with other entities for satellite projects should also be careful to not become overly dependent on partners that hold overwhelming leverage over a project. The incentives that motivate technology transfer and the sharing of expertise are not always aligned among partners. Alignment issues can cause friction and affect the benefits of a project. This risk is also likely to be relevant in state-to-state interactions.

In the wrong hands, satellite data could be used for a variety of malevolent purposes. Location data, maps, or logs of when a device was transmitting a signal to a satellite could be used by bad actors to erode one’s physical privacy. Satellite connectivity providers may sell users’ data, but some types of sensitive data could be obtained by third parties with sophisticated collection techniques. Few countries have established robust domestic regulations to limit the negative effects of electronic surveillance of satellite-enabled connectivity.

Even with the attendant risks of overreliance, partnerships with commercial entities or foreign states may be necessary due to the high cost of developing and launching satellites. While advancements in manufacturing and launch have reduced the costs of deploying and operating a satellite, fit-for-purpose systems are still often prohibitively expensive. This is especially salient in light of states that have limited fiscal space and an obligation to address other social issues.

States that do make a concerted effort to develop a satellite industry or provide state-supported satellite services for their citizens might also face challenges in retaining technical capacity. It is difficult for low- and middle-income countries to keep well-trained engineers and other professionals engaged in domestic satellite issues. These issues are even more acute when citizens are reliant on foreign partners and do not see pathways to growth and productivity at home. This problem is also exacerbated by the fact that government salaries cannot hope to match salaries in the private sector for tech experts. Without a domestic talent pool to draw from, states risk not being able to advocate for themselves in both negotiations for technical services and multilateral forums on space governance and norm setting.

New paradigms like megaconstellations threaten future generations’ ability to benefit from technologies in Earth’s orbits. This risk of orbital overcrowding is similar to terrestrial-environmental-sustainability principles. Earth’s orbits may be massive in terms of total volume, but orbits are finite resources. There is a fine line between maximizing the uses of Earth’s orbits and launching so many objects into space that no satellite can operate safely. This overcrowding issue affects all of humanity, but is particularly acute for emerging or aspirational spacefaring states that may be forced to operate in a high-risk environment, having missed out on a window of opportunity to take their first steps in space during a relatively safer period of time. Such a situation has secondary effects – those states that are unable to safely commence their space activities are also less likely to be able to demonstrate and reinforce normative expectations for responsible behaviors. Pathways for participating in the current multilateral space governance processes are made more challenging by not having a demonstrated space capability.

There are few global rules that support sustainable and equitable uses of space. Some states have recently adopted more stringent regulations on how companies can use space, but the uncoordinated effort of a few states is unlikely to ensure humanity’s access to a low-risk orbital environment for generations to come. Achieving these space sustainability goals is a global endeavor that requires multilateral cooperation.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) partnered on an initiative to assist Vanuatu to register voters in preparation for Vanuatu’s 2021 provincial elections. UNOSAT used satellite data to develop the first complete dataset to represent all villages in the archipelago. This data was used in concert with measurements of voter turnout to quantify the impact of polling-station locations. Satellite data were used to locate difficult-to-reach populations and maximize voter turnout. Using satellite data helped streamline election-related work and reduced the burden on election officials.

Satellites’ abilities to capture overhead imagery is especially valuable in documenting human-rights violations in states that restrict activists’ and inspectors’ access. A recent partnership between Human Rights Watch and Planet, a US-based company that operates Earth-observation satellites, enables activist groups to hold national leadership accountable. In this case, Human Rights Watch analyzed satellite images of Myanmar provided by Planet to confirm the burning of ethnically Rohingya villages. The frequent collection of satellite imagery showed that several dozen villages were burned, contradicting Myanmar leadership’s declarations that the state-sponsored clearance operations had ended. Activists used this uncovered truth to call for an urgent cessation of violence and support the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Satellites enable many forms of mass communication, including television. While television is a diversion or luxury in many places around the world, it is also a powerful tool for shaping political discourse. Satellite television can provide citizenry with programming from around the globe, expanding horizons beyond local programming. Satellite television came to India in 1991 after years of state control over broadcast media. On the one hand, the format of receiving satellite internet was a marker of modernism, while on the other hand, the programming it provided became a societal phenomenon. Satellite television brought more than 300 new channels to India, nurturing cultural engagement and supporting how citizens considered engaging with each other and with the state. This was especially liberating in the post-colonial context, as Indian society now controlled their media outlets and showcased considerations of social identity through satellite television. For more information, please see Television in India: Satellites, politics, and cultural change.

Through the Servir program, a collaborative initiative led by the United States Agency for International Development and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. government agencies partner with local organizations in affected regions to use satellite data to design solutions to tackle environmental challenges around the world. Among many other contributions, the Servir team is working in concert with partners in Peru and Brazil to use satellite and geospatial data in precise maps to help inform decisions about agricultural and environmental policies. This work supports stakeholder efforts to understand the complex interface between agriculture productivity and environmental sustainability. The results are used to design policy incentives that promote sustainable farming of cocoa and palm oil. Local stakeholders including the farming communities can use the satellite-derived data to optimize their land use.

Satellites are invaluable tools in agricultural development. The CropWatch program, initiated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, works to provide LMICs with access to data collected by satellites and training for using these data for their specific needs. The CropWatch program supports agricultural monitoring and enables states to better prepare for food security challenges. States have been able to engage with each other through extensive training programs, allowing for South-South collaboration on shared issues. The data collected through CropWatch can be tailored to accommodate local requirements.

Clandestine use of satellite internet has allowed protesters in Iran to access the internet via alternate methods. The Iranian government exercises close control over traditional methods of accessing the internet to stifle protests and civil activism. These methods of controlling or limiting free speech, democratic activism, and civil organization are yet to be effective in limiting citizens’ access to satellite internet, provided by services like Starlink. The Iranian government still exercises some control over satellite internet in the country – ground-station terminals need to be smuggled into the borders to provide service to activists.

Satellites help confirm ground truths. Amnesty International has a long history of using satellite imagery to produce credible evidence of human-rights abuses. This project called for digital volunteers to map Darfur and identify potentially vulnerable populations. The next phase of the project compared satellite imagery of the same locations taken at different times to pinpoint evidence of attacks by the Sudanese government and associated security forces. Amnesty maintains its own in-house satellite-imagery-analysis team to corroborate on-the-ground accounts of violence, but this project showed that even amateur volunteer analysis of satellite imagery can be a viable way to investigate human-rights abuses and hold states accountable.