SATELLITE BUSINESS
JANUARY 21, 2021
canon can build a satellite For you
Do you ever wish to have your own satellite ? Well you do not have to dream now, Canon – the Japan electronic company – can make your dream come true.
From their official website Canon Electronics (CE) explains they can meet users’ various need with their micro satellite platform. Furthermore Canon Electronics wrote that this platform can improve quality of life for industry, academic institutions, startups and other interested parties with reliable and affordable space platforms to further human use of space.
This idea was originated in 1999 when Hisashi Sakamaki was appointed as the President of Canon Electronics with dreams of entering the space industry. In 2002 Sakamaki had an inspiration by a conversation with a friend living abroad. An Idea, that “the coming age will belong to those who tame near-Earth space”. Then in 2009, Sakamaki declared that Canon Electronics was officially entered the space industry and ready to face the challenge ahead.
Along with IHI Aerospace, Development Bank of Japan, Shimizu Corporation, Canon Electronics establishes Space One Co. Ltd. to operate the small satellites business for commercial space transport service. With this step Canon Electronics claims they can meet various user’s needs using the micro satellite platform. The revenue target for this project is 100 Billion Yen by 2030.
In Q3 2020, 288 small satellites were launched the second highest total of any quarter and brings up total to 809 in the year 2020. There are at least 48 organisations involved with Space X still dominated the numbers with 175 Starlink satellites launched for global internet connection.
Based on the satellite size and mass we can categorized it to :
Satellite classification : Small Satellite < 500 kg
Satellite subclassification :
- Mini Satellite : 100 kg – 500 kg
- Micro Satellite : 10 kg – 100 kg
- Nano Satellite : 1 kg – 10 kg
- Pico Satellite : 0.1 kg – 1 kg
According to Canon Electronics it is cheaper to launch small satellites below 100 kg therefore it could attract a large portion of the commercial ventures. The market for this kind of satellite is expected to continue growing. This new technology will drastically improve quality of life for all people in the future.
The first micro satellite from Canon Electronics, CE-SAT-I, was launched in 2017 from a space center in southern India. The micro satellite successfully reaching its orbit at 17 minutes and one second in space after liftoff.
The specs of Prototype Micro Satellite CE-SAT-I are listed below :
- Prototype Earth-observation satellite targeting low cost, high performance, and fast lead time.
- Winner of 2017 Good Design Award.
- Equips a Canon digital SLR camera mated to a 400mm diameter Catadioptric Cassegrain telescope. This allows a 6km x 4km ground image with 0.9m resolution, good enough to count individual passenger cars.
- With the secondary Canon compact digital camera, wide-angle shots of 2000km x 1000km are possible.
- Once images are transmitted to ground stations, they can be analyzed for use in agriculture, natural disaster response, and more.
- Color video and night-time photography possible.
- Dimensions: 500 x 500 x 850mm; Mass: 65kg
According to Yoshito Niwa, General Manager, Development Div. 2, Satellite Systems Laboratory, Canon Electronics Inc., the key to expand this business is the sales of visual data not the sales of micro satellites. Right now Canon is still looking for clients who needs the high-resolution images captured by the satellite from space. For this target Canon will develop their image analysis technologies to find the right customer. The valuable information can be obtained by clients to improve their business quality.
Furthermore Canon Electronics website explains that mass production of satellites is still a new challenge across the industry. “In contrast to the old model of spending 5-10 years producing large unique satellites at great cost, CE aims to produce high performance, affordable satellites in under 2 years. CE’s goal is a world where satellites are nothing out of the ordinary, and anyone may benefit from them – and CE intends to lead the way.”The small satellite business is continue growing big worldwide.
You can check the Photo Gallery of Earth images taken from the satellite using onboard Canon EOS camera here.