demonstrated disastrously in March 2016 in Japan,
when a software error blamed on poor project
management caused the country’s Hitomi X-ray
astronomy satellite to spin out of control and break
into pieces, ending a planned three-year mission
after just one month. Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency President Naoki Okumura admitted there
were not enough safeguards built into the project
management process to catch the error. Conventional methods “were not necessarily suited for the
Innovation in Orbit
Earth’s orbit is getting more crowded. The
modern world’s hunger for broadband, satellite
radio and GPS systems means organizations are
embarking on an increasing number of satellite
projects. More than 1,300 satellites are now in
orbit, a figure that could double in the next four
years, according to the Satellite Industry Association. But the appetite for innovative satellites,
the speed with which organizations are hoping
to capitalize on the market and the potential for
more stringent regulations all put added pressure
on teams executing these projects.
“The increasing demand for connectivity and
flexibility continues to push us to look at new
technologies, production systems and engineering
methodologies,” says Mark Spiwak, president of
Boeing Satellite Systems International, El Segundo,
California, USA.
Boeing has responded to these industry changes
by prioritizing innovation in its project designs
while reducing complexity in the factory and manufacturing process, Mr. Spiwak says. He points to
the company’s current project to develop seventh-generation digital technology for the GiSAT satellite, which satellite company Global IP wants to use
to provide low-cost broadband network services in
Africa. “It will help bring coverage to a significant
underserved region of the world,” he says.
Further innovations are on display in China,
where the country’s space agency launched a satellite in August that can communicate via photons—
light particles—instead of radio waves, as the first
phase of a broader project to pioneer highly secure
quantum communications. “If the first satellite
goes well, China will definitely launch more,” Cha-oyang Lu, a physicist at the University of Science
and Technology of China in Hefei, told Nature.
High-Flying Risk Register
Other countries are pursuing similar satellite innovations, and as competition and the pressure to
be first increase, so do the project risks. This was
theEdge
The third of three
Boeing Inmarsat- 5
Global Xpress
satellites launched
in August 2015.
“The increasing
demand for
connectivity
and flexibility
continues to
push us to
look at new
technologies,
production
systems and
engineering
methodologies.”
—Mark Spiwak, Boeing Satellite
Systems International, El
Segundo, California, USA
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