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#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]
The fast-growing field of small satellite startups is racing to capitalize on the parallel trends of plunging launch costs and cheap miniature satellites. But while big rivals like Elon Musk’s Starlink and Masayoshi Son’s OneWeb and smaller competitors like Astranis and Sky and Space plan to launch satellitesthe size of washing machines to toasters, Swarm’s super-small “SpaceBEES” are closer to the size of a grilled cheese sandwich, at 4 inches by 4 inches by 1 inch.
And rival satellites cost millions of dollars or more to build and launch compared to just thousands of dollars for Swarm’s craft. At the other end of the spectrum, two traditional broadband Internet satellites, each the size of a school bus, being built by Viasat will cost $1.2 billion or more.
Seven of Swarm’s tiny SpaceBEEs are already in space, including three that were launched at the end of 2017 without permission from the Federal Communications Commission
The big breakthrough that allows Swarm’s satellite to be so small is how they maneuver in space. There are no thrusters or jets on the SpaceBEEs. Instead, they passively surf on the countervailing forces of the Earth’s magnetic field, the sun’s solar radiation, various gravitational pulls, and the drag of the atmosphere. In a sense, while other craft are like motor boats on a lake, Swarm’s satellites are more like sail boats.
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