The rule of the game is called \u27shared economy\u27. Some of the most successful companies in the world don\u27t own the assets they sell. Uber, the largest taxi company in the world, does not own taxis. Airbnb doesn’t own the houses they rent. This was already the case in the past. For example, tour operators didn\u27t own the hotels in their portfolio. The difference, with respect to Airbnb and Uber, is that in these cases the assets are privately owned and shared with customers. The big revolution of the shared economy is happening thanks to the Internet. The users can check and score the quality of the service, the owners, the honesty and their reliability.
How does this relate to small sats? In the case of space assets, privately owned satellites can’t be rented through a \u27Spacebnb\u27. Not yet, at least. With the proliferation of cubesat and picosats, the question is when and how it will happen, rather than if it will happen. The following question is: how will this affect the design and operations of the next generation picosatellites, the space business and the companies currently operating in the sector?
Very often when talking about technology innovation we use words like evolution or revolution. In case of the shared economy, it\u27s more appropriate to talk about transformation. This paper evaluates and discusses new types of business schemes and possible design evolution of small sats that will transform the space business. In a future that might be closer than we think, we may able to rent a satellite, and use it for our own purposes, for just 99$ per application
