Introduction to lean satellite and ISO standard for lean satellite

There is increasing demand of small satellite development and utilization worldwide. The recent explosive growth of the small satellite launch has caused significant concerns among traditional space sector. Peaceful coexistence of the traditional sector and the emerging sector is crucial. There is a need to define “what is a small satellite” and lay out the requirements of small satellites. In 2014, an activity started to make an ISO standard to describe definition and requirements of small satellites. In parallel, a new study group was initiated at International Academy of Astronautics. The study group intends to make an important input to the ISO standard. Definition of small satellite was discussed extensively in the study group. The majority of the opinions were that mass nor size is not suitable for definition of small satellites and they should be defined by the philosophy of design, manufacturing, mission, program management and others. The workshop came to conclusion that “lean satellite” is the most suitable word to describe a satellite that utilizes untraditional risk-taking development approaches to achieve low-cost and fast-delivery with a small number of team. This paper provides the recent update on the lean satellite standard.