FAST-PSAT, rebranded now as BRICSAT, is a PICOSATS project, an Innovative Start-up company based in Trieste. The aim is to define a razor-and-blade business model to launch on the market a new solution for building small satellites by using a promising plastic polymer and 3-D manufacturing technique, with a modularity design, a “Lego® brick” concept. This solution would significantly improve access to space to many players, particularly small companies, and research institutes, and it would solve technical, operational, social and economic issues that characterize the design phase and development process of current customized small satellite production, both in civilian and military applications. Over the last decade, more than one hundred small satellites have been launched; this number will tremendously increase in the next future, with over 200 small satellites already in 2018. BRICSAT aims at providing the means to get independence in satellite mechanical manufacturing and to grant accessibility and adaptability of the space industry, in the light of a remarkable interest in small space programs, both in the scientific and industrial field. The availability of a modular, non-metallic bus that can host a variety of payloads, providing EU-wide means for a low-cost and quick access to space, coping with global challenges: effective observations from space for monitoring natural hazards, agricultural aspects and security ones, and tele-communications at low-cost and with low environmental impact upon re-entry. The modularity concept can be even extended to larger structures to simplify, accelerate and standardise satellite production and further enhance the economies of scale.
The overall BRICSAT phase 1 objective was to define the IP, technical, and business strategy to bring this innovative solution on the market.
