25 May 2022: The Budget Committee of the German Bundestag has recently decided to provide funding for small satellites as well as for the establishment of automated satellite production in Germany.
As part of this decision, the national program for Space and Innovation – Research and Development Projects will be increased by 10 million euros. This means that within the broad 1.4-billion-euro funding program, 10 million euros are explicitly earmarked for small satellite missions.
Whether the federal government now considers the strategic importance of satellite communication as critical infrastructure necessary in light of the Ukraine crisis, or whether it acknowledges the general need for a national or European infrastructure, is beside the point. What matters is that by allocating a dedicated budget, the topic has now become strategic.
This marks a beginning — albeit a small one — because anyone familiar with the field knows how quickly 10 million euros can be spent in this key technology sector. Such an amount is insufficient to build a national small-satellite production capability, let alone to deploy an entire constellation of small satellites in orbit, which would require roughly 1,000 times more. Nevertheless, the funding can help set important priorities. It is particularly positive that the support is not limited only to satellite platforms but also includes payload development.
In a study commissioned by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), we at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich showed that, in terms of payloads, new antenna technologies, digital signal processing, and artificial intelligence for optimizing resources and satellite links must be researched and developed. When these key technologies are considered, 10 million euros is merely a drop in the bucket.
Still, it is a step in the right direction. The SeRANIS small satellite mission, funded by the Federal Ministry of Defence, already focuses on such key payload technologies. If the proposed funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action now concentrates on the platform side, the results of both efforts could be combined synergistically — synergy effects that we at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich very much welcome.