Small satellites constellations and their impact on CBRNe management in Africa

A wave of small satellites constellations is progressively populating the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) with a low - cost, and varied, offer of TLC (speed band) and Earth Imaging services (Huawei, Spacelink, Planet, One Web, etc.). These programmes, triggered by the latest technologies of satellite interlocking communication, dramatically cut the costs of launch and orbit flight management and therefore challenge the paradigm of traditional, heavy and expensive geostationary satellites operating at high altitudes. They are in most cases commercially financed and support the launch of large numbers of units (several hundreds and more for each constellation). This new entry in the panorama of space applications, declined in the field of Homeland safety and security, is likely to create new markets especially in the developing world, where such services are scarce, not consolidated or even missing. The geographical focus of this study is Africa and it deals not only with Institutional PRS users but to a wider context (Corporations, Private users). The authors, based on a plan of services and relative pricing connected to a model constellation of small - and therefore debris risk safe - microsatellites, presented already at several IAF (International Astronautical Federation) Symposia on Space Economy, simulate the type of services available (TLC band types, upload and download rates, radar – daylight imaging, refresh rates and resolutions, signal backhauling systems, user and mobile terminals, etc.) with their relative pricing fitting them to specific Country cases and situations (eg oil infrastructure sabotage in Niger Delta). The study concludes analysing some Country context gaps (educational, legal, political) that need to be filled to implement the space applications to larger audiences in the developing World. Relative positive cases are reported such as Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa.