Episode 73: Using Commercial Of the Shelf (COTs) Components to build spacecraft

If you follow this podcast, you will notice a very long pause since
the previous episode. I have been busy writing my second book, the
Indian Space Programme which is now finally complete. So I am now
back to my familiar but irregular podcasting mode. The growth in
the space sector now widely estimated to be worth annually over 300
billion USD globally. It is primarily being driven by the
commercial sector.  The bulk of the expenditure is in
satellite television, communication services, Earth observation and
businesses enabled by global navigation. In the past, it was
technological development driven by the national space programmes
that triggered the development of low-cost consumer products. Today
it’s the other way round. Sophisticated manufacturing methods and
high public demand for digital products have produced low-cost
consumer devices which without too much modification can be
qualified for use in space. This is particularly true in the sudden
growth of the small satellite market. In this episode, I speak with
Dr Rajan Bedi the founder and CEO of Spacechips, a UK based company
offering CEO of Spacechips Ltd, which provides industrial R&D
and space electronics design consultancy and training services to
manufacturers of satellites and spacecraft around the world. I was
intrigued by Rajan’s 2017 blog post entitled  “Using and
selecting COTS components for space application”. In this episode,
I want to understand to what extent spacecraft manufacturers can
buy components for spacecraft from the high street.