Why use the expertise from people outside the typical ARTES industry ?

Generally speaking, many innovations in satellite communications did not come from our traditional satellite industry.

Such innovations are for example:

• Satellite radio amateurs flew and qualified the first CMOS  chips in space.
• Amateur satellites validated the use of Doppler shift analysis to locate ground-based beacons, leading to the COSPAS-SARSAT beacon location system.
• The first inter-satellite communication was validated using amateur satellites.
• Radio amateurs flew the first re-loadable on-board computer, i.e. without ROM needed allowing to load the full operating software from ground.
• Amateur satellites carried the first GPS receiver to High Earth Orbit (HEO) and demonstrated the viability of utilizing GPS signals at altitudes above the constellation. Since then, future GPS satellites have been designed to accommodate above-constellation use.
• The first use of CAN bus in space was validated using amateurs.
• Amateurs developed the AX.25 “packet radio protocol” which was later used in many commercial systems.
• CubeSats started in the amateur satellite community
• What started a flourishing small satellite builder in Guildford, UK? Three satellite radio amateurs.
• Design of the first DVB-S2 Ka-band transmitter for Cubesats, in-orbit since 2 years.
• Design and qualification of the first DVB-S amateur transponder in GEO.