News — Consider this perspective of a developmental engineer speaking in the April 2006 issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine: A conventional space satellite weighs more than 10,000 kilograms and costs $150 million to manufacture, $100 million to launch, and $62 million to insure.
On the other hand, a satellite using micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, would weigh one to ten kilograms and cost $3 million to build, $200,000 to launch, and $800,000 to insure.
Despite the obvious weight and cost advantages of the MEMS-enabled satellite, it resides in what the engineer calls the "valley of death" " the place between conceptual design and commercial implementation. Several other promising MEMS-based aerospace technologies are stuck in limbo, including a high-temperature sensor that could improve performance in fuel injection while reducing engine emissions.
"Aerospace is one of the most conservative industries, because you can't afford to make a mistake," says the engineer, Miland Pimprikar, in Mechanical Engineering. "You cannot fly an application until it's flight-tested, and you have to fly to test it."
According to Mechanical Engineering, which is published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Pimprikar along with other developers are committed to bringing MEMS and nanotechnology-based systems to aerospace programs and applications around the world.
Through a group called the Canada-Europe-United States Organization on Micro-Nano Technologies for Aerospace Applications, or Caneus, Pimprikar and his colleagues are bringing together inventors, investors, business people, and systems developers in the aerospace markets to discuss ways to remove both the technological and financial impediments to the large-scale implementation of MEMS.
Caneus, with the ASME Nanotechnology Institute as partner, will hold its next conference from August 27 to September 1, 2006, in Toulouse, France.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is a not-for-profit professional organization promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences. ASME develops codes and standards that enhance public safety, and provides lifelong learning and technical exchange opportunities benefiting the engineering and technology community.
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