A number of developing countries are taking steps to build their own national satellite programs, seeking more control over remote-sensing data to map and forecast disasters, monitor crop yields and track environmentally driven diseases such as malaria. In a paper published recently in the journal Acta Astronautica, Danielle Wood, a PhD candidate in MIT’s Engineering Systems Division, and Annalisa Weigel, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, examine countries including Nigeria, Malaysia and Thailand where nascent satellite programs have cropped up, thanks to a relatively recent philosophical change within the space industry. Read More
