I have made several posts in the past on this subject. No doubt GomSpace are experts at what they do and as commercial assemblers or nanosats, have few peers. If SAS is to go through GomSpace, they will be paying a set price per piece. ‘Production-lining’ will certainly reduce costs but I am sure they will still be charging in the $300+range. GomSpace has no other commercial association with SSG other than as a contracted provider of product.
If SAS was able to get another manufacturer on board who could also make use of the nanosats once deployed, I dare say a reduced cost could be achieved as a trade-off to get access to the constellation.. If that access was worth say $50-100k per nanosat, it would give SAS the product it needs at a potentially reduced cost of $10 – 20Million over the 200x constellation.
I am not convinced that there is a mobile phone manufacturer on this planet capable of producing Nanosats. Their production runs are significantly greater and their technology, expertise and manufacturing facilities are not aerospace compliant – IMO. For my money the most likely contender to get the job done, ie. production line assemble the nanosats and afford SAS some JV possibilities or at least reduced cost in return for some access, would be one of the mega global aircraft manufacturers.
Both Airbus and Boeing have annual revenues in excess of $70Billion. They also have the expertise and facilities to mass produce the nanosats in say ‘launch lots’ of 50x at a time. Either would be more than capable of producing our nanosats. They would also have a huge outlet for the technology on aircraft that they build in the future and retrofit into existing. This would represent, massive opportunities for both parties to maximize on what each has to offer.
SAS Price at posting:
15.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
