On 29 and 30 January, the Nanosats Federation organised its second workshop at the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris. With attendance on the rise – reflecting the community’s growing interest – this year’s event was rich in discussion, reflecting the effervescent and fast-developing sector. The event was also an opportunity to look back at 2024 and to announce the new prospects for the Federation.
At her launch presentation, Coralie Neiner – Director of the Fédération Nanosats – reviewed the year 2024 and unveiled the short- and medium-term prospects. She also announced that the Fédération Nanosats will become – like all the CNRS research federations – an animated research federation (FRA). This new status means that it will be possible to draw up bipartite agreements, rather than just inter-surpervison agreements, which will, among other things, enable new members to join on a more regular basis, a particularly opportune element in view of the Federation’s gradual opening up to the regions. In 2025, two new supervisory bodies are expected to join the Fédération Nanosats: the CEA (via the laboratory Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modélisation) and Onera. The Fédération Nanosats is also in the process of identifying potential members from outside the Paris region, thus resuming discussions with CNES, whose supervisory status was conditional on the Federation’s national reach.
The review of 2024, and more specifically that of the ressourcerie working groups, highlighted the fact that the difficulties encountered were not so much due to the logistical resources as to the lack of human resources to use and maintain them. It was also an opportunity to announce a new internal call for projects from Federation members, as well as the launch of new working groups on launchers (coordinated by Nicolas Rividi), propulsion, a reviewer’s guide and a GHG assessment of nanosatellites, for which volunteers are still sought.
The presentations of the Inspire-Sat and IR-Coaster projects launched at the end of 2024, those of UVSQ-sat, OGMS-SA and IGOsat about to be launched or in their final stages of development, as well as those of COSMOCal and Teracube provided an opportunity – in addition to demonstrating once again the richness and diversity of the projects – to give news of their progress and share feedback with the community.
The presence of Eutelsat and Onera, which the Federation thanks, and the needs raised during the discussions highlighted the need for more interaction between academia and industry. The Federation intends to take action in this direction too.
The Federation would also like to thank CNES, which presented its Nanolab Academy programme, explained the new version of the law on space operations and unveiled its strategy for scientific newspace.
Workshop 2025’s round table