Sustainable satellites for sustainable development

The spread of information and communications technology (ICT) is having a profound effect on people, livelihoods, institutions and nation states around the world. Within this globalisation process, Earth Observation (EO) has had much less impact on civil society than expected. EO may be one of the best tools that we have available to help manage our stressed global ecosystem but we are not using it well. Analysis suggests that a transition from uncoordinated expensive, 'mainframe' satellites to a constellation of low-cost, more user friendly 'PC' satellites with direct local data transmission/reception, would have many advantages for both users and information service providers. Such a change could be achieved largely through standardising data transmission protocols. It could accommodate public interest as well as, commercial, research and developing country interests. The EU could be the ideal cradle to nourish this approach.