KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT IN A SYSTEM APPROACH, FOR A NEW SATELLITE SYSTEM PLANNING

Abstract

After four decades of a continuous development in services, applications and technology, now a satellite is considered as one of the most important communication systems. In spite of having many different options for telecommunication services, the satellite service is competitive and is increasing with   high rate of traffic.

As the satellite system is not perennial, sooner or later has to be replaced. The satellite replacement task is complex because there are many technical, economic and political factors and to be considered. From the  national  point of view there are  also development criteria  to achieve  goals  in term of the support to the whole  economic system and to the specific economic  activities related to  industry, education, government and business.

From the systemic point of view, it is necessary to consider several disciplines. In that multidisciplinary problem we propose to include Knowledge Management, Technology Management, Communication Engineering, Economics, Physics and Information Systems besides of System Engineering and System Science.

A satellite communication system has to be planned several years before the date when it should be launched into space. Due to this situation, a system approach is needed to achieve the whole purpose and the partial objectives. The first activity is to define the system frontier, the supra system and the subsystems, the second activity is to classify them in a hierarchical order to identify the main relationships among them.

When  a great scale system is  designed  there is an interest to achieve all the possible improvements of the previous system,  incorporate the advantages of  new knowledge,  new technology, new public policies, reinforce the regulatory frame and  satisfy the  new needs  through the new services. Knowledge Management, Technology Management and Systems Science help us in this purpose.

In the Mexican case it is also desirable correct the main mistakes that were made in past experiences. For this reason it is necessary to apply the concepts, schemes and methodologies of the Knowledge Management.