Microsatellites and Improved Acquisition of Space Systems

Traditional Department of Defense (DoD) practices in the acquisition of space systems have focused on advanced versions of proven technology, meaning large satellites. This paradigm contributes to dependence on a handful of satellites, program schedules measured in decades, and the expensive oversight and program management functions which must be applied to systems which, since there are so few assets, cannot countenance failures. The escape from this paradigm is offered by Microsatellites (Microsats). Microsats are not only useful technology, but technology which enables a different approach to acquisition. What the authors call the Microsat Acquisition Paradigm (MAP) is partly modeled on NASA’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper” approach and takes lessons from NASA’s successes and failures. Now that some space functions can be undertaken by low-cost Microsats, the advantages of mass production, reduced government oversight, and acceptance of a reasonable failure rate can be applied to space system acquisition. This paper explores the three pillars of the MAP approach: requirements, technology, and acquisition, which together support the Holy Grail of space system affordability. Understanding the military’s space requirements is the first pillar of this approach. The second pillar is the ability to correlate the requirements to the current and projected state of Microsat technology and explain what space functions can be accomplished with Microsats. Finally, historical examples, as well as recent studies. demonstrate that streamlined, cost-effective acquisition is a reality for Microsats, enabling savings in time and money compared to the acquisition system used for traditional space systems

“Where Do I Start?” Rides to Space for Scientific and Academic Payloads

The launch problem for small payloads is nowhere as serious as it is for scientific and academic users, who cannot tap the purchasing power available to spacecraft funded by the military and large corporations. The options available for the researcher at a university who has an instrument or a spacecraft are limited, sometimes depressingly so. Dedicated vehicles are usually unaffordable, and secondary payload opportunities require meeting a host of requirements, from payload design to timing to integration, dependent on the needs of the primary payload. In this paper, the authors survey the options available and answer the question, “Where do I start?” Sources of potential rides, including NASA, military, commercial, and non-U.S. programs and organizations were surveyed. The results are presented here, along with recommendations for an improved process which, at low cost, could improve the “matchmaking” system and simplify the obstacle course faced by spacecraft and instrument developers today

A Microsatellite Space Guard Force

The microsatellites now under development will be capable of a variety of inspection, surveillance, servicing, and propulsion services. As the military and commercial importance of space increases, a practical near-term use of this technology will be to provide the kind of services in space that the U.S. Coast Guard provides on Earth. The Coast Guard provides the U.S. coastal waters with law enforcement, search and rescue, safety inspection, and a myriad of other services. All these services are needed in the near-Earth region as well, and will become more critical as thousands of additional satellites are launched. A Space Guard constellation of micro satellites would use the technology being developed under the XSS-10, Mightysat, and other programs to provide similar services, beginning with low Earth orbit (LEO). Space Guard satellites could evaluate damaged satellites, enforce treaties by inspection, monitor traffic in key orbits, and report collision hazards, If needed, microsats could attach thrusters or tether packages to move or deorbit a disabled satellite. While an independent agency or international consortium could eventually operate the Guard, its initial deployment would most likely be under U.S. Space Command. This paper assesses the requirements and technology involved in the Space Guard proposal, along with possible operational structures and initial cost estimates. The Space Guard concept is a vital one. Microsatellites are the most affordable and effective way to put it into practice

Practical Microsat Launch Systems: Economics and Technology

The problem of an affordable, responsive, and reliable microsat launch system (MLS) has bedeviled the small-satellite community, especially in the United States, for decades. Rides on dedicated vehicles may cost $15M or more, while shared space is hard to find and harder to fit with the schedules of microsat operators. Several efforts to build an MLS, generally focusing on cheap expendable launch vehicles (ELVs), have failed, as did the government.s much-touted Bantam launch vehicle effort in the 1990s. Today, there are several options, both reusable and expendable, in development, as government agencies and corporations respond to the growing interest in microsats by trying once again to solve the problem. In pursuing these efforts, it is instructive to consider why the problem was not solved long ago. A reliable and relatively affordable MLS, the NASA-developed Scout, was built over four decades ago. Since then, technological advances should have made duplicating its success a relatively minor problem. Why has this not been so? The answers range from the volatile microsat launch market to the fixed costs involved in launch ranges and safety standards, to the technology itself. This paper examines MLS development efforts past and present, analyzes the technical and economic factors retarding their success, and offers prescriptions for the organizations now attacking the MLS problem

Microspacecraft and the Vision For Space Exploration

In 2004, President George W. Bush gave the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) a new focusthe Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). The VSE, which includes a human presence on both the Moon and Mars, requires a space infrastructure which will more closely resemble a polar expedition (with its system of base camps, supply depots, etc.) than previous space programs. In this effort, the roles of scouts, communication nodes, and rescue parties may well be played by a network of microspacecraft spanning the vastness of the Earth-Moon-Mars system. The need to put unprecedented capabilities in space at manageable cost makes it important to examine the smallest, lightest, and most affordable machines which may be suited for each required task. Microspacecraft technology, much of it already demonstrated (e.g., NASA’s AERcam Sprint and the Air Force’s XSS-10) or in flight testing (e.g., NASA’s SPHERES and Space Technology 5 (ST5) missions), can help reduce costs and maximize crew safety. Possible roles for microspacecraft include inspecting larger vehicles for damage, assisting astronauts on extra-vehicular activity (EVA), in-flight servicing, scouting out conditions on other celestial bodies, and providing communications services, sensing, and navigation from lunar and Martian orbit. The overall concept arising from our preliminary study of these roles is a network of small spacecraft providing a variety of support to the large robotic and human-carrying craft required by the VSE. In a practical VSE architecture, microspacecraft are likely to play a much larger role than their size – or current thinking – would suggest

The High-Low Mix: A New Concept In Military Space

U.S. military forces are dependent on space systems for communications, navigation, and other critical support functions. As we learned in Desert Storm, however, the requirements for space capability are difficult to forecast and easy to underestimate. The current U.S. approach relies on high-capacity, high-orbit satellites. Such satellites are relatively cost-effective: the larger the satellite, the lower the cost per pound to orbit it, and the lower the cost per unit of capacity. However, cost-effectiveness is not always the appropriate standard for selecting military systems. Combat forces must be provided with the capability they need to operate and win. This paper examines a high-low mix augmenting the large satellites now used with rapid-reaction launch vehicles (either purchased commercially or developed from Minuteman ICBMs) and tactical satellites (TacSats). Advances in technology now allow military missions including communications and imagery intelligence to be accomplished by satellites weighing under 200 kilograms (kg). U.S. space forces today are constrained by the lack of an affordable, highly responsive launch system and by the inability to add or replace satellite capability during a crisis. This paper documents those requirements and examines the feasibility of meeting them with a low-cost tactical space system based on proven technology

Fractionated Space Architectures: Tracing the Path to Reality

In an effort to achieve responsiveness, increase effectiveness, and reduce the uncertainty involved in maintaining a space architecture dependent on a few high-capacity, high-cost satellites, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has proposed the concept of fractionated spacecraft. DARPA plans to compress spacecraft development timelines, enable launch with smaller, more responsive vehicles, and make the spacecraft architecture fundamentally flexible and robust. DARPA’s System F6 (Future Fast, Flexible, Free-Flying, Fractionated Spacecraft united by Information eXchange) is a technological and paradigmatic demonstrator of this concept.While fractionated architecture is likely to significantly transform the technology base, as well as the development and operational concept for delivering on-orbit capability, this disruptive concept arose from a substantial and rather distinguished pedigree of foundational thoughts, concepts, and demonstrators developed throughout the Space Age as designers have explored satellite constellations, cooperative spacecraft, distributed systems, and miniaturization. Concepts or programs ranging from pioneers like the Transit navigation and IDSCP/DSCS-I communications satellite efforts through the Air Force’s XSS series, NASA’s New Millennium, DART, and TPF programs, Orbcomm, ANTS, TechSat-21, GPS, and many others have contributed to the stream of innovation leading to the architectural paradigm shift of the F6 program.It was not just the promise of new technologies and operational concepts that led to the genesis of F6, but also the deficiencies of the conventional, monolithic approach to space systems that largely pervades the industry today. This paper traces the development of the intellectual, technological, and policy foundations of the fractionated spacecraft concept throughout the preceding decades. We conclude with an assessment of future hurdles to its proliferation and make some projections about its likely applicability to various space missions in the years to come

Distant Horizons: Smallsat Evolution in the Mid-to-Far Term

There are many smallsat missions now in progress or in development, and these are pushing smallsats into new realms of technology, compactness, and mission utility. Proposals for the near term will shrink smallsats further, couple them in new ways using constellations or fractionated architectures, and edge into new mission areas. What, though, is on the horizon looking out 10-25 years or more? While there have been some overly optimistic predictions about smallsats, the advances demonstrated or in development in computing, nanomaterials, microelectromechanical systems, and other areas indicate the future will include some smallsat applications only now being imagined, and others that have not yet been imagined. As once smallsat developers worked with no idea that carbon nanotubes and powerful computers on chips would be available to them, designers of tomorrow will have both evolutionary and revolutionary technologies at their disposal. Ideas that were deemed to push technology too far or cost too much may well be in the mainstream in 2020 or beyond. Some future smallsats will have dimensions measured in millimeters. Some will cooperate in swarms in ways not possible today. Some will be deployed around other celestial bodies or in deep space. Some will perform missions that today require huge spacecraft or cannot be done at all. This paper surveys the leading programs and thinkers in the smallsat realm about what may appear beyond commonly used planning horizons. We have seen 25 years of progress presented at Small Satellite Conferences so far. What might be presented 25 years from now

Microsats and Moby Dick: Microsatellite Support to Whale Science and Conservation

Scientists who study the 92 species of whales and dolphins (aka cetaceans) know that many populations are endangered. There may be only 12 vaquita porpoises left, and the ~450 North Atlantic Right whales are being decimated by ship collisions and fishing gear. Conservation efforts rely on implanted radio tags and satellite transponders to track cetaceans in 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of ocean. These efforts, however, are handicapped by technology and the limits of available satellite support. Leading cetologists surveyed in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Project WHALES (Whale/Habitat and Location/Environment Smallsats) agreed there are simply not enough tracking assets in space. The existing U.S.-led ARGOS radio tracking system needs to be supplemented with more satellites, especially in the tropical regions where ARGOS transceivers on polar-orbiting satellites leave gaps of up to two hours. A constellation of small satellites appears to be the most cost-effective way to achieve this objective. Cetologists can also benefit from partnerships with the increasing number of commercial Earth-observing microsatellite constellations. Imaging satellites with one-meter resolution can spot whales directly, while lower-resolution systems can track relevant phenomena like pollution plumes. Additionally, big-data analysis of tracking information and projecting tracks in a 3D environment with software like Booz Allen’s OceanLens™ can multiply the utility of satellite tracking to scientists studying cetaceans and to naval forces trying to avoid injuring cetaceans. Small satellites may well be key to saving the largest animals on Earth