Miniature, Low-cost, Highly Autonomous Spacecraft — a Focus for the New Millennium

NASA is working aggressively toward greatly reducing the life-cycle costs of planetary, space physics, astrophysics, Earth observing, and communications missions. In order to pursue important programs in space and Earth science and commercial applications of space in the twenty-first century, frequent, affordable missions are required. These are enabled through a fundamental paradigm shift in the ways of doing business and the application and validation of advanced technology. Miniaturization of spacecraft and spacecraft instruments leads to lower mass and greatly reduces launch costs. Use of high-level spacecraft building blocks with low recurring costs simplifies spacecraft design and simulation and, together with advanced manufacturing, assembly, and test, greatly reduces development costs. And making spacecraft highly autonomous greatly reduces operations costs. In addition, measures such as targeting appropriate, focused missions and payloads, minimizing spacecraft power requirements, using low-nuclear or non-nuclear power sources, employing onboard analysis and data compression, and eliminating non-cost-effective redundancy can contribute broadly to reduction in life-cycle costs. This paper expands further on these areas and includes specific example spacecraft design concepts, such as the one illustrated at the right, that are consistent with the vision and approach. ——————————-.———————— Copyright