Instrument First, Spacecraft Second: a New Paradigm in Space Mission Development

The development of NASA missions is difficult. Developing world class science instruments that constantly push the state of the art can present a series of developmental challenges that are difficult to both anticipate and overcome. For many NASA missions, the development of an instrument can become the primary key technological challenge for the success of a mission [1]. As such, the difficulty of developing an instrument can lead to delays in delivering the instrument to the spacecraft for system integration which, in turn, can lead to cost growth while the spacecraft, mission and ground system team waits for the instrument to be delivered. The subsequent “marching army” cost can be significant and is one of the primary causes of cost growth for NASA missions [2]. This paper addresses this issue by hypothesizing that developing the instrument first and bringing it to an acceptable level of maturity prior to procuring the spacecraft and initiating ground system development could provide an overall cost reduction or minimize cost growth for NASA missions. To test this theory, the cost and schedule of representative missions from the recent Earth Science Decadal Survey [3] were analyzed to determine if potential cost and schedule growth could be minimized by developing the instrument(s) prior to starting full mission development. The results of the study show that significant cost savings could potentially be achieved by applying the instrument first, spacecraft second (IFSS) mission development paradigm.