Fractionated Spacecraft Architectures Seeding Study

Abstract

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. (From -To) REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 03/04/2006 REPORT TYPE Final Report DATES COVERED PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBERMassachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 SPONSORING / MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR'S ACRONYM(S)Air Force Research Laboratory AFRL/VSSV Space Vehicles Directorate 3550 Aberdeen Ave., SE SPONSOR/MONITOR'S REPORTKirtland AFB, NM 87117-5776 NUMBER(S) AFRL-VS-PS-TR-2006-1026 DISTRIBUTION / AVAILABILITY STATEMENTApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited. (Clearance # VS06-0821) SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ABSTRACTThe report introduces the concept of spacecraft fractionation, which transforms a traditional monolithic spacecraft into a network of elements where a free-flying payload module is supported by nearby free-flying infrastructure modules supplying communications, data handling, power, etc. Models were developed from a customer-centric perspective to assess different fractionated spacecraft architectures relative to traditional spacecraft architectures using multi-attribute analysis. Along with traditional attributes of mass and cost, nontraditional attributes of maintainability, scalability, flexibility, and responsiveness were included in the assessment. A framework was created to clearly define and evaluate these non-traditional attributes, and appropriate metrics were constructed. This study demonstrates that if those non-traditional attributes are valued enough, customers would choose fractionated spacecraft rather than traditional ones. This paper introduces the concept of spacecraft fractionation, which transforms a traditional monolithic spacecraft into a network of elements where a free-flying payload module is supported by nearby free-flying infrastructure modules supplying communications, data handling, power, etc. Models were developed from a customercentric perspective to assess different fractionated spacecraft architectures relative to traditional spacecraft architectures using multi-attribute analysis. Along with traditional attributes of mass an...

Functional, physical, and organizational architectures of a fractionated space infrastructure for long-term earth observation missions

“…where nontraditional attributes of maintainability, scalability, flexibility, and responsiveness were included in addition to mass and cost [11]. To explore the trade space of fractionated spacecraft the software named GT-FAST was developed not only to enumerate all possible architectures but also to analyze and quantify the cost and benefit of each architecture [12,13].…”

Value-Driven Analysis of New Paradigms in Space Architectures: An Ilities-Based Approach

“…However, maintainability, scalability, flexibility, and responsiveness all improve with fractionation, and they conclude that if these attributes are valued enough, then the advantage quickly shifts to fractionated spacecraft. 20 Next, Brown and Eremenko apply a value-centric approach to the fractionation of space architectures in their discussion of DARPA's F6 program. From their experiences in this program, the authors found that disaggregated architectures offer greater flexibility, robustness, and scalabilty over more traditional monolithic space vehicles, and if stakeholders are sufficiently convinced of the value of such attributes in a space architecture then they will accept the costs and risks associated with switching to the fractionated paradigm.…”

Payload-Distributed GEO Communication Satellite System and Opportunistic Network Coding Based Cooperative Information Exchange

“…More recently, the need for more capacity in strategic orbital and the necessity to best utilize the available spectrum, has revived efforts to place more than one satellite at the same orbital slot (co-location). The concept of fractionated spacecraft that co-working modules linked by ISL returns to the center of interest [1]- [5]. The F6 program is so challenged and aggressive that the progress had been delayed several times and no significant development has been reported.…”