Session I: Big Business of Small Space

Chair: Bill Seng – Shaffer Corporation

Monday, August 11, 2008

3:00 p.m. If You Build It, Who Will Come? Identifying Markets for Low-Cost Small Satellites: Jeff Foust, David Vaccaro, Chad Frappier, Dustin Kaiser – Futron Corporation; ABSTRACT: Technological advances in small satellites have opened up new markets beyond their traditional role of technology demonstration applications, but which markets would be most receptive to smallsats, and how large those markets might be, are critical unanswered questions. To determine the potential market for a notional low-cost smallsat, Futron Corporation performed a market definition study. The first step of this process was to identify all the potential markets that could be served by a notional low-cost smallsat. Through a process of secondary research and interviews with smallsat manufacturers, Futron identified over 30 potential markets in the military, civil/commercial communications, civil/commercial remote sensing, and miscellaneous market sectors. Futron researched these potential markets by conducting secondary research and performing interviews with prospective customers to gauge their interest in low-cost smallsat systems. From that list six markets emerged that are the most promising in the near term: military science and technology; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; remote site communications; polling of unattended sensors; high-resolution Earth observations; and Landsat-class environmental monitoring. Combined, these markets could generate an estimated demand for up to 40 to 75 smallsats a year, with resulting revenue potentially in excess of a half-billion dollars per year.

3:15 p.m. TacSat–4 Prototype Bus & ORS Phase III Bus Standards Update: Paul Jaffe, Trevor Specht, Gurpartap Sandhoo, Mark Johnson, William Raynor, Michael Hurley – Naval Research Laboratory; Patrick Stadter, Paul Schwart – Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory; Brian Davis – Space Ground System Solutions; LtCol James Griswold – Rapid Reaction Technology Office/DDR&E; ABSTRACT: The continuing effort of advancing sound and accepted spacecraft bus standards is the objective of the Office of the Secretary of Defenses (OSD) Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Bus Standards Initiative. This effort involves multiple government, industry, and academia participants assembled into an Integrated System Engineering Team (ISET). The initial release of the standards was presented at the 21st AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites as ISET ORS Bus Standards and Prototype and contains important background information. This paper updates the status of the ORS Bus Standards, including a major update to the software standards and data protocols. All of these standards are freely available for download from http://projects.nrl.navy.mil/standardbus/. This paper provides an update on the status of the prototype developed to support the TacSat-4 Mission is provided, as well as a report of other ORS standards implementation efforts. The first half of this paper reviews the process as discussed in previous papers. The second half of this paper describes the specific implementation of the bus prototype including design highlights and lessons learned.

3:30 p.m. The Challenges of Developing an Operational Nanosatellite: David Homan – Lockheed Martin Space System Company; Quinn Young – Space Dynamics Laboratory; ABSTRACT: Recent nanosatellite programs and studies of nanosatellites for operational missions have highlighted challenges that are unique to this spacecraft category. While each small satellite class has peculiar design challenges, nanosatellite development challenges are compounded by the unique niche that nanosatellites occupy and the current perception of hardware maturity levels available to support nanosatellite spacecraft. Recent experimental successes with microsatellite systems are allowing such spacecraft to rapidly move toward operational systems. This has produced a false perception that the same small, high TRL operational components and subsystems used in microsatellites will transition easily into the smaller nanosatellite designs. At the same time advances in the sophistication of CubeSat missions and academic programs have increased the expectation of the mission utility that should be possible with nanosatellites. This paper focuses on the unique design challenges of high mission utility nanosatellite programs and the current state of component and subsystem hardware available to meet the unique nanosatellite design constraints. Addressing these challenges in coming years will enable this class of spacecraft to become a viable and healthy part of the aerospace industry, and as a secondary payload improve the launch options and reduced cost commensurate with operationally responsive space (ORS) solutions.

3:45 p.m. The Space E–Commerce Revolution

Craig Clark – Clyde Space Ltd

ABSTRACT: In the 1990s, the space community witnessed the revolution that is now the Small Satellite market. Small satellites were initially written off as not being large enough to have any real practical function; however, since the early 2000s, space companies large and small have been falling over themselves to get involved in Small Satellites. This class of spacecraft has proven to be very much more useful than the sceptics proffered. With the Small Satellite market doing very good business, many of us within the Small Satellite community are now wondering where the next revolution will come from. Most think that the smart money is on Picosatellites and Nanosatellites, but this class of spacecraft has yet to prove its technical capability, but it is clear that it is fast becoming the most economically viable method of accessing space.

This paper examines the commercial world of picosatellites. In particular, we will look at how the approach to standardisation on platforms such as CubeSats has resulted in the evolution of internet sales of satellite subsystems. As a direct result of standardisation, it has become viable for space companies to produce relatively large numbers of the same subsystem and, as a result, drive down the cost of those systems. This is forcing companies involved in the Picosatellite market to look to alternative methods of doing business in order to help reduce these costs even further. Ecommerce is turning out to be the ideal tool for selling microspacecraft subsystems and it has a huge number of benefits that help the customer make their product selection and also to provide after-sales support. Once picosatellites have proven their technical viability as a useful platform, the next revolution in spacecraft could well already be underway and it looks likely to be a web-based space market.

4:00 p.m. International Cooperation for Small Satellites Development: Milind Pimprikar, Rick Earles, Lucinda Tang – CANEUS International; Andrew Quintero – The Aerospace Corporation; Fredrik Bruhn – Angstrom Aerospace Corporation; Thomas George – CANEUS USA; ABSTRACT: Participants at the CANEUS 2006 Conference in Toulouse, France agreed that in order to open up the market for small satellites and facilitate dialogue between the many stakeholders in the industry, it was necessary to create an international consortium for the coordination and standardization of the small satellite industry. The CANEUS Small Satellite Sector Consortium aims to take an approach similar to that designed for the semiconductor industry, namely the SEMATECH industry group. The Small Sat Sector Consortium focuses on providing opportunities for industry representatives to participate in cutting-edge technical discussions while establishing the future direction of the small satellite industry. It oversees five projects and initiatives dedicated to (a) developing standards so as to ensure international interoperability, (b) identifying launch opportunities and services, (c) providing stakeholder liaison and strategic development, (d) addressing Intellectual Property and ITAR issues in accordance with CANEUS Internationals broader mission, and (e) organizing launch certification services. This presentation describes Small Satellite developments within the international cooperation framework of the CANEUS network.

4:15 p.m. Small Satellite Producibility, Affordability Approaches and TacSat 4 Design for Manufacturing and Assembly Results: Grant Kellams, Caroline Leonard – Raytheon; ABSTRACT: The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) working under the direction of the Office of Force Transition (OFT) established an Integrated System Engineering Team (ISET) and satellite industry business team with the charter to develop small satellite bus standards. As part of this work a plan was developed to lower the cost of satellites thus enabling an Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) vision for flexible satellite missions. The vision is to increase ORS satellite rate production from ~1 satellite per year (lab provided) to ~5-10 busses per year and these would be provided by an industrial base using proven producibility and manufacturing methods. The OFT/NRL approach is to balance mission satellite utility with industrial know how given a set of reasonable standards in order to reduce cost and produce an affordable constellation of off-the-shelf satellites. To assist in this vision, Raytheon Missile Systems facilitated a Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) workshop with the ISET on March 6 and 7, 2007 using the TacSat 4 baseline design as the starting point. DFMA is a design methodology that considers manufacturing effort and cost as functions to be minimized, given the constraints of the customer requirements. The goal of the workshop was to identify current constraints affecting integration and assembly of satellite manufacturing today.


		22nd Annual Conference on Small Satellites Technical Sessions Session I: Big Business of Small Space Chair: Bill Seng – Shaffer Corporation Monday, August 11, 2008 3:00 p.m. If You Build It, Who Will Come? Identifying Markets for Low-Cost Small Satellites Jeff Foust, David Vaccaro, Chad Frappier, Dustin Kaiser – Futron Corporation ABSTRACT: Technological advances in small satellites have opened up new markets beyond their traditional role of technology demonstration applications, but which markets would be most receptive to smallsats, and how large those markets might be, are critical unanswered questions. To determine the potential market for a notional low-cost smallsat, Futron Corporation performed a market definition study. The first step of this process was to identify all the potential markets that could be served by a notional low-cost smallsat. Through a process of secondary research and interviews with smallsat manufacturers, Futron identified over 30 potential markets in the military, civil/commercial communications, civil/commercial remote sensing, and miscellaneous market sectors. Futron researched these potential markets by conducting secondary research and performing interviews with prospective customers to gauge their interest in low-cost smallsat systems. From that list six markets emerged that are the most promising in the near term: military science and technology; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; remote site communications; polling of unattended sensors; high-resolution Earth observations; and Landsat-class environmental monitoring. Combined, these markets could generate an estimated demand for up to 40 to 75 smallsats a year, with resulting revenue potentially in excess of a half-billion dollars per year. 3:15 p.m. TacSat–4 Prototype Bus & ORS Phase III Bus Standards Update Paul Jaffe, Trevor Specht, Gurpartap Sandhoo, Mark Johnson, William Raynor, Michael Hurley – Naval Research Laboratory; Patrick Stadter, Paul Schwart – Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory; Brian Davis – Space Ground System Solutions; LtCol James Griswold – Rapid Reaction Technology Office/DDR&E ABSTRACT: The continuing effort of advancing sound and accepted spacecraft bus standards is the objective of the Office of the Secretary of Defenses (OSD) Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Bus Standards Initiative. This effort involves multiple government, industry, and academia participants assembled into an Integrated System Engineering Team (ISET). The initial release of the standards was presented at the 21st AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites as ISET ORS Bus Standards and Prototype and contains important background information. This paper updates the status of the ORS Bus Standards, including a major update to the software standards and data protocols. All of these standards are freely available for download from http://projects.nrl.navy.mil/standardbus/. This paper provides an update on the status of the prototype developed to support the TacSat-4 Mission is provided, as well as a report of other ORS standards implementation efforts. The first half of this paper reviews the process as discussed in previous papers. The second half of this paper describes the specific implementation of the bus prototype including design highlights and lessons learned. 3:30 p.m. The Challenges of Developing an Operational Nanosatellite David Homan – Lockheed Martin Space System Company; Quinn Young – Space Dynamics Laboratory ABSTRACT: Recent nanosatellite programs and studies of nanosatellites for operational missions have highlighted challenges that are unique to this spacecraft category. While each small satellite class has peculiar design challenges, nanosatellite development challenges are compounded by the unique niche that nanosatellites occupy and the current perception of hardware maturity levels available to support nanosatellite spacecraft. Recent experimental successes with microsatellite systems are allowing such spacecraft to rapidly move toward operational systems. This has produced a false perception that the same small, high TRL operational components and subsystems used in microsatellites will transition easily into the smaller nanosatellite designs. At the same time advances in the sophistication of CubeSat missions and academic programs have increased the expectation of the mission utility that should be possible with nanosatellites. This paper focuses on the unique design challenges of high mission utility nanosatellite programs and the current state of component and subsystem hardware available to meet the unique nanosatellite design constraints. Addressing these challenges in coming years will enable this class of spacecraft to become a viable and healthy part of the aerospace industry, and as a secondary payload improve the launch options and reduced cost commensurate with operationally responsive space (ORS) solutions. 3:45 p.m. The Space E–Commerce Revolution Craig Clark – Clyde Space Ltd ABSTRACT: In the 1990s, the space community witnessed the revolution that is now the Small Satellite market. Small satellites were initially written off as not being large enough to have any real practical function; however, since the early 2000s, space companies large and small have been falling over themselves to get involved in Small Satellites. This class of spacecraft has proven to be very much more useful than the sceptics proffered. With the Small Satellite market doing very good business, many of us within the Small Satellite community are now wondering where the next revolution will come from. Most think that the smart money is on Picosatellites and Nanosatellites, but this class of spacecraft has yet to prove its technical capability, but it is clear that it is fast becoming the most economically viable method of accessing space. This paper examines the commercial world of picosatellites. In particular, we will look at how the approach to standardisation on platforms such as CubeSats has resulted in the evolution of internet sales of satellite subsystems. As a direct result of standardisation, it has become viable for space companies to produce relatively large numbers of the same subsystem and, as a result, drive down the cost of those systems. This is forcing companies involved in the Picosatellite market to look to alternative methods of doing business in order to help reduce these costs even further. Ecommerce is turning out to be the ideal tool for selling microspacecraft subsystems and it has a huge number of benefits that help the customer make their product selection and also to provide after-sales support. Once picosatellites have proven their technical viability as a useful platform, the next revolution in spacecraft could well already be underway and it looks likely to be a web-based space market. 4:00 p.m. International Cooperation for Small Satellites Development Milind Pimprikar, Rick Earles, Lucinda Tang – CANEUS International; Andrew Quintero – The Aerospace Corporation; Fredrik Bruhn – Angstrom Aerospace Corporation; Thomas George – CANEUS USA ABSTRACT: Participants at the CANEUS 2006 Conference in Toulouse, France agreed that in order to open up the market for small satellites and facilitate dialogue between the many stakeholders in the industry, it was necessary to create an international consortium for the coordination and standardization of the small satellite industry. The CANEUS Small Satellite Sector Consortium aims to take an approach similar to that designed for the semiconductor industry, namely the SEMATECH industry group. The Small Sat Sector Consortium focuses on providing opportunities for industry representatives to participate in cutting-edge technical discussions while establishing the future direction of the small satellite industry. It oversees five projects and initiatives dedicated to (a) developing standards so as to ensure international interoperability, (b) identifying launch opportunities and services, (c) providing stakeholder liaison and strategic development, (d) addressing Intellectual Property and ITAR issues in accordance with CANEUS Internationals broader mission, and (e) organizing launch certification services. This presentation describes Small Satellite developments within the international cooperation framework of the CANEUS network. 4:15 p.m. Small Satellite Producibility, Affordability Approaches and TacSat 4 Design for Manufacturing and Assembly Results Grant Kellams, Caroline Leonard – Raytheon ABSTRACT: The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) working under the direction of the Office of Force Transition (OFT) established an Integrated System Engineering Team (ISET) and satellite industry business team with the charter to develop small satellite bus standards. As part of this work a plan was developed to lower the cost of satellites thus enabling an Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) vision for flexible satellite missions. The vision is to increase ORS satellite rate production from ~1 satellite per year (lab provided) to ~5-10 busses per year and these would be provided by an industrial base using proven producibility and manufacturing methods. The OFT/NRL approach is to balance mission satellite utility with industrial know how given a set of reasonable standards in order to reduce cost and produce an affordable constellation of off-the-shelf satellites. To assist in this vision, Raytheon Missile Systems facilitated a Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) workshop with the ISET on March 6 and 7, 2007 using the TacSat 4 baseline design as the starting point. DFMA is a design methodology that considers manufacturing effort and cost as functions to be minimized, given the constraints of the customer requirements. The goal of the workshop was to identify current constraints affecting integration and assembly of satellite manufacturing today.