Technical Sessions

Session IV: Demand Side Visionaries

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

11:15 a.m.Emerging Opportunities for Low-Cost Small Satellites in Civil and Commercial Space

Jeff Foust – Futron Corporation

ABSTRACT: While there has been growing interest in small satellites for several years, this has yet to translate into a large increase in the number of satellites built and launched by government, commercial, and academic users. There are, however, encouraging trends in several areas in the civil and commercial sectors. This paper qualitatively updates a previous market study of the demand for low-cost small satellites by identifying emerging opportunities, particularly renewed interest in technology development and commercial scientific research. This interest, though, is balanced by emerging competitive threats to smallsats in the form of hosted payloads on larger spacecraft as well as commercial suborbital vehicles under active development. Growth in low-cost smallsats also requires overcoming several existing and emerging barriers, most notably the challenge of finding affordable and timely access to orbit as well as a lack of awareness of smallsats by potential customers and new concerns about orbital debris.

11:30 a.m.The Space and Missile Systems Center Technology Development Process

Capt Derek Plymate – Space and Missile Systems Center/Development Planning Directorate (SMC/XRDT)

ABSTRACT: The paper outlines the methodology and process used by the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center to deliberately plan for and develop new technologies it needs for identified material solutions to meet war fighter needs. It will also lay out the current development plan for SmallSats and how they integrated into the planning process. Additionally, it highlights on-ramps for other organizations to provide input for consideration.

11:45 a.m.SMALLER Is Better: Technical Considerations for Operationally Responsive Space

Lt Col George Nagy – United States Air Force

ABSTRACT: The DoD Operationally Responsive Space Office is currently pursuing several initiatives involving small satellites (<500 kg) to meet combatant commander needs. This paper examines specific technical rationales for why even smaller satellites (1-200 kg) will be necessary if operational responsiveness similar to current aircraft operations is to be achieved--fundamentally changing the concept of space system operations from today's approach.

12:00 p.m.Revolution in Demand and Supply during Last 10 Years in Small Earth Observation Satellites

Sungdong Park, Byungjin Kim, Hyonsock Chang, Ee-Eul Kim – Satrec Initiative Co., Ltd. (SI); Salem Al-Marri – Emirates Institution for Advanced Science & Technology (EIAST)

ABSTRACT: While Earth observation applications were dominated by conventional large satellites in the past, rapid advancement in COTS technologies enables relatively smaller satellites to meet certain needs, limited but sufficient to some extent, with reasonably low investment. Ten years ago, the most of small satellites were developed to acquire necessary technologies, or to utilize them as space test beds to verify new technologies or components. However, recently launched small satellites start to draw attention from commercial companies who are considering the small satellites as adequate tools for their businesses.
It is already demonstrated that a small satellite which weighs 200 ~ 300 kg is able to produce quality images with the spatial resolution of approximately 2 meters and soon expected to achieve 1 meter. Considering the unique advantage of satellite constellations in terms of revisit, it is anticipated that small satellite constellations would complement conventional ones in the next few years.

12:15 p.m.Colony: A New Business Model for Research and Development

Maj David Shultz, Capt Rebecca Unruh, David Williamson – National Reconnaissance Office (NRO); Col John Anttonen – Space Test Group, SDTW

ABSTRACT: Since 2007 the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has made a significant commitment to leveraging CubeSats to enhance Research and Development activities. SmallSats, CubeSats in particular, allow the NRO to perform research and development at a rapid pace, enabling us to mature a broad spectrum of new technologies for future systems while accepting higher levels of risk. Technology maturation can be conducted quickly and economically using CubeSats, due to their low cost, rapid development cycle, and the potential for more frequent launch opportunities. CubeSats provide the opportunity to keep up with Moore’s Law, advancing on a six to twelve month development cycle. On-orbit testing provides bigger systems with higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL) components, lowering program developmental risks and cost growth. Examples of near-term technologies to be proven on CubeSats include advanced multi-junction solar cells and carbon nanotube batteries. These technologies promise to improve overall size, weight, and power of future systems. Recent investments in CubeSats provide the NRO access to innovative methods to rapidly exploit technologies to address changing needs, while offering a new business model for adapting new technologies to tackle hard problems in the future.

12:30 p.m.The Origin of Large and Small Science Satellites at NASA

Paul Hertz, Marc Allen, Gregory Williams – NASA Science Mission Directorate

ABSTRACT: NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is currently operating 57 robotic science missions and developing 27 more for launch. These space missions address the Nation’s highest priority and most compelling science questions from space. Missions are prioritized for NASA development either through the National Academy of Sciences decadal surveys or through the evaluation and selection of competitively peer reviewed proposals. Small missions tend to be in the latter category. NASA issues regular solicitations for small, PI-led mission proposals, and NASA’s announcements of opportunity are open to all categories of proposers.