Session
Technical Session XIII: Poster Session
Abstract
On February 17, 1996, NASA solidified its "faster, better, cheaper" guidelines for low cost planetary missions with the successful launch of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft. A guide for future small spacecraft missions has now been established. NEAR, the first mission in NASA's Discovery Program for "faster, better, cheaper" planetary exploration and the first asteroid orbiter ever was designed and built at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). The design emphasizes simplicity, reliability, and low cost. Discovery Program criteria include a cost ceiling of $150 million (FY 92 dollars) on spacecraft development to launch plus 30 days and a maximum 36 month development cycle. NEAR was developed and launched in 27 months for approximately $108 million (FY 92 dollars); $3.6 million was actually returned to NASA following launch - the NEAR under-run. The cost criterion, with reference to NEAR, is the focus of this paper. This paper will discuss the NEAR program cost from the beginning of Phase C/D (December 1993) to launch plus 30 days (March 1996). The NEAR work breakdown structure (WBS) will be presented and each of its 29 cost centers will be discussed in detail with regard to their total cost, manpower required, engineering and fabrication shop hours required, and subcontract cost (with a brief description of the major subcontracts). In addition to the utilization of the WBS, showing the cost make up of each cost center, several other graphs and charts will be presented to show these same cost areas (total cost, manpower, shop hours, and subcontracts) in relation to the phases (design and fabrication, integration and test, launch support, etc.) in which they were expended. Also incorporated in this paper will be discussions on some key cost control techniques-some tried and proven in past programs, and others fairly new to JHU/ APL--regarding technical services and subcontract support. With NASA and its Discovery Program bringing the "faster, better, cheaper" mind-set to the forefront, more pressure is being placed on private and public organizations to find ways to reduce costs of future space systems and to actually achieve the originally estimated cost at the end of the project. The information in this paper will be presented in a way that will be useful as a template or starting point for future small spacecraft programs.
Near Costing as a Template for Future Small Spacecraft Missions
On February 17, 1996, NASA solidified its "faster, better, cheaper" guidelines for low cost planetary missions with the successful launch of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft. A guide for future small spacecraft missions has now been established. NEAR, the first mission in NASA's Discovery Program for "faster, better, cheaper" planetary exploration and the first asteroid orbiter ever was designed and built at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). The design emphasizes simplicity, reliability, and low cost. Discovery Program criteria include a cost ceiling of $150 million (FY 92 dollars) on spacecraft development to launch plus 30 days and a maximum 36 month development cycle. NEAR was developed and launched in 27 months for approximately $108 million (FY 92 dollars); $3.6 million was actually returned to NASA following launch - the NEAR under-run. The cost criterion, with reference to NEAR, is the focus of this paper. This paper will discuss the NEAR program cost from the beginning of Phase C/D (December 1993) to launch plus 30 days (March 1996). The NEAR work breakdown structure (WBS) will be presented and each of its 29 cost centers will be discussed in detail with regard to their total cost, manpower required, engineering and fabrication shop hours required, and subcontract cost (with a brief description of the major subcontracts). In addition to the utilization of the WBS, showing the cost make up of each cost center, several other graphs and charts will be presented to show these same cost areas (total cost, manpower, shop hours, and subcontracts) in relation to the phases (design and fabrication, integration and test, launch support, etc.) in which they were expended. Also incorporated in this paper will be discussions on some key cost control techniques-some tried and proven in past programs, and others fairly new to JHU/ APL--regarding technical services and subcontract support. With NASA and its Discovery Program bringing the "faster, better, cheaper" mind-set to the forefront, more pressure is being placed on private and public organizations to find ways to reduce costs of future space systems and to actually achieve the originally estimated cost at the end of the project. The information in this paper will be presented in a way that will be useful as a template or starting point for future small spacecraft programs.
