Session
Technical Session I: The Future- Military Missions Under Development Or Proposed That Provide Measurable Utility To The Warfighter
Abstract
The Roadrunner mission is being conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to demonstrate techniques and methodologies to dramatically shorten the development time required for small satellites. The Roadrunner program will demonstrate a 14-month development time from inception to launch readiness, a one-week time from call up to on-orbit readiness, and a 24-hour autonomous on-orbit commissioning. Roadrunner will accomplish these impressive schedule milestones while fielding a suite of experiments centered around a new optical imager capable of sub 1 meter resolution and nearly a dozen complimentary payloads. To accomplish this mission, the Roadrunner spacecraft is built on a bus supplied by Microsat Systems whose original design was qualified for the TechSat-21 program. To meet the tight schedule, Roadrunner makes use of existing designs and hardware from other programs to the maximum extent possible. Additionally, the fully concurrent development of payloads and bus has imposed a “capabilities-driven” approach to design. In this paradigm, interfaces and functionality are determined as a consequence of the capabilities of the existing hardware or designs rather than being specified as a result of requirements derived from basic mission objectives. In this non-traditional approach, the mission experiment plan is being derived as an answer to the question, “What can we do with what we have?”
Presentation Slides
Roadrunner, a High-Performance Responsive Space Mission
The Roadrunner mission is being conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to demonstrate techniques and methodologies to dramatically shorten the development time required for small satellites. The Roadrunner program will demonstrate a 14-month development time from inception to launch readiness, a one-week time from call up to on-orbit readiness, and a 24-hour autonomous on-orbit commissioning. Roadrunner will accomplish these impressive schedule milestones while fielding a suite of experiments centered around a new optical imager capable of sub 1 meter resolution and nearly a dozen complimentary payloads. To accomplish this mission, the Roadrunner spacecraft is built on a bus supplied by Microsat Systems whose original design was qualified for the TechSat-21 program. To meet the tight schedule, Roadrunner makes use of existing designs and hardware from other programs to the maximum extent possible. Additionally, the fully concurrent development of payloads and bus has imposed a “capabilities-driven” approach to design. In this paradigm, interfaces and functionality are determined as a consequence of the capabilities of the existing hardware or designs rather than being specified as a result of requirements derived from basic mission objectives. In this non-traditional approach, the mission experiment plan is being derived as an answer to the question, “What can we do with what we have?”
