Session
Technical Session I: Space Mission Architectures
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
Private sector investment into new commercial remote sensing constellations over the past five years has exceeded $1B. The capabilities of these systems—many still in development or at pre-initial operational capability (IOC) thresholds—are intended to address a combination of new or underserved global markets. Additionally, the combination of ever-increasing technical collection requirements with static programmatic resources, has now driven historically traditional space system operators to embrace hybrid architectures that leverage commercially-sourced data into their service baselines. While enticing to many new entrants, many considerations must be practically addressed to field an enduring, commercially viable space architecture solution. Foremost it must deliver the expected type of data at sufficient quality that can be directly utilized by established users already sourcing other (typically exquisite) collections. Delivery of this capability must also necessarily be resilient, with business continuity secured through a mixture of customers that transcends venture-backed investments to a posture of sustained profitably. In 2017, Maxar (then operating as DigitalGlobe) decided to proceed with the self-financed development of a new $600M Earth observation constellation comprised of six high-resolution satellites that are only 30% of the weight of the prior generation, but leverage technological advances for affordability and performance. Before doing so, however, a rigorous system engineering and business analysis study was undertaken to thoroughly understand customer key performance parameters (KPP) and design drivers to be addressed to ensure a delivered combination of product-market fit, flexibility/adaptability to evolving requirements, and overall capital efficiency. In this paper, we describe this effort to develop our design baseline and the corresponding operational commercial remote sensing constellation that will achieve its new IOC in 2021 to directly support both dedicated commercial and hybrid mission operator architectures.
Design Drivers for a Viable Commercial Remote Sensing Space Architecture
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Private sector investment into new commercial remote sensing constellations over the past five years has exceeded $1B. The capabilities of these systems—many still in development or at pre-initial operational capability (IOC) thresholds—are intended to address a combination of new or underserved global markets. Additionally, the combination of ever-increasing technical collection requirements with static programmatic resources, has now driven historically traditional space system operators to embrace hybrid architectures that leverage commercially-sourced data into their service baselines. While enticing to many new entrants, many considerations must be practically addressed to field an enduring, commercially viable space architecture solution. Foremost it must deliver the expected type of data at sufficient quality that can be directly utilized by established users already sourcing other (typically exquisite) collections. Delivery of this capability must also necessarily be resilient, with business continuity secured through a mixture of customers that transcends venture-backed investments to a posture of sustained profitably. In 2017, Maxar (then operating as DigitalGlobe) decided to proceed with the self-financed development of a new $600M Earth observation constellation comprised of six high-resolution satellites that are only 30% of the weight of the prior generation, but leverage technological advances for affordability and performance. Before doing so, however, a rigorous system engineering and business analysis study was undertaken to thoroughly understand customer key performance parameters (KPP) and design drivers to be addressed to ensure a delivered combination of product-market fit, flexibility/adaptability to evolving requirements, and overall capital efficiency. In this paper, we describe this effort to develop our design baseline and the corresponding operational commercial remote sensing constellation that will achieve its new IOC in 2021 to directly support both dedicated commercial and hybrid mission operator architectures.
