Session
Technical Session I: Space Mission Architectures
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)Satellite Observing System Architecture (NSOSA) study, conducted from 2014-2018, indicated that disaggregating low earth orbit measurements using smaller satellites and instruments was highly favorable. The first initiative to disaggregate low earth orbit is to more carefully investigate atmospheric temperature and moisture soundings. In 2019 NOAA issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to seek proposals for sounder instrument and mission concepts. Contracts were awarded to the most relevant studies and are expected to be completed in the fall of 2020. These studies are expected to inform NOAA of new ideas and capabilities that can be quickly inserted into the current constellation.
Quick and efficient access to space is becoming a reality which will allow NOAA to demonstrate and develop our expertise in launching more satellites more quickly so we can augment current sounding measurements, such as those occupied by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES), test new technologies, and eventually transition into the NOAA sounding operational system in the 2030s. In this paper we will discuss this concept and how orbital diversity can be maintained or expanded, new technologies can be improved and inserted quickly into the constellation, and overall program risk can be reduced. Based on this new paradigm, capabilities can be flown on “regularly scheduled” launches which will allow for a more adaptable, resilient, and flexible measurement system that can be expanded to include additional low earth orbit measurements.
A New Paradigm for Implementing NOAA’s Low Earth Orbit Architecture
Utah State University, Logan, UT
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)Satellite Observing System Architecture (NSOSA) study, conducted from 2014-2018, indicated that disaggregating low earth orbit measurements using smaller satellites and instruments was highly favorable. The first initiative to disaggregate low earth orbit is to more carefully investigate atmospheric temperature and moisture soundings. In 2019 NOAA issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to seek proposals for sounder instrument and mission concepts. Contracts were awarded to the most relevant studies and are expected to be completed in the fall of 2020. These studies are expected to inform NOAA of new ideas and capabilities that can be quickly inserted into the current constellation.
Quick and efficient access to space is becoming a reality which will allow NOAA to demonstrate and develop our expertise in launching more satellites more quickly so we can augment current sounding measurements, such as those occupied by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES), test new technologies, and eventually transition into the NOAA sounding operational system in the 2030s. In this paper we will discuss this concept and how orbital diversity can be maintained or expanded, new technologies can be improved and inserted quickly into the constellation, and overall program risk can be reduced. Based on this new paradigm, capabilities can be flown on “regularly scheduled” launches which will allow for a more adaptable, resilient, and flexible measurement system that can be expanded to include additional low earth orbit measurements.
