Resource Planning for Long-Duration Robotic Space Missions

A Mission Operations Manager is confronted with special challenges and decisions when allocating resources for space mission operations expected to last five to fifteen years or longer that may be overlooked or postponed during the rush before launch. It may seem unavoidable that with the schedule and budget pressures encountered before launch, mission operations plans will be built to cover launch and early orbit activities but decisions about activities six months or more after launch will be postponed and little if any consideration will be made for unplanned or unanticipated events. Furthermore, alack of experience with long-term, extended operations may lead a Mission Operations Manager to make a decision that is correction the short-term but which becomes expensive in the long-term and actually increases the total life cycle cost. Drawing on lessons learned while concurrently operating several deep-space exploration missions through multiple mission extensions lasting eight to 12 years, this paper presents some of the challenges a Mission Operations Manager should anticipate and suggestions to effectively and economically deal with them. It is anticipated that sharing with the operations community the experience of several long-term spacecraft operations teams will make a significant contribution to the space missions operations best practices and lessons learned library.