Technologies for affordable SEC missions

Author

Buehler, M.G. ; Some, R.R. ; Moynihan, P.I. ; Vansant, J.T. ; Oberright, J.E. ; Dennyhy, C.J. ; Brownlow, L.W. ; Marshall, M.F. ; Radcliffe, T.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

6

fYear

2004

fDate

6-13 March 2004

Firstpage

4062

Abstract

The influence of technology in reducing spacecraft costs was evaluated by analyzing historical trend data for spacecraft subsystems. The analysis is based on several dozen spacecraft and leads to the conclusion that, on average, the use of technologies that reduce spacecraft power as well as reduce spacecraft mass and cost. These conclusions are particularly important for NASA´s Sun Earth connection (SEC) missions where 43,300 kg is projected to be launched over a 19-year period. An example is given where the use of ultra-low power electronics in spacecraft subsystems significantly reduces spacecraft costs by permitting smaller and cheaper subsystems.

Keywords

cost reduction; low-power electronics; space vehicle electronics; NASA Sun Earth connection missions; SEC missions; spacecraft cost reduction; spacecraft mass reduction; spacecraft power reduction; spacecraft subsystems; ultra-low power electronics; Aircraft manufacture; Costs; Economies of scale; Laboratories; Manufacturing; NASA; Payloads; Propulsion; Space technology; Space vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2004. Proceedings. 2004 IEEE

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8155-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2004.1368226

Filename

1368226