Making Spacecraft Affordable: An Assessment of Alternatives

901020

04/01/1990

Event
Aerospace Atlantic Conference & Exposition
Authors Abstract
Content
This paper evaluates four proposals for reducing the costs of spacecraft and other payloads. It concludes that: (1) Using a standard bus, if available, could save up to two-thirds the cost of using a customized bus. (2) Payloads could cost less if allowed to be heavier. A Titan-class payload might cost about $130 million less if allowed to be five times as heavy. (3)Anticipating greater-than-expected payload weight growth during development reduces risks of delay and expense for redesign. The optimal weight margin to allow at the beginning of full-scale development is about 11 to 12 percent for a Titan-class payload. (4) A swarm of small satellites might be as effective for some missions as a single large satellite, and possibly more economical, because smaller satellites typically cost much less per kilogram than do large ones.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/901020
Pages
18
Citation
Callaham, M., "Making Spacecraft Affordable: An Assessment of Alternatives," SAE Technical Paper 901020, 1990, https://doi.org/10.4271/901020.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Apr 1, 1990
Product Code
901020
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English