Fractionated Spacecraft
Encyclopedia
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
architecture where the functional capabilities of a conventional monolithic spacecraft are distributed across multiple modules
Modular design
Modular design, or "modularity in design" is an approach that subdivides a system into smaller parts that can be independently created and then used in different systems to drive multiple functionalities...
which interact through wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
links. Unlike other aggregations of spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
, such as constellations
Satellite constellation
A group of artificial satellites working in concert is known as a satellite constellation. Such a constellation can be considered to be a number of satellites with coordinated ground coverage, operating together under shared control, synchronised so that they overlap well in coverage and...
and formations
Satellite formation flying
Satellite formation flying is the concept that multiple satellites can work together in a group to accomplish the objective of one larger, usually more expensive, satellite...
, the modules of a fractionated spacecraft are largely heterogeneous and perform distinct functions corresponding, for instance, to the various subsystem elements of a traditional satellite.
History
The term "fractionated spacecraft" appears to have been coined by Owen Brown and Paul Eremenko in a series of 2006 papers,which argue that a fractionated architecture offers more flexibility and robustness than traditional satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
design during mission operations, and during the design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
and procurement
Procurement
Procurement is the acquisition of goods or services. It is favourable that the goods/services are appropriate and that they are procured at the best possible cost to meet the needs of the purchaser in terms of quality and quantity, time, and location...
.
The idea dates back to at least a 1984 article by P. Molette.
Molette's, and later analyses by Rooney,
concluded that the benefits of fractionated spacecraft were outweighed by their higher mass and cost.
By 2006, Brown and his collaborators
claim that the option value of flexibility
Flexibility (engineering)
Flexibility is used as an attribute of various types of systems. In the field of engineering systems design, it refers to designs that can adapt when external changes occur. Flexibility has been defined differently in many fields of engineering, architecture, biology, economics, etc...
, the insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
value of improved robustness, and mass production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
effects will exceed any penalties, and make an analogy with distributed
Distributed computing
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
clusters
Cluster (computing)
A computer cluster is a group of linked computers, working together closely thus in many respects forming a single computer. The components of a cluster are commonly, but not always, connected to each other through fast local area networks...
of personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s (PCs) which are overtaking supercomputers.
A 2006 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
appears to have corroborated this latter view.
Development
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
's advanced technology organization, issued an announcement soliciting proposals for a program entitled System F6, which aims to prove "the feasibility and benefits" of a fractionated satellite architecture through a space demonstration. The program appears to emphasize wireless networking as a critical technical enabler, along with econometric modeling to assess if and when the architecture is advantageous over conventional approaches.
DARPA called for open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
development of the networking and communications protocols and interfaces for the fractionated spacecraft modules. This unusual step was presumably in an effort to proliferate the concept and mirror in space the development of the terrestrial
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
In 2008, DARPA announced that contracts for the preliminary development phase of the System F6 program were issued to teams headed by Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
, Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
, Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2010, and the largest builder of naval vessels. Northrop Grumman employs over...
, and Orbital Sciences. The second phase of the program was awarded to Orbital Sciences, along with IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and JPL, in December 2009.
Miscellaneous
Fractionating a communications satelliteCommunications satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...
mission appears to be subject to , "Satellite cluster comprising a plurality of modular satellites".
External links
- DARPA System F6 information
- Fractionated Spacecraft workshop, Colorado Springs, August 2006.
- DARPA Phoenix Program to use System F6