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History
The term "fractionated spacecraft" appears to have been coined by Owen Brown and Paul Eremenko in a series of 2006 papers,[1][2][3] which argue that a fractionated architecture offers more flexibility and robustness than traditional satellite design during mission operations, and during the design and procurement.
But the idea dates back to at least a 1984 article by P. Molette.[4] Molette's and later analyses[5] concluded that the benefits of fractionated spacecraft were outweighed by their higher mass and cost. Brown and his collaborators[3][6] claim that the option value of flexibility, the insurance value of improved robustness, and mass production effects will exceed any penalties, and make an analogy with distributed clusters of personal computers (PCs) which are overtaking supercomputers. A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology appears to have corroborated this latter view.[7]
Development
In 2007, DARPA, The Pentagon's advanced technology organization, issued an announcement[8] 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 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 Internet.
In 2008, DARPA announced that contracts for the preliminary development phase of the System F6 program were issued to teams headed by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Orbital Sciences.[9]
Miscellaneous
Fractionating a communications satellite mission appears to be subject to U.S. Patent 6,633,745, "Satellite cluster comprising a plurality of modular satellites."
References
- ^ Brown, Owen; Eremenko, Paul (2006). "The Value Proposition for Fractionated Space Architectures". AIAA Space 2006: Paper No. AIAA-2006-7506, San Jose, CA: American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics.
- ^ Brown, Owen; Eremenko, Paul (2006). "Fractionated Space Architectures: A Vision for Responsive Space". 4th Responsive Space Conference: Paper No. AIAA-RS4-2006-1002, Los Angeles, CA: American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics.
- ^ a b Brown, O.; Eremenko, P.; Roberts, C. (2006). "Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Notional Fractionated SATCOM Architecture". 24th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference: Paper No. AIAA-2006-5328, San Diego, CA: American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics.
- ^ Molette, P.; Cougnet, C.; Saint-Aubert, PH.; Young, R.W.; Helas, D. (1984). "Technical and Economical Comparison Between a Modular Geostationary Space Platform and a Cluster of Satellites". Acta Astronautica 12 (11): 771–784. Pergamon Press Ltd..
- ^ Rooney, Kevin (August 2006). "An Exercise in Spacecraft Mission Fractionation". Presentation. Boeing. Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
- ^ Brown, Owen; Long, Andrew; Shah, Naresh; Eremenko, Paul (2007). "System Lifecycle Cost Under Uncertainty as a Design Metric Encompassing the Value of Architectural Flexibility". AIAA Space 2007: Paper No. AIAA-2007-6023, Long Beach, CA: American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics.
- ^ Weigel, Annalisa (2006-04-03). "Fractionated Spacecraft Architectures Seeding Study". AFRL-VS-PS-TR-2006-1026. Air Force Research Laboratory.
- ^ "System F6". Broad Agency Announcement. DARPA (2007).
- ^ "DARPA awards contracts for fractionated spacecraft program". Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
External links
- Fractionated Spacecraft workshop, Colorado Springs, August 2006.
