Enabling technologies for microspacecraft

Microspacecraft (under 100 kg dry mass) have the potential to provide significant advances over current state-of-the-art, spacecraft, and mission designs by providing a revolutionary concept that leads to potential new paradigms for space applications. A modular design approach is required to meet the stringent cost goals. Modularity and standard interfaces provide inherent multi-mission capability by allowing the user to tailor the spacecraft to a variety of configurations: a communications platform, science platform, or potentially a science payload delivery system. This modular building-block approach allows cost-effective use of individual "expendable" microspacecraft for single use missions such as on-orbit servicing or rapid response satellite inspection. The microspacecraft can also be used as an integral part of a distributed satellite system (DSS) to provide revolutionary capability to essentially reconfigure on-orbit a "virtual" spacecraft mission to account for changing mission priorities and degradation or loss of DSS elements either due to natural or induced environments. Dozens of constellation missions have been proposed at the AIAA/Utah State Small Spacecraft Conference using spacecraft as small as 10 kg. Proper design of constellations that feature graceful degradation permits simplifications in individual spacecraft such as single string components. The microspacecraft provides enabling capability, which cuts across commercial, defense and science missions.