Assessing Cost Drivers for Mars Small Spacecraft Missions

Within the Mars science community, there is growing interest in the role that small spacecraft missions can play in increasing the breadth and frequency of Mars exploration. Fueled by significant advances in miniaturization of science instruments and avionics, innovative concepts for delivery of small spacecraft to Mars, and emerging low-cost capabilities in the fast-growing NewSpace marketplace, small spacecraft missions appear capable of achieving compelling Mars science results at unprecedentedly low mission cost, far below the current NASA Discovery Program cost cap. We report on the development of a cost model for small spacecraft Mars orbiters, providing insight into the dependence of mission cost on key mission parameters, including science payload characteristics (e.g., mass, power), mission design parameters (e.g., ΔV), and mission risk categorization. These results can help guide NASA and others in establishing budget guidelines for a new class of low-cost, small spacecraft missions.