Applicability to NASA earth science (relevancy scenario) the concept of distributed missions was first investigated between about 1998 and 2002 through several studies focusing mainly on earth…

This federal contract award was granted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for research related to the applicability of distributed mission concepts to Earth science. The $229,206.45 grant is focused on developing a "Tradespace Analysis Tool for Designing Earth Science Distributed Missions". The award has no set-aside designation. Distributed mission concepts, which involve networks of smaller, coordinated spacecraft rather than single large platforms, have been of interest to NASA for Earth science applications, but have faced challenges related to cost and complexity. This grant aims to explore how emerging technologies like smallsats, cubesats, and improved ground systems can enable more feasible distributed Earth science missions. MIT, a leading private research university, frequently partners with federal agencies like NASA on advanced technology research and development efforts.

Applicability to NASA earth science (relevancy scenario) the concept of distributed missions was first investigated between about 1998 and 2002 through several studies focusing mainly on earth science. Since then, this concept has not been systematically integrated in the main stream missions, e.g., decadal survey missions, although IT has been considered and even utilized when IT was the only solution capable to satisfy some given science goals. Nevertheless, the concept can be found again in more recent studies; e.g., the heliophysics system observatory (HSO) mentioned in the 2010 NASA science plan and constellations of complementary satellites in the earth science technology office (ESTO) 2030 science vision. This GAP of more than 10 years in the interest given to DSM is probably explained by the cost and potentially the complexity associated with such missions. The high costs that were estimated for potential DSM were often the consequence of constellation designs based on repeating N times the design and the building of one spacecraft, therefore leading to costs being N times the cost of a monolithic mission; this is explained not only by the mission design itself but also by cost models that have been designed for monolithic missions and do not take into account cost savings associated with economies of scale and with risk minimization when dealing with DSM. On the other hand, IT is true that building a distributed mission adds to the complexity of the mission, not only in the development phase but also in the operational phase, and this complexity translates into additional costs and risk to the mission. Therefore, IT is only now that new technologies and capabilities such as smallsats, cubesats, hosted payloads, onboard computing, better space communications, and ground systems automation have appeared and have become mature, that DSM seem to be feasible for a reasonable and potentially lower cost and risk than monolithic missions.