This text was initially printed at The Dialog. The publication contributed the article to Area.com’s Professional Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Most area mission methods traditionally have used one spacecraft designed to finish a complete mission independently. Whether or not it was a climate satellite tv for pc or a human-crewed module like Apollo, almost each spacecraft was deployed and carried out its one-off mission utterly by itself.
However at present, area trade organizations are exploring missions with many satellites working collectively. For instance, SpaceX’s Starlink constellations embody 1000’s of satellites. And new spacecraft might quickly have the capabilities to hyperlink up or have interaction with different satellites in orbit for repairs or refueling.
A few of these spacecraft are already working and serving clients, comparable to Northrop Grumman’s mission extension automobile. This orbiting craft has prolonged the lives of a number of communications satellites.
These new design choices and in-orbit capabilities make area missions look extra like massive logistics operations on Earth.
Associated: SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites from California’s Vandenberg Area Pressure Base, lands rocket (video)
We’re researchers who’ve studied the area trade for years. We’ve studied how the area sector might study classes from corporations like Amazon or FedEx about managing complicated fleets and coordinating operations.
Classes from the bottom transportation community
Area mission designers plan their routes with a view to ship their payloads to the Moon or Mars, or orbit effectively inside a set of value, timeline and capability constraints. However when they should coordinate a number of area autos working collectively, route planning can get difficult.
Logistics corporations on the bottom resolve related issues daily and transport items and commodities throughout the globe. So, researchers can research how these corporations handle their logistics to assist area corporations and businesses work out learn how to efficiently plan their mission operations.
One NASA-funded research within the early 2000s had an concept for simulating area logistics operations. These researchers considered orbits or planets as cities and the trajectories connecting them as routes. In addition they considered the payload, consumables, gasoline and different gadgets to move as commodities.
This strategy helped them reframe the area mission drawback as a commodity movement drawback – a sort of query that floor logistics corporations work on all of the time.
Classes from floor logistics infrastructure
New capabilities for refueling and repairing spacecraft in orbit create new alternatives in addition to challenges.
Specifically, area operators don’t normally know which satellite tv for pc would be the subsequent one to fail or when that may occur. For these new applied sciences to be helpful, area mission designers would wish to give you an infrastructure system. That might appear like a fleet of service autos and depots in area that rapidly reply to any unpredictable occasions.
Fortuitously, area mission designers can study from operations on the bottom. Metropolis planners and emergency response organizations assume by means of these kind of challenges whereas figuring out the place to find hospitals or fireplace departments. In addition they contemplate these amenities’ capacities to reply to unpredictable calls.
We are able to draw an analogy between a floor logistics system design and an in-space servicing system design. This fashion, researchers can leverage theories developed for floor logistics to enhance the area mission design follow.
One research printed in November 2020 developed a framework for servicing spacecraft on orbit utilizing what logistics specialists name spatial queuing principle. Researchers mostly use this modeling principle to investigate the efficiency of a floor logistics system.
Classes from floor warehouse administration
Prior to now, particular person spacecraft carried out their missions independently, so if a satellite tv for pc failed, its mission engineers needed to develop and ship a substitute.
Now, for missions with a number of satellites, such because the Iridium satellite tv for pc constellation, operators typically preserve a number of spares on orbit.
This turns into difficult for constellations made up of tons of or 1000’s of spacecraft. Mission designers need to guarantee they’ve sufficient spare satellites in orbit in order that they don’t should interrupt the mission if one breaks. However sending too many spare satellites will get costly.
When coping with these kind of massive constellations, mission designers can study from the strategies Amazon and different floor corporations use to handle their warehouses. Amazon places these warehouses in particular locations and shares them with sure gadgets to ensure the deliveries are dealt with effectively.
Stock administration theories on the bottom might help inform how area corporations deal with these challenges.
A research printed in November 2019 developed an strategy that area corporations might use to handle their spare methods. This strategy might help them resolve the place in orbit to allocate their spare satellites to satisfy their wants whereas minimizing any service interruptions.
Worldwide dimensions
Spacecraft function in a posh and quickly altering setting. Operators must know the place different missions are working and what guidelines they need to observe when refueling or repairing in area. In area, nevertheless, no person has outlined these guidelines but.
Ships, plane and floor autos all have clear guidelines of the street to observe when interacting with different autos. For instance, civilian ships and plane should share their location with different autos and officers to assist handle site visitors.
Some researchers are inspecting what related guidelines might appear like for area. One research examined how growing guidelines based mostly on a spacecraft’s dimension, age or different attributes may assist future area operations run extra easily. For instance, one rule is likely to be that the spacecraft that launched most lately ought to take accountability for maneuvering when there’s one other craft in its path.
With extra satellites and spacecraft launching now than ever, corporations and authorities businesses will want new applied sciences and insurance policies to coordinate them. As area exercise turns into extra complicated, researchers can proceed to use what they’ve discovered on the bottom to new missions in area.
