NOVEMBER 2024AEROSPACEDEFENSEREVIEW.COM9`build one at a time' nature of launch vehicle production and costly due to component cost and the need to `throw it away' after a single launch. The space shuttle was designed to address these problems, but technical complications and refurbishment costs made it a more expensive and less frequent flyer than planned. It took the commercialization of launch ­ with a focus on significant reusability and scale of operations ­ to solve these problems and provide (relatively) inexpensive, reliable, and frequent launches to support responsive satellites.Wave Four ­ Simplifying Satellite SoftwareOn top of this was a problem that was not previously addressed in the quest for responsiveness ­ the question of how satellite flight software could be simplified to allow the quick and low-cost integration of new capabilities into existing satellite infrastructure. Until recently, flight software has been difficult to write and has needed extensive testing to ensure satellite reliability and safety. This changed with Microsoft's development of the Azure Space platform, which provides developers with a secure hosting platform and application kit for creating, deploying, and operating applications in orbit. This can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to deploy a mission to space by using existing on-orbit assets - providing safe access to flight capabilities to support `virtual missions' through zero-trust principled frameworks.Bringing It All Together ­ Simplifying SpaceCombined, these four waves of `responsive space' have created an environment where customers of all types can deploy missions to space with reasonable costs and timelines ­ like information users being able to deploy their applications to the cloud. Companies such as Loft Orbital have evolved the standardized interface approaches of ORS to provide a layer that abstracts customer payloads from the rest of the satellite, simplifying payload integration to commodity buses. This allows the use of mass-produced satellite buses that provide both low cost and short manufacturing time, enabling space infrastructure providers such as Loft to have buses `on the shelf' for quick mission deployment. Launch services such as SpaceX's Transporter series provide frequent, low-cost access to space. This responsiveness is made greater with flight software development environments that further decrease the cost and time to get a mission to orbit by providing a safe and secure way to use existing on-orbit infrastructure (sensor and computation capabilities) to support new missions.SummaryFlexible interfaces, commodity satellite buses and launches, and new ways to deploy flight software are finally allowing customers of all types (large and small, commercial and government) to realize the goal of `responsive space.' The ability to deploy missions to space in a cost-effective way with short lead times will truly make space `simple.' THE ABILITY TO DEPLOY MISSIONS TO SPACE IN A COST-EFFECTIVE WAY WITH SHORT LEAD-TIMES WILL TRULY MAKE SPACE `SIMPLE
< Page 8 | Page 10 >