Communications
Communications in any system is one of the last technologies to be considered, and sometimes it is considered too late to impact the system. This was somewhat the impression on reviewing the NASA budget for two mission scenarios for the space station. However, that budget fortunately was well spent, and the money was spent to get the most benefit per dollar. Another thing that is very often forgotten is that technology is not produced in a vacuum. In fact, in conducting independent research and development (IR&D), the first phase is to define the requirements which must be time phased, becuase very often the conditions will change during the life of the system. From the requirements, a set of architectures that are at least representative of that era are produced. If the exact requirements were not established, at least boundaries are set on the requirements for that architecture. When this is completed, then the technology that is really needed is defined. The major criticism of the work that was presented to the panel is the lack of a firm set of requirements.