Designing a micro-spacecraft

Abstract

Planetary spacecraft design could move toward less complex probes which would cost less then previous highly instrumented missions. The goal then becomes to fly more frequent missions and use commercial, proven hardware to ameliorate development costs. A commonality would be kept in place from spacecraft to spacecraft, with upgrades being introduced only to meet specific objectives or take advantage of advances in commercial hardware. Mission costs are in large part determined by spacecraft mass, so instrumentation must be miniaturized, i.e., the concept of a micro-satellite. A design study for the Cosimi project, which would feature placing a spacecraft on the far side of the solar corona to broadcast radio signals to earth, demonstrates the feasibility of a 20 cm diam rocket and integrated instruments for performing low-cost solar physics experiments. It is concluded, however, that current program start-ups will continue to maximize the mass and instrumentation of spacecraft.