An Approach towards Future Commercial Space Communications and Navigation

Abstract

The Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) perspective on “Commercial Space Communications and Navigation (CSC&N)” is varied and commercial space business could be possible, but would require unique business cases that need certain barriers removed and enablers added to optimize the CSC&N architecture and maximize the commercial business model. Commercial business ventures usually have multiple customers to serve and/or provide products to sell. A CSC&N system really has one customer today, NASA, with possibilities of other customers within the U.S. Government, International community, and commercial space travel. To enhance these other customer avenues, certain CSC&N architectures might be developed that would not be optimal for NASA, but can be beneficial to multiple customers. A variety of architectures and business models can be investigated to focus on optimizing the commercial potential of CSC&N, rather than focusing on optimizing NASA’s requirements for Deep Space C&N. This section will discuss a subset of these other architectures in relation to certain business models that can be used to commercialize all or parts of the NASA C&N system. The basic premise from Lockheed Martin’s point of view is to look at architectures that can be commercialized for Space Communications and Navigation. To do this we must minimize the technical complexity of the terminals that will use the CSC&N system. By minimizing the size, weight and power requirements for these terminals, we can maximize the science payload capability and human space flight reliability, as well as provide internet capability to the commercial space travel industry. In creating a “standard” set of terminals, we can keep costs for new missions to the moon and moon surface sortie missions, focused on the NASA science missions, provide high-speed communications to commercial space travel, and not on generating new one-of-a-kind communication and navigation terminals for each mission..