Mission Operations Cost Estimation Tool (MOCET) 2020

Abstract

The Mission Operations Cost Estimation Tool (MOCET) is a model developed by the Aerospace Corporation in partnership with NASA's Science Office for Mission Assessments (SOMA). MOCET provides the capability to generate cost estimates for the operational, or Phase E, portion of NASA science missions. The underlying Cost Estimating Relationships (CERs) are based upon actual historical monthly cost data from NASA Planetary, Earth Science, Explorer, and other missions. The monthly cost data has been separated into operational phases, and CERs are fitted to each phase allowing for a building block approach to generating an overall Phase E cost estimate. MOCET was first released in 2015 and has been updated annually to improve the model and incorporate the latest data from NASA science missions. A summary of updates to the tool and user community statistics for the year 2019 as well as planned updates for the year 2020 will be presented in this paper. In 2019, new missions have been added for Explorers, Earth Science, and Planetary models as well as updating those ongoing missions already found in the tool. Additional enhancement capabilities for MOCET such as CERs for Instrument Only missions, reserves capability, level II Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) estimates, and extended mission estimates will also be discussed. An overview of the state of the user community will be presented including statistics from the One NASA Cost Engineering (ONCE) model portal and software.nasa.gov.