Heterogeneous Satellite Constellation Design for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Using Real Options Analysis

The number of commercial satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) increased more than four-fold in the decade between 2011 and 2021, a trend that is likely to continue due to the combination of increasingly capable technologies and business models [23] [24]. Building on the success of the LEO economy, th...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wachs, Jordan
Other Authors: Cahoy, Kerri
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2023
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150259
_version_ 1811072789912748032
author Wachs, Jordan
author2 Cahoy, Kerri
author_facet Cahoy, Kerri
Wachs, Jordan
author_sort Wachs, Jordan
collection MIT
description The number of commercial satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) increased more than four-fold in the decade between 2011 and 2021, a trend that is likely to continue due to the combination of increasingly capable technologies and business models [23] [24]. Building on the success of the LEO economy, there is potential for the establishment of a cislunar economy, supporting NASA and providing commercial goods and services well beyond LEO [20]. Successful creation of a cislunar economy will require commercial and government cooperation at an altogether new scale. The vastness of this new domain, however, makes the implementation of an adequate Space Situational Awareness (SSA) capability both necessary and extraordinarily difficult. Future aerospace leaders may find them selves breaking from traditional paradigms for architecture definition, systems engineering, and program costing [43]. Rather than wholesale abandonment of the processes that resulted in decades of successful innovation, however, future architects will benefit from the adoption of a new framework of systems thinking that combines the hard-won knowledge from the Aerospace domain with similarly deep lessons learned from other domains such as Finance and Real Options. This thesis explores a new framework for the analysis of large, dynamic, heterogeneous satellite constellation architectures by focusing on a multi-mode cislunar (SSA) capability. The combination of technical performance models, financial models, and real options analyses into a single tool allows system architects to identify and maintain multiple paths to program success by preserving flexibility in design and implementation throughout the program life cycle. The analyses presented in this thesis explore how Real Options can be used to increase the probability of mission success from as low as 2% to as high as 72% despite wide ranging uncertainty in system cost and performance.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T09:13:04Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/150259
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
last_indexed 2024-09-23T09:13:04Z
publishDate 2023
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/1502592023-04-01T03:56:02Z Heterogeneous Satellite Constellation Design for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Using Real Options Analysis Wachs, Jordan Cahoy, Kerri System Design and Management Program. The number of commercial satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) increased more than four-fold in the decade between 2011 and 2021, a trend that is likely to continue due to the combination of increasingly capable technologies and business models [23] [24]. Building on the success of the LEO economy, there is potential for the establishment of a cislunar economy, supporting NASA and providing commercial goods and services well beyond LEO [20]. Successful creation of a cislunar economy will require commercial and government cooperation at an altogether new scale. The vastness of this new domain, however, makes the implementation of an adequate Space Situational Awareness (SSA) capability both necessary and extraordinarily difficult. Future aerospace leaders may find them selves breaking from traditional paradigms for architecture definition, systems engineering, and program costing [43]. Rather than wholesale abandonment of the processes that resulted in decades of successful innovation, however, future architects will benefit from the adoption of a new framework of systems thinking that combines the hard-won knowledge from the Aerospace domain with similarly deep lessons learned from other domains such as Finance and Real Options. This thesis explores a new framework for the analysis of large, dynamic, heterogeneous satellite constellation architectures by focusing on a multi-mode cislunar (SSA) capability. The combination of technical performance models, financial models, and real options analyses into a single tool allows system architects to identify and maintain multiple paths to program success by preserving flexibility in design and implementation throughout the program life cycle. The analyses presented in this thesis explore how Real Options can be used to increase the probability of mission success from as low as 2% to as high as 72% despite wide ranging uncertainty in system cost and performance. S.M. 2023-03-31T14:43:22Z 2023-03-31T14:43:22Z 2023-02 2023-03-08T21:20:47.445Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150259 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Wachs, Jordan
Heterogeneous Satellite Constellation Design for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Using Real Options Analysis
title Heterogeneous Satellite Constellation Design for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Using Real Options Analysis
title_full Heterogeneous Satellite Constellation Design for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Using Real Options Analysis
title_fullStr Heterogeneous Satellite Constellation Design for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Using Real Options Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Heterogeneous Satellite Constellation Design for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Using Real Options Analysis
title_short Heterogeneous Satellite Constellation Design for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness Using Real Options Analysis
title_sort heterogeneous satellite constellation design for cislunar space situational awareness using real options analysis
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150259
work_keys_str_mv AT wachsjordan heterogeneoussatelliteconstellationdesignforcislunarspacesituationalawarenessusingrealoptionsanalysis