AN EASY-TO-USE, OFF-THE-SHELF SPACECRAFT ARCHITECTURE FOR 
“SHORT-TIME-TO-SPACE” SATELLITE MISSIONS 
B. Altan?*, Y. Segal 
* Space Exploration Technologies 
1310 East Grand Avenue, El Segundo, CA 90245 
? Stanford University, Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 
Durand Building, 496 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94306-4035 
bulent@spacex.com, ylan@segal-family.com 
KEYWORDS: Space, Spatial, Small, Design, Development, Cost 
ABSTRACT: 
Today many industries are realizing that without increasing usability, miniaturization and expanding the customer base to 
industries other than those which are directly related, profits will be low and the cost for every end-user of such products very high. 
Computers, electronics, telecommunications and other high-tech industries have already reacted to this trend and introduced their 
products into everyday life and business. Indeed, without the aid of high tech gadgets like PCs and cell phones, daily life would be 
hugely inconvenient and business very wasteful. Yet one of the most sophisticated and high-profile industries, the space industry, 
has never reached a point where it is essential to many other businesses. Although the global telecommunications network would 
not exist without satellites, as would neither intelligence nor warfare, the customer base for these types of missions is very limited 
and the cost for these projects astronomical. Many customers today fear going into space-based business because of the high risk 
involved, and universities avoid using space technologies in their research because of the long development times and the high 
costs. With this paper we want to show that the current proceedings in space technology together with the right steps taken in the 
space industry make it possible to bring spatial resources to many researchers and businesses not directly associated with space. 
We will show that more can be done with less money and development times can be shortened by removing some of the decades - 
old legacy systems still in place at many government space agencies and large aerospace corporations, that can benefit the remote 
sensing industry by enabling them to build small satellites easily almost like buying parts for a computer in a store and putting it 
together. 
Although these standards are still vital for those applications, 
they make it harder for smaller industries to join using space 
l. INTRODUCTION 
  
  
   
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
      
At the dawn of the space age, when the Soviet Union sent 
Sputnik into orbit or when the United States sent their 
astronauts onto the moon, the world was a much different 
place and therefore the way we conducted space research, the 
so called “Space Race” was quite different, too. At these times 
two things were of importance: national interests and military 
applications. Since these motivations coincided with the birth 
of the space technology we are using today and set the standard 
the way we things are done when accessing space, the resulting 
space industry targeted itself to these types of applications, 
government-funded and military-robust. When the first 
commercial users of space technology wanted to go into space, 
they had to adopt practices associated with these military-grade 
satellite systems, in order to not reinvent the wheel. Today, 
this legacy can still be seen in the aerospace industry, when 
you consider that most of the standards and testing and 
qualification requirements come from military sources. 
  
as a resource 
Today more and more disappointed customers of the space 
industry are confronted with high-cost, long lead components 
of space systems or big aerospace corporation prices for their 
satellites and therefore we are seeing the slow but steady 
emergence of new companies willing to cover this demand for 
cheaper access to space. What is the key to making the space 
business for the not-so-fortunate industries and sciences, like 
agriculture, city planning, oceanography and disaster 
management, that do not generate the type of income from a 
satellite that a broadcasting or telecommunications company 
can generate? 
The key is re-standardization and streamlining. We have to 
standardize the way we access space, how we build satellites 
and produce in masses for smaller missions. We have to 
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