ORS MMSV: Multi-Mission Space Vehicle

Under the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Multi-Mission Space Vehicle (MMSV) Preliminary Design study, executed from 01 October 2008 to 01 February 2009, Comtech AeroAstro designed a reconfigurable, multi-mission, rapid response space vehicle capable of hosting a variety of missions and payloads with focus on Electro-Optical (EO), Space Situational Awareness (SSA), and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Comtech AeroAstro’s “core” bus design evolved from a set of approximately thirty Design Reference Missions (DRM’s), in which cost, schedule, technical performance, and logistics footprint were all assessed against Key Performance Parameters (KPPs) which were ranked in order of importance with Government input and feedback. Comtech AeroAstro’s design met stringent ORS cost (<$40M for recurring vehicles) and schedule (ORS 2015 end-state vision) goals by implementing space vehicle modularity at the component level, embracing Plug-and-Play (PnP) architectures, and utilizing a non-exquisite technical performance philosophy that allowed new and advanced technologies to be fielded in rapid timelines of less than 6 months versus the typical 18-24 month timeframes.

The ORS MMSV design, which is an implementation of Comtech AeroAstro’s ANTARES bus design, accommodates a wide variety of mission configurations / scenarios in the <460 kg space vehicle (Spacecraft + Payload) mass range. The bus is designed to maximize payload accommodations by optimizing payload mass (up to 200 kg), payload power (400 watts on-orbit average and 840 watts peak), and payload volume (Minotaur I 61” fairing) at LEO inclinations ranging from 30° - 97° and altitudes from 350-800 km. This versatile space vehicle has been designed to meet the launch requirements of a variety of launch vehicles, including the Minotaur I, Minotaur IV, Falcon 1e, Falcon 9, Atlas V, and Delta IV. The ORS MMSV design extensively uses standard, open architecture, non-proprietary interfaces—allowing rapid reconfiguration, flexibility, and robustness for accommodating a large range of missions or payload types.