Automated missions of the future
The paper discusses how Goddard Space Flight Center is dealing with the problem of undertaking new space missions within the limitations of severe funding constraints by using the same basic modularized spacecraft for all major earth-observation and astronomy missions of the 1980s. The basic spacecraft is described in the context of the Solar Maximum Mission, with emphasis on the transition adapter, attitude-control module, power module, communications and data-handling module, propulsion module, launch vehicles, and redundancy. The costs associated with the basic spacecraft and transportation are compared for two modes: four spacecraft and four separate launches for four missions and two resuppliable spacecraft for the same four missions. It is concluded that the most cost-effective means of sustaining a long-term astronomy or earth-observation mission is to service the mission in space.