A NASA ISS Systems Integration View of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Service (COTS)
- Paper number
IAC-08.B3.3.11
- Author
Ms. April Evans, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
By signing Commercial Orbital Transportation Service (COTS) agreements, which funded a pair of commercial companies to design and fly demonstration missions to the International Space Station, NASA is hoping to assist in the creation of a viable commercial space delivery infrastructure. While COTS certainly creates technical challenges for the would-be service providers, it also presents the ISS program with unique challenges. Where government space agencies wrote the specification for every other craft that visits the ISS, the COTS providers will build the first privately developed vehicles to attach to an inhabited space station. Past the specified interface, NASA will have an relatively low amount of insight into these vehicles’ designs. Since the COTS vehicles are not being developed uniquely for missions to the ISS, NASA must take care that the requirements they do impose will not make them unsuitable for other applications. This new paradigm has required NASA to adapt their methods for technical and operational integration as they help guide organizations with little or no crewed space flight experience in the development of an space vehicle where NASA’s requirements are only a part of the whole. With the retirement of the Shuttle in 2010, a viable commercial space infrastructure is quickly becoming a necessity. NASA would certainly benefit from reduced prices for access to space. It would also set a precedent where NASA could rely on inexpensive haulers for bulk items like fuel, oxygen, water, etc. and focus their design efforts on the advanced technologies that permanent Lunar bases or missions to Mars would require. What COTS is and why NASA needs it. By making the Commercial Orbital Transportation Service (COTS), which funded a pair of commercial companies to integrate with the ISS and fly demonstration missions, NASA is hoping to assist the creation of a viable commercial space delivery infrastructure. With the retirement of the Shuttle in 2010, the ability to supply the ISS will be hard. While COTS certainly creates technical challenges for the would-be service providers, it has also presented NASA’s ISS engineering disciplines with unique challenges. Historically, NASA has only had to deal with vehicles that they or other governmental bodies had developed. This development allowed them total insight into the design and shit. Since the COTS vehicles will become the first privately developed vehicles to attach to the ISS (or any inhabited space vehicle), they will be the first vehicle to attach to the ISS without NASA possessing complete vehicle design understanding. Where government space agencies wrote the specification for every other vehicle that visits the ISS, NASA developed a minimalist interface specification the COTS vehicles only face a specified interface Unique teaming relationship and technical approach What are the implications for the future If COTS proves successful, NASA would certainly benefit from reduced prices for access to space. It would also set a precedent where NASA could rely on inexpensive haulers for bulk items like fuel, oxygen, water, spares, etc. and focus their design efforts on the advanced technologies that missions to Mars or Lunar Bases would require.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)