Assessing the fractionated spacecraft concept

In the traditional approach, spacecraft are tailored to each mission and are associated with high risks and costs and long cycles. Moreover, once launched, their flexibility remains limited. The concept of spacecraft fractionation could enable manufacturers and users to decrease these risks and costs and to increase space systems flexibility. Fractionation transforms the traditional monolithic spacecraft into a network of elements: a free-flying payload module is supported by free-flying modules that provide the payload with power, communications, etc. Thus modules could be maintained, exchanged, and reused once launched. Furthermore one could imagine developing a whole on-orbit infrastructure made of standardized modules that could support different payloads. This thesis investigates under what conditions fractionated spacecraft could be worthwhile alternatives to traditional ones. The first part assesses different fractionated architectures and compares them with traditional ones in terms of utility and cost for a given mission and given level of performance. A framework based on Multi-Attribute Tradespace Exploration was used to analyze the impact of fractionation, first at spacecraft level for a single mission, and second, at infrastructure level, when the spacecraft is part of the infrastructure.