28 5.4 Ongoing Improvements to SBSP Technology Needs Most SBSP challenges and opportunities are shared by the global space sector. There are ongoing efforts to leverage emerging opportunities and industry trends to address many of these challenges. Below we discuss some representative examples. 5.4.1 ISAM Large-scale ISAM capabilities are necessary to achieve the baseline scenario assumed in this study. ISAM capabilities not only enable the reference designs reviewed; they also reduce the cost of assembly, operations, and maintenance, while also supporting disposal and debris remediation. In the U.S., the Government and private sector are working to advance ISAM technology. The Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) National ISAM Strategy and Implementation Plan guides interagency objectives (United States National Science and Technology Council, 2022). The baseline assessment servicer price and mass are derived from NASA’s On-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM)-1 mission and Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) because of the detail of publicly available information. Northrop Grumman (Northrop Grumman, 2023) provides in-orbit GEO satellite servicing using the MEV. Other commercial actors are also offering ISAM services. Servicer price in select sensitivity analyses is derived from alternative offerings. OrbitFab (OrbitFab, 2023) is offering hydrazine refueling services in GEO for $20M and KMI (Kall Morris Inc., 2023) has offered debris removal services at costs ranging from $4M to $62M. These prices are much lower than the baseline assumptions used in this study. Several startups are working on SBSP (Kirschner, 2023) concepts that would leverage ISAM technology. For example, in 2023, Orbital Composites and Virtus Solis announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for development of an SBSP system. Many more startups are working on ISAM specifically, as seen in the case of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s SpaceWERX Orbital Prime program, which awarded ISAM-related contracts to 124 companies in 2022 (Holt, 2022). 5.4.2 Autonomous Distributed Systems ISAM capabilities are, in most cases, leveraging autonomy at the system level. SBSP also requires a large number of satellites working together. Autonomous distributed systems and formation flying technologies that currently exist for military and aviation applications can be applied to support SBSP systems. NASA efforts including the Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy project (NASA, 2020), along with the deployment of very large satellite constellations, are advancing this critical SBSP technology. 5.4.3 Power Beaming Power beaming technology is being pursued by many organizations globally. Like other activities benefiting SBSP, power beaming is not only being pursued for SBSP; power beaming on Earth has
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