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Appendix A Statement of Task
The Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) and the Space Studies Board (SSB) will form a steering committee from their Joint Committee on Technology for Space Science and Applications, along with other members, to develop a workshop to explore the major contributing factors regarding space science mission costs. The steering committee will be composed of members of the ASEB and the SSB Joint Committee on Technology for Space Science and Applications, and the two boards will maintain oversight of the activity.
The workshop will focus on alternatives and innovative approaches for reducing cost in future space science missions and their likely effects on risk and performance. Factors that will be considered include, but are not limited to, issues regarding the use of new technology versus proven space-qualified technology; use of military specification versus screened commercial parts; life-cycle costs including on-board processing versus ground processing; approaches to test and verification; spacecraft relationship to launchers, including designing to standard shroud size and capsulation; trade-offs between several small versus fewer large missions; upgradability issues including preplanned product improvement versus "goldplating"; the use of piggyback payloads; improving scheduling and its impact on costs; and back-up hardware issues.
The steering committee will meet after the workshop to reach agreement regarding the findings of the workshop and prepare an appropriate overview. Formal recommendations are not anticipated.
