A Markovian State-Space Flexibility Framework Applied to Distributed-Payload Satellite Design Decisions
Author(s)
Lafleur, Jarret M.
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Abstract
Over the past decade, the space industry has increasingly recognized the need for new
systems to be designed for flexibility, or the capability to be easily modified in response to
changes in future requirements or environments. Despite widespread interest, however, the
state of the art in designing flexibility into space systems today remains limited. To address
these limitations, this paper presents the basis of a quantitative, stochastic, multi-objective,
and multi-period framework for integrating flexibility into space system design decisions.
Central to the framework are five steps that (1) define configuration options and transition
costs, (2) define a stochastic model for mission demand environment changes, (3) link
configurations and demand environments via quantitative performance metrics, (4) identify
Pareto-optimal configuration paths and decision policies, taking advantage of efficient multi objective
Markov decision process techniques, and (5) utilize these path and policy results to
inform initial system selection. The framework is applied to a realistic example in which
design decisions are suggested for a hypothetical multi- or distributed-payload satellite
system. The application illustrates how flexibility-informed trades can permit selection of a
satellite system that most effectively responds to uncertain future demands.
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Date
2011-09
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