The economic issues with implementing open avionics platforms for spacecraft

Product platforms are a family of products based on a modular architecture that may include common parts, subsystems/systems, interfaces, and processes. Industries from automobiles to consumer electronics are using product platforms to provide a wide range of products, at lower costs and shorter development times. By planning and developing a series of products based on modular architectures, firms can reuse hardware, software, and manufacturing processes. The product platform process provides firms with a significant competitive advantage. The nature of spacecraft systems has traditionally created special technical, strategic, economic, and organizational challenges for implementing product platform concepts. The low volume, extreme operating environments, long development cycles, and the nature of government space programs make it difficult for the space industry to benefit from the characteristics of product platforms. However, with recent technology improvements and the increased competition in the space industry, several commercial and government aerospace organizations (both national and international) are implementing spacecraft platforms with significant economic, technical, and strategic benefits. This paper reviews some the economic issues and benefits with these different spacecraft applications.