What drives spacecraft innovation? : a quantitative analysis of communication satellite history

The overall goal of this research is to develop a better understanding of how innovation can, and should, happen in the space sector. Part A: Towards an Empirical Measure of Spacecraft Innovation, frames the discussion of innovation in the space sector and creates a platform for future analysis. To accomplish this, it addresses three aspects of the task of measurement. First, it surveys several distinct literatures to establish precedence for defining a spacecraft innovation metric. Second, the conceptual trade-offs associated with adopting this principle in the context of communication satellites are elucidated and treated. By defining product boundaries along the dimensions of product scope and market transactions, three paradigms for measurement are proposed; namely, 1) the communication satellite enterprise; 2) the physical satellite; and 3) communication service. Third, under the constraints of historical data collection realities, next-best estimators are put forward as surrogates for the parameters required in implementing the proposed metrics. Based on these surrogates, the relative merits of each measurement paradigm are illustrated through sample analyses.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Szajnfarber, Zoe

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Annalisa L. Weigel.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.
• Engineering Systems Division.
• Technology and Policy Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/57700

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/57700