Market-based systems for instrument development and science planning

Market-based systems are those systems in which currency is used to express demand for a limited resource. In these systems, users `own' currency and exchange it for a desired commodity. Though used for thousands of years, market-based applications to space missions are still in their infancy. The first successful application was in 1992 with the Cassini Mission to Saturn. In this case, the sum total of mass and dollars for the science instruments had to fit within the allocated resource envelope. Results from the use of a market-based system show that the entire science payload grew from original estimates by only +1% for cost, and by –7% for mass. The next application was for Space Shuttle Secondary Payloads. In this application, available shuttle lift mass, number of lockers for secondary payloads, and available astronaut time had to be allocated between 5 NASA Users. Experiments showed that a market-based system can reduce the size of the required workforce needed to produce a manifest of the same quality as one produced `by committee.' Finally, a market-based system was experimentally applied to LightSAR science planning, a proposed joint NASA/Commercial RADAR mission. In this application, users were able to produce a conflict-free timeline of events remotely, of high science value, in about half the time required by more traditional methods.     

Market-based approaches for controlling space mission costs: the Cassini Resource Exchange

Using economic incentives to control costs is a new concept for space missions. The basic tenets of market-based approaches run counter to typical centralized management techniques often utilized for complex space missions. NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn used a market trading system to assist the Science Instrument Manager in guiding the development of the spacecraft's science payload. This system allowed science instrument teams to trade resources among themselves to best manage their resources (mass, power, data rate, and budget). Thus, Cassini Project management was no longer responsible for adjudicating and reallocating resources that result from instrument development problems. Instrument teams were responsible for directly managing their resources and if they ran into a development problem it was their responsibility to resolve their problem by descoping or through the use of a 'resource exchange.' Under the trading system, instrument cost growth was less than 1% and the total payload mass was under its allocation by 7%. This result is in stark contrast to the 50%–100% increases in these resources on past missions.     

A management approach for allocating instrument development resources

The Cassini Science Management Plan was developed for NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn to assist the Science Instrument Manager in guiding the development of the spacecraft's science payload. This plan, unlike previous development approaches, allocated the entire mass, power, data rate and budget resources for the science instruments to the Principal Investigators. The result removed the Cassini Project from adjudicating and reallocating resources for instrument development problems. Instrument development problems that did occur were resolved by the Principal Investigators themselves through the use of a ‘resource exchange’. The exchange allowed Principal Investigators to submit ‘bids’ (i.e. a request for resources) to a database. Principal Investigators were allowed to barter their own resources with other investigators. The resulting exchange or multilateral trade allowed the investigators to reallocate their resource to ‘better’ their current position.