Re: Design Lessons from MOST?

In article <8764hte4nr.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
John Stoffel <john@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Now that it's been a few years, what lessons have we learned from MOST
in terms of designing and operating small satellite busses? And their
instruments? I heard a whole bunch about it early on, but nothing
recently...

Unfortunately, MOST suffers from the same PR problem as a lot of small
spacecraft: there isn't money in the budget for a lot of paper writing!
Maybe if it had failed early, but it hasn't... Three years into the
one-year mission :-), there have been a few problems but nothing deadly.

I guess the overall lesson is that you really can do a substantial science
mission, using the Amsat design philosophy, on a ridiculously small
budget... given the right management, the right lead scientist, and a
funding agency that's willing to try a relatively hands-off approach.
(That last is important; CSA's MOST "program office" was one guy, and he
made no attempt to micro-manage the project. Unfortunately, despite the
success of this approach, it's not clear that CSA would do that again.)
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. | henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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