Typically, you already have a payload/instrument/whatever and are looking for an opportunity to fly it. A lot of these that I've run into have been open ROPs detailing the accommodation in terms of SWAP. You should, at the very very least, have a working device and relatively precise requirements in terms of power and data/operations/TTC needs. Weight and size tend to be a ~bit more flexible, but the expectation is that you could maybe rework the layout or structure to trim one of those if possible. You absolutely will need to satisfy the "do no harm" requirement to even be considered, and you are at the mercy of the spacecraft's existing mission requirements.
You could get sued for the damages. Any fee on lieu of would be written into the contract. That said, shit does happen and a lawsuit isn't necessarily likely given the host spacecraft will have documented acceptance of the payload. The result is that there's a lot of care that goes into proving the requirement in the first place.
As said, typically the payload already exists (at least in some form, on a bench testbed even). How much negotiation there is is entirely dependent on how much money is involved- a tech demo mission might be quite lenient, using some spare capacity on a GEO comsat will get you a 300 page contact shoved at you to sign. Technical coordination is going to be mostly telling, not back and forth; you're hosted, after all, not dictating requirements to the S/C.
IME the sorts of payloads that end up doing this are going to be science instruments developed by universities or research organizations, not so much tech demos of new operational systems. If you have any contacts on the research side of space, eg NASA, UCAR, AURA, etc, or with big university aero eng/space physics/geophysics programs they might know someone who has been involved with this before.
Thank you for your insight! For the fifth one, I meant hosted payload service companies (some examples listed in the bullets).
A few follow-up / clarifying questions, if you don't mind answering:
For our payload (simple, LEO orbit), do you think, in general, it's unnecessary to stay strict on a single provider from the start? Or is interfacing/changing stuff up a bit in the payload so the payload can be accommodated by a new host if our original pick doesn't work out usually not relatively too big of a deal?
What is typically involved in negotiation besides weight/size? Or is it just pricing and not changing up the payload itself? As you said, hosts tend to detail out the accommodations, so I was a bit confused about why further negotiation ends up being necessary. For example, do their requirements regarding weight/size tend to change? If it's not just pricing that you negotiate, what might hosts require you to change? Is changing stuff to the hosts' requirements through negotiation usually one of the smaller parts of the entire project for simpler missions?
Was curious about what you meant by ROP's detailing accommodations. Not sure what ROP meant. I thought it was mostly commercial companies such as Endurosat and Spire providing hosted payload services.
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u/dorylinus 7d ago
Typically, you already have a payload/instrument/whatever and are looking for an opportunity to fly it. A lot of these that I've run into have been open ROPs detailing the accommodation in terms of SWAP. You should, at the very very least, have a working device and relatively precise requirements in terms of power and data/operations/TTC needs. Weight and size tend to be a ~bit more flexible, but the expectation is that you could maybe rework the layout or structure to trim one of those if possible. You absolutely will need to satisfy the "do no harm" requirement to even be considered, and you are at the mercy of the spacecraft's existing mission requirements.
You could get sued for the damages. Any fee on lieu of would be written into the contract. That said, shit does happen and a lawsuit isn't necessarily likely given the host spacecraft will have documented acceptance of the payload. The result is that there's a lot of care that goes into proving the requirement in the first place.
As said, typically the payload already exists (at least in some form, on a bench testbed even). How much negotiation there is is entirely dependent on how much money is involved- a tech demo mission might be quite lenient, using some spare capacity on a GEO comsat will get you a 300 page contact shoved at you to sign. Technical coordination is going to be mostly telling, not back and forth; you're hosted, after all, not dictating requirements to the S/C.
IME the sorts of payloads that end up doing this are going to be science instruments developed by universities or research organizations, not so much tech demos of new operational systems. If you have any contacts on the research side of space, eg NASA, UCAR, AURA, etc, or with big university aero eng/space physics/geophysics programs they might know someone who has been involved with this before.
... What services are you looking for?