Working Group J

Space Enterprise Integration to advance U.S. Leadership
in Space: Strategic Framework and High-Profile Use Cases
(Recording)

Description

• Developing the Cislunar Neighborhood
• Advancing Space Traffic Management (STM)
• Integrating Space for Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS)

The discussion will be framed around a ‘3×3’ approach that assesses each of the above Use Cases through three lenses:

• Digital Integration (Digital Engineering, Digital Threads, Digital Twins)
• Operational Test (In-space Testbeds and Proving)
• Data Fusion (AI/ML, Authoritative Sources of Truth)

The working group will consist of two parts.

Part 1 will include a moderated panel session with presentations and discussions related to strategic foundational elements for space enterprise integration, outlining applicability to several use cases to advance U.S space capabilities in the national interest.

Part 2 will be a town hall meeting to include key representatives from space-faring agencies, including U.S. Space Force, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Office of the Undersecretary for Defense (OUSD) R&D, Space Development Agency (SDA), Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), USAF Rapid Capability Office, and USNORTHCOM, along with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Aerospace subject matter experts. Part 2 will include a community discussion on select uses cases with expert opinions from panelists.

Space enterprise integration needs and benefits, and approach to identify and mitigate threats, risks, gaps, and seams to sustaining operations of space enterprise systems of systems in the face of multiple stakeholders and continuous change will be discussed.

The workshop will address Space Enterprise Integration in the context of maintaining up-to-date information for real-time operations through horizontal and vertical integration of systems interconnections, data interchange, data product exchange, and distributed computing environments across participating organizations in continuously changing operating environment with dynamically evolving threats and opportunities.[1] For the purposes of this workshop session, the following descriptions apply to this context:

• Space Enterprise – all organizations contributing to space activities (e.g. government, commercial, academia, international)
• Operations – spans full life cycle from architect to acquisition to develop to deploy to integration to evolve to dispose
• Systems – anything or anyone who produces or processes information (e.g. people, machines, computers)
• Data interchange – any mechanism for transferring data and/or information between systems (e.g. communications, networks)
• Data products exchange– information resulting from processing and/or manipulation of data by tools (e.g. locations, maps, targets)
• Distributed computing – systems and services capable of processing and storing data (e.g. cloud computing, control systems)

Discussions for space enterprise use cases will apply a common framework for information and data flow spanning data source systems, information processing systems, and decision support systems, with associated computing and communications infrastructure consistent with Figure 1 below.

Biographies

Ron Birk, Associate Principal Director, Development Directorate in the Civil Systems Group, is responsible for aligning emerging market needs with Aerospace SE&I FFRDC capabilities for civil and commercial applications across the space and related complex systems enterprise. Ron has 39 years of experience in management, business development, program management, and strategic planning associated with advancing societal benefits of space systems of systems. Mr. Birk served as co-chair of the U.S. Group on Earth Observations developing the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System. Mr. Birk serves on the Board of the American Astronautical Society (AAS) as Executive Vice President, and on the Co-Chair of the
CONFERS Technical Working Group. Ron earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame.

Presentations