Working Group F

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GSAW 2024

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Working Group F
Space Enterprise Integration to advance U.S. Capabilities: Strategic Framework and High-Profile Commercial Use Cases
This working group will address challenges and opportunities associated with space enterprise integration for commercial high profile use cases including space and ground systems linked to decision support systems to advance U.S. leadership in space in an era of U.S. Strategic Competition. The working group will focus on government leveraging commercial solutions for national missions with emphasis on integrating data/systems/networks with/among owners and operations – all in the national interest:

  • Ground Networks for Space Communications
  • LEO and Cislunar Space Domain Awareness
  • Space Logistics / On-Orbit Servicing for National Missions

The discussion will be framed around a ‘3×3’ approach to assess each of these Use Cases through three lenses:

  • Interdependence across space ecosystems
  • Testbeds and Proving Grounds to build confidence and trust
  • Business Cases for sustainable services and solutions

The working group will consist of two parts.

Part 1 will be 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), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), commercial space, and Aerospace subject matter experts. Part 2 will include a community discussion on these select uses cases with expert opinions from panelists. Space enterprise integration needs and benefits, and approaches 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. 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, spanning 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.

A workshop report compiling briefings, observations, findings, and recommendations will be a deliverable of the session.
Leads Lori Gordon and Ron Birk, The Aerospace Corporation

Biographies

 Lori Gordon, Systems Director in the Corporate Chief Engineer’s Office (CCEO), supports the execution of the Corporation’s mission assurance (MA) responsibilities focused on enterprise mission success. CCEO is the primary corporate-level technical MA interface to external agencies and organizations — Aerospace’s coordinating function on technical positions related to mission assurance, enterprise systems engineering, and the corporate quality management system. She is also a Partner with The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy and is a Fellow at the National Security Institute. Ms. Gordon holds Bachelor of Science in Urban Geography from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Ron Birk, Principal Director, Space Enterprise Evolution 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 41 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 as President of the Board of the American Astronautical Society (AAS), ad Co-Chair of the CONFERS Technical Working Group, and Chair of Washington Executive Space Council. Ron earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame.

Presentations

 Working Group Outbrief: Space Enterprise Integration to advance U.S. Capabilities: Strategic Framework and High-Profile Commercial Use Cases